Writers' Union reports a "cultural emergency" as authors are working harder to make less

Because of the considerable overlap and complementarity between magazine freelancers and book writers, research on pay and work experience is always of interest. So with this week's release of a study by The Writers Union of Canada about the incomes of Canadian writers Devaluing Creators, Endangering Creativity. It contains the lamentable news that many writers are working harder to make less than they were in 1998 when TWUC last asked the question(s). 

81% of respondents have writing income that falls below the poverty line. TWUC says it considers this situation a "cultural emergency". 

“This is not a sustainable situation,” said TWUC Chair Harry Thurston. “If we want a strong and diverse publishing and cultural industry in Canada, it’s essential that creators are reasonably rewarded. Everyone — governments, corporations, institutions, and individual consumers — have a part to play in fairly compensating writers for the content they expect, need and enjoy.”

The study shows that respondents earn 27% less (taking inflation into account) from their writing that they were making in 1998 and that the average writer's income is $12,879 , about $36,000 below the national average. 45% of respondents said they were working harder to earn the lower amount. 

Even more dismaying, there is a significant gender gap, with women representing a majority in the industry but earning 55% of what male writers do. 

[click graph to enlarge]
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Fitter after 50; writer Margaret Webb pursues a stronger "second act"

Freelance writer, author and teacher Margaret Webb has written Older, Faster, Stronger: What Women Runners Can Teach Us All About Living Younger, Longer (Rodale Books, 2014), which is to be launched in Toronto in October. 

To whet readers' appetites Webb, who teaches Writing for Magazines and the Web at Ryerson's Chang School, has just released a 5-minute trailer featuring some of the extraordinary women she's met in the course of writing about setting out to get fitter after 50 than she was at university: the world's fastest 75+ sprinter, two 80+ marathoners and a 94 year old sprinter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFOMLtUuIt8&feature=em-upload_owner

The Writers' Union of Canada now to accept self-published authors for membership

A large majority of The Writers' Union of Canada (TWUC) has voted in favour of opening its membership to professional, self-published authors. The referendum, which required a 2/3 majority,  followed the unanimous recommendation from delegates to the 2013 TWUC AGM last June. 

Where for many years professional writers distanced themselves from the self-published (often dismissed as "vanity publishing" or books that mainstream publishers wouldn't touch).

"The membership and volunteer leaders of the Union have taken a long, hard, and responsible look at the state of the writing and publishing industries worldwide,” noted current TWUC Chair, Dorris Heffron [in a statement posted on the TWUC website], “and we have concluded there is a population of highly professional self-published authors who would be well-served by membership in TWUC.”

The organization will have to revise its constitution and membership criteria at the upcoming AGM which is being held in St. John's. 

“It’s important to note we have not simply dropped the gate,” added Heffron. "TWUC membership criteria has always maintained it is not ‘easy’ to become a professionally published author. This vote is simply a recognition that the gatekeepers for this accomplishment have changed somewhat. The publishing industry remains a central arbiter of professional authorship. TWUC is now taking up the responsibility of gate-keeping as well.”

 The decision matches a growing worldwide trend.The once-exclusive Authors Guild in the U.S. has now opened its membership to self-published authors, though it has yet to establish an income screen for acceptance.

U of T and Western back out of paying royalties to writers and publishers for copying

Two of Canada's leading universities -- University of Toronto and Western -- are walking away from a 20-year relationship with Access Copyright, the copyright licensing agency. And the Professional Writers Association of Canada is livid about it. As is The Writers' Union of Canada. Essentially, the decision means that the two schools will no longer pay a collective royalty fee to creators through an Access license; in fact it may mean they will pay nothing. 

The two schools had settled with AC in January 2012 and signed a licensing agreement, which was thought to provide a model for other schools to follow. Apparently minds have changed.   

“They seem to have been persuaded by the most fanatical ideologues in their midst that the recent reform of copyright law in Canada gives them free rein to copy at will without any regard for the realities of the marketplace”, said PWAC president Michelle Greysen. “Unfortunately this devaluation of creativity will lead to the general impoverishment of Canada’s knowledge base. As frontline knowledge workers, Canadian writers cannot accept this direction. We are looking at legal options up to and including mounting a class action suit against the universities for infringing upon our economic rights.”

A PWAC press release elaborates

We realize that digital technology has changed in education. But the fact that it is easier to reproduce text and images because they have been reduced to ones and zeros does not mean that the process of creation — the sweat and inspiration and hard critical analysis that goes into professional writing — can be reduced to zero in terms of compensation for the widespread use of a given piece of writing, be it a textbook, a poem or a piece of investigative journalism. Universities don’t provide any other services without paying for them — why should content be free?

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US freelance authors file new settlement proposal removing cap

Freelance writers and authors in the US seeking compensation from publishers for reprinting their work in online databases without permission or payment have asked the court to approve a revised settlement that would remove the cap on payments. A 2011 settlement for $18 million was rejected by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals because it was considered to shortchange authors who were not part of the class action by registering copyright in their works. The new settlement, if approved, will probably amount to $20 million plus. According to a Reuters story

In the newly drafted agreement, signed by all the parties involved except one company going through bankruptcy, the original $18 million settlement cap will be eliminated on what writers can receive for their archived work, which includes articles that go back to the 1980s. 

