The Society of Authors Campaigns for All of Us - Andrew Crofts
As I get close to the end of my three year stint serving on
the Management Committee of the Society of
Authors, I want to sing the praises of
the staff there who do the most magnificent job of supporting members who are
being treated unfairly or who simply need professional advice.
Writing is one of the hardest jobs from which to make a
living wage and it is hugely comforting for members to know that they have this
dedicated team of enormously experienced and efficient lawyers and publishing
contracts experts willing to fight on their behalf.
On July 7th I attended a summer party on the
terrace at the Houses of Parliament, thrown by the All Party Parliamentary
Writers’ Group, at which the SoA’s constantly campaigning Chief Executive,
Nicola Solomon, laid out the Society’s “magnificent seven requirements” for
writers’ contracts – spelling out the acronym “CREATOR”. They are well worth
repeating here.
Contracts need to be
clear and should exist for all writers, including journalists.
Remuneration needs to
be fair, and allow for the author to share the rewards in such circumstances as
bestsellerdom.
Exploitation: authors
need to be given the opportunity to make money from all modes, on the “use it
or lose it” principle – so that form unexploited by the publisher could revert
to the author.
Accounting should be
fair, understandable, proper.
Terms: there should be
reasonable and limited contract terms so that publishers do not hold rights
indefinitely.
Ownership: authors,
illustrators and translators should always be credited, and their moral rights
unwaivable.
Reasonableness: all
unreasonable requests should be struck out.
Comments
NB: I tried to pin this post to my Writing board in Pinterest as I thought it worth keeping and sharing there, but I couldn't do it because there is no picture in the post. You wouldn't consider inserting a pic would you? Even the SOA logo would do it.