The Writers' Strike

November 10, 2007
Although I'm not a script or TV writer, I am fully supportive of the Writers Guild of America strike. I think that what they're striking about is going to affect novelists and, frankly, any writer in almost any area. In my nonfiction area I am often paid to write for the print edition of a publication, but the publisher often re-uses the material on their websites or in some cases even sells reprint rights to it on other media.

For example, I wrote an article for an online publication and they sold it to be published on MSN.com. Because of my essentially non-negotiable contract with that publication, I got $0 for that re-use. Sometimes these things are negotiable and sometimes they aren't. I'm admittedly lax in this and the majority of my nonfiction work isn't of the reprint type because I predominantly work on trade publications rather than consumer publications. Still, this is what the WGA is striking about and I think we need to at least be aware of what's going on. And yes, I do think this is going to have significant carry-over to novelists in the near future.

Here's a video explaining what they're striking about.

Cheers,
Mark Terry