Thursday 28 June 2018

Authors Earnings & Contracts in the News...

Authors earnings have been in the news this week with the initial results of the 2017 ALCS Authors Earnings Survey.

There's more detail to come in the autumn when the details will be revealed in more depth, but meanwhile you can read how the news and ALCS have reacted.

Richard Combes, Head of Rights and Licensing at the ALCS on the Bookseller.com website.

In the Guardian Philip Pullman is quoted "The word exploitation comes to mind..."


Meanwhile The All Party Parliamentary Group for Writers has launched an enquiry on author's earnings (UK) "and seeks to identify what environment writers need to enable them to flourish in the future".

The deadline for written evidence is 5 pm on the 2nd August.

I will be submitting written evidence.


As to contracts, the latest news is that Woman's Weekly magazine now want all rights- including a moral rights waver and the pay-cut.

This will severely damage the earning potential of writers who have already seen markets closed, submission lists restricted, and contract changes eating into rights.

For those who may not know, these fiction writers rely on being able to reuse their stories in overseas markets, and as part of a self-published collection of short stories, and then most importantly qualifying for ALCS (Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society).

It's an ongoing situation so keep an eye on the Womagwriter's Blog for more news. You can find out what's been happening so far here and also here.

If you're on Twitter and see a tweet with the hashtag #WomagWritersNeedRights please give it a retweet...


Saving the pennies...

image from Pixabay.com

10 comments:

Sue Johnson said...

Where do we need to send the written evidence Carol? I will definitely be doing so. I agree with Philip Pullman. It is exploitation.

Julia Thorley said...

I've been following the WW story with interest. It's a dreadful state of affairs. No one should relinquish all rights, no matter what the fee, and especially not moral rights.

Carolb said...

Sue- I've put the link in now- it's highlighted, if you click on it you'll find the details you need at the bottom of that page and the email address to send them to.

Carolb said...

Julia- it's a horrible situation for everyone effected. There is no valid reason why they need all rights.

Patsy said...

Thanks for the mention, Carol.

I've just put an update on the womagwriter blog. It will really help if authors openly state that they don't consider the all rights contracts fair – the magazines need to know they'll lose some of their best writers if this goes ahead.

Carolb said...

Patsy- thanks for the update. I'm off to do just that next.x

Rosemary Gemmell said...

Thanks for sharing all these details, Carol - it's awful to hear of Woman's Weekly going this way.

Carolb said...

Rosemary - yes it's been a big shock to many writers and so unexpected. Whether the executive level can be persuaded that fiction is different and requires a different contract, we can only hope.

Teresa Ashby said...

Thanks for the links, Carol. The last week has been horrible one way and another.

Carolb said...

You're welcome Teresa.x

Yes, it has been horrible and I fear it's not going to improve for a while on the womag market. :(