In some ways, COVID-19 has left author Stephanie Owen Reeder on the road to nowhere.
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The children's author has seen projects come to a halt due to the pandemic, with her income for this quarter only 15 per cent of what it was this time last year.
As for last quarter, Owen Reeder said the only things that got her through were the annual Public Lending Right (PLR), Educational Lending Right (ELR) and Copyright Agency payments.
"Pay starts at a low base because you're an author and you don't get a lot of money unless you're JK Rowling or someone like that," she said.
"Luckily, writers get PLR, ELR and copyright agency payments for their work but that only comes in once a year in June. You get paid a percentage for the number of your books that are in public and school libraries that are being used on an ongoing basis.
"It makes a big difference to an author's income so at least we were still getting that. But you can see the difference in this quarter where I wasn't getting anything like that."
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Events such as the book launch for the children's book Australia's Wild Weird Wonderful Weather - which Owen Reeder produced with fellow Canberran and illustrator Tania McCartney - were cancelled, and she was no longer able to attend festivals and workshops.
"Festivals, seminars, workshops and school visits are our bread and butter and most of them have dried up," she said.
"All the things that I usually do that give me extra income weren't happening.
"I also edit, proofread and do teachers notes from other people's books, so again, the publishers are the pulling back so I'm not getting as much of that sort of work."
The stage rights for Owen Reeder's book Lennie the Legend, from her Heritage Heroes series, also fell through, with COVID making it near impossible for big stage theatre companies to put on productions and make money off of them.
Luckily, Owen Reeder said, the Lennie the Legend feature film is still on track.
"I've just got my fingers crossed that one doesn't drop off too," she said.
"I also had a film company looking at optioning some of my other Heritage Heroes books and that was put on hold because they're in Melbourne, and they haven't been able to have their big meeting to decide. They were looking at two of my books so I'm still waiting to hear from them. So you feel like your life's been put on hold."
Some months after COVID first took control of life, Owen Reeder said life is starting to have a sense of normalcy. She's started going to schools again, and a research trip to Tasmania, funded by an Arts ACT grant, is now going ahead after it was postponed earlier in the year.
For the months she's lost, however, the author said she's just trying to focus on the positives.
"It's been quite good in some ways just to be able to concentrate on writing my own books and reworking old manuscripts that I had hidden away. I've done a lot of that this year," she said.
"So there are some pluses. You've got to look at them to keep sane, really."
- This article is part of the Displaced Artists Project. The Canberra Times has reached out to artists in different fields to see how COVID-19 has impacted them.