![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
No writers, no stories
Nov. 12th, 2007 09:09 amOn my way to work this morning I swung by the local DHL office so I could mail the revised manuscript to New York. One of the few perks of the day job with Megacorp is an employee discount with DHL, so I flashed my badge to request the discount on overnight shipping.
"What's in the package?" the clerk asked.
"Paper," I replied. "Actually it's a book--my latest novel."
"Then why are you still working for Megacorp?"
"There's no health insurance when you're writing novels," I said.
It's a common misconception that writers are rolling in money. All anyone hears about is the seven figure deals scored by celebrities and the likes of JK Rowling and Stephen King.
I didn't have time to explain to the clerk that the average advance for a genre novel is less than 10K. Or that not only is there no health insurance, there's no retirement plan. No 401K. No disability insurance. No safety net. No guarantee that you'll even get the money that you've been promised, if your publisher happens to go bankrupt while still owing you royalties, as has happened to friends of mine.
It's rare to meet a writer who can support themselves solely through their fiction writing. But that was still possible in Hollywood.
This is a long-winded way of saying that I support the striking writers. Most readers of this blog will no doubt have heard about the strike, but if you'd like to know more, Doris Egan![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tightropegirl has posted an eloquent explanation of the strike. And if you're interested, wga_supporters is rallying fan support.
In the meantime, I'm doing my bit to spread the word. Writers deserve to be compensated for their creations.
"What's in the package?" the clerk asked.
"Paper," I replied. "Actually it's a book--my latest novel."
"Then why are you still working for Megacorp?"
"There's no health insurance when you're writing novels," I said.
It's a common misconception that writers are rolling in money. All anyone hears about is the seven figure deals scored by celebrities and the likes of JK Rowling and Stephen King.
I didn't have time to explain to the clerk that the average advance for a genre novel is less than 10K. Or that not only is there no health insurance, there's no retirement plan. No 401K. No disability insurance. No safety net. No guarantee that you'll even get the money that you've been promised, if your publisher happens to go bankrupt while still owing you royalties, as has happened to friends of mine.
It's rare to meet a writer who can support themselves solely through their fiction writing. But that was still possible in Hollywood.
This is a long-winded way of saying that I support the striking writers. Most readers of this blog will no doubt have heard about the strike, but if you'd like to know more, Doris Egan
tightropegirl has posted an eloquent explanation of the strike. And if you're interested, wga_supporters is rallying fan support.In the meantime, I'm doing my bit to spread the word. Writers deserve to be compensated for their creations.