by Mary Knudson
Our rights as authors are being challenged like never before, which threatens our ability to be recognized for our work and to earn a living as writers.
The New York Times' attempt to own all rights to free-lance writers' articles has rightly sent an alarm sounding throughout the community of free-lance authors. Major writers' organizations have denounced the new policy and asked The Times to drop it. NASW has joined in the protest.
Today, Joel Shurkin examines the troubling decision by The Times to own all future rights to free-lance articles, re-using them in various forums without paying anything more to the author. Let's continue to push to get that policy changed.
There is good news to report, right now, though. In response to a request from some of us who have been discussing this and other pressing free-lance writers' issues on NASW On-line, NASW is forming