"The revised settlement provides a substantial benefit: millions of dollars in cash payments to class members who submitted valid claims," said the filing with the U.S. District Court for southern New York. 

Publishers in the lawsuit included Reed Elsevier , New York Times Co, News Corp's DowJones & Co, Thomson Reuters Corp and Knight Ridder, which was bought by McClatchy Co in 2006. 

Defendant Cengage Learning, formerly known as the Gale Group, is in bankruptcy proceedings and needs approval from the bankruptcy court to enter into the agreement, the document said.

The four worst things a writer can hear

Freelance writer David Hayes, wrote an entry in the Toronto Freelance Editors and Writers listserv called  Four Worst Things a Writer Can Hear. Here they are, slightly edited:

• PAY ON PUBLICATION: Articles get bumped to future issues for all kinds of reasons (the mix worked better by moving your piece to a future issue; fewer ads than expected shrunk space in the issue your piece was scheduled) that have nothing to do with the quality of the writer’s work. Yet the writer is kept waiting. And try telling the bank (mortgage or personal loan), landlord or credit card company that your payment has been delayed so you’ll be paying your bill later. 
• EXPOSURE: As in, “We don’t pay, but we can provide you with valuable exposure.” Here’s a simple test: who wrote the cover stories in last month’s Reader’s Digest, The Walrus, Toronto Life & Maclean’s? Can you come up with more than one name? And we’re in the business. 
• ON SPEC: If you’ve written a detailed, well-researched & well-written query, why isn’t that more than enough evidence that you can write the story?
• ALL RIGHTS: (Or some variation on this wording.) On its web site, the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) is succinct on the subject: “If publishers want additional rights beyond first print rights -- exclusive or non-exclusive -- they should pay for them. If publishers want "all rights," they should pay a substantial premium or be willing to share with the author any additional income they get from sublicensing.” That’s the position held by PWAC, the CFU, Derek Finkle’s Canadian Writers Group & smart writers everywhere. That’s not the position held by most media organizations, large & small. It’s probably the main ongoing source of stress for us all.  

One other member of the list added the phrase "It's good, but..."

Great books can -- and often do -- grow from great magazine articles

Allan Casey (Canadian Press)

Many a great Canadian book gets its start, or its impetus, from being first published in a magazine.
Allan Casey of Saskatoon, took the non-fiction prize in the Governor General's Literary Awards for his first full-length book Lakeland: Journeys into the Soul of Canada (Greystone Books).

Two of the chapters originated as articles published by Canadian Geographic magazine in 2008 and 2006. (Casey has three times been a National Magazine Award finalist for work in Canadian Geographic and once in Western Living magazine.)

Casey continues his frequent contributions to the magazine, with a feature in the October issue on the threat to the South Saskatchewan river from climate change and water demand.

Interviewed by the CBC, Casey said that on his tour of lakes large and small, remote or otherwise he found that access to nature was rapidly becoming the preserve of the wealthy, with access tightly controlled.

"I take a strong position that what we're doing is excessive. Excessive materiality is out of place if our purpose is to enjoy the wilderness. Make no mistake, we need to do this. Human beings have a deep need to [be in nature]," he said.

Ian Brown named writer-in-residence at Stratford Chefs School

Ian Brown, a well-known and award-winning magazine writer and author, has been chosen writer-in-residence at the renowned Stratford Chefs School. According to a story from Canadian Press, the program is named for the late Joseph Hoare, former food editor of Toronto Life magazine who died in 1997.

Brown recently swept three awards for his book "The Boy in the Moon," including the Charles Taylor Prize for literary non-fiction. He has been a prolific magazine writer, having won 7 gold and 5 silver National Magazine Awards and been a nominee 27 times.

This summer, he has written a series of articles for the Globe and Mail documenting his gastronomic tour of Canada, entitled Ian Brown Eats Canada.

According to the story, he will spend two weeks at the chefs school during 2010-11 and will lead small seminars and workshops and work one-on-one with novice writers on the intricacies of gastronomic writing.

ED search at Writers' Union might be an opportunity to explore merger with PWAC

Unsolicited advice is worth what you pay for it, I suppose, but one has to wonder whether the current search for an executive director to fill a vacancy at The Writers' Union of Canada (TWUC) isn't a golden opportunity to consider a merger with the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC).

TWUC represents about 2,000 professionally published book authors and supports them and advocates for their best and common interests. PWAC does essentially the same for its 600+ members, many of whom are freelance magazine, newspaper and corporate writers. Some people are members of both. Both organizations are located in Toronto. Both organizations lobby the federal government and provincial governments. Both collaborate with other publishing industry groups and other not-for-profit organizations. Both are concerned with freedom of expression and compensation issues.  Members of both might even concede, sotto voce, that they'd like to be more effective than they are.

It would seem a good fit and an opportunity to have more clout, more efficiently (now they have two executive directors, two boards, two offices etc.), wouldn't it? Just asking. Talk among yourselves.

New listserv for Atlantic Canada freelancers

[This post has been updated] One of the things that I think distinguishes the magazine business, and journalism in general,  is its collegiality; people in this trade, such as freelance writers, wish each other well and realize that there's much to be gained from sharing, collaboration and networking. One good example is the Toronto Freelance Editors and Writers list (TFEW), a listserv that has crested 400 483 members [and expects to have 500 this fall].

Inspired by that, Christine Beavis, the editor of digital and print publications for the Nature Conservancy of Canada has started a group called HEW -- Halifax Editors and Writers.

As she told the TFEW list:

By no means do I want to take members away from TFEW, and I don’t imagine that it will ever grow to the extent that TFEW has. However, the more I delve into Halifax’s writing and editing scene, the more I realize that we need a resource like this to help us to connect, and occasionally meet for dinner and drinks (since most of us can’t join TFEW members for their gatherings).

The group is open to any and all writers and editors working freelance or in-house in the Atlantic Canada region (it just happens to be housed in Halifax). If you’re interested in connecting with fellow editors and writers in your area , I invite you to join HEW and tell others who you think might be interested as well.

Doc's Afghan diary takes us up close and bloody in Afghanistan

[This item has been updated; see below*]

It's worth wondering why the article in the current (July/August) issue of Mother Jones [thanks to This Magazine for tipping us on this] wasn't published in a Canadian publication*. It's written by a Canadian doctor, Kevin Patterson, a diary of time working among Canadian, other NATO and Afghan forces in Afghanistan and it is rivettingly well-done. Of course, it will get significant Canadian readership with Mother Jones, which is readily available here.

This Magazine has blogged about the controversy among some in Nova Scotia who felt that the article exploits the accidental death of a Canadian soldier, but I found the article not only compassionate in the specifics but important in its clear-eyed detail. Well worth your time. And, one hopes, this article finds second rights being picked up by Canadian magazines and made widely available to Canadian readers.

If you ever wondered how life is for the Canadian forces in Afghanistan, this first-person account has a ring of truth that we may not often hear from General Hillier and Defence Minister O'Connor.

[*UPDATE: a blog posting by the co-editor of Mother Jones gives some further context to this story.]

Write-Aid benefit to be held May 24

The cause is just, the venue somewhat baroque and the price reasonable, plus the music is by 3-Chord Johnny, the house band of the magazine industry (John Macfarlane, David Hayes, David Macfarlane etc.) It's all in support of Write-Aid, to raise funds for the defence of Derek Finkle (late, editor of Toro) in his fight against a subpoena ordering him to turn over the research materials for his book, No Claim to Mercy, to the police.

May 24 (doors open at 7:30 pm) at Stones Place, 1255 Queen St. West, music by 3 Chord Johnny, DJ Dave Morris (Eye Weekly's music editor), and friends. You could bid in a live auction on one of three packages - Living Large, Writer's Starter Kit, and East Side Spree

To purchase tickets to the Write Aid event, make a donation, or learn more about the cause visit writeaid.

Where are the women magazine writers? asks Mallick

That buzz saw that the editor of Harper's walked into was Heather Mallick. The columnist, late of the Globe and Mail and for some time now writing for CBC.ca, essentially shreds him* for misogyny, condescension and being boring.

"...he is a Tennessee-educated insular boor who has made this well-intentioned American magazine even more boring than it used to be, which is a trick and a half. Read it nowadays and sink into an ennui with knobs on. My other problem with Roger D. Hodge is that he's not an inch as bright as former editor Lewis Lapham. If Hodge had another brain, he'd have just the one. Plus, his magazine radiates misogyny. Only an editor with a mission to fail would be so insulting to the women who are a third of his subscribers.

While allowing that Canadian magazines have a somewhat better record on reflecting the work of women writers, Mallick quotes a tally by the American website WomenTK showing that the proportion of female writers in major U.S. titles in no way reflects the fact that women make up half the U.S. population (a ratio of 1:1).
* Vanity Fair 2.7:1.
* The New Yorker 4.1:1.
* The Atlantic 3.6:1.
* Harper's 6.9:1

Mallick points out that six of the 12 Harper's issues from September '05 to August '06 had one or no female writers.

Having found himself facing the pointed end of a conversation with Mallick, the hapless editor manages to impale himself on it in an e-mail response:

" 'You don't read Harper's because of the sex or race or the regional background or ethnicity of the contributors, '[Hodge said].

"That's what women are to Hodge," [said Mallick]. "We are a minority group, even though we are half the human population. The fact that we make most household purchasing decisions or that more women read magazines than men means nothing. Just another pushy interest group of three billion."

*(the link is to rabble.ca. You can also read the column at cbc.ca, where it was first published on February 23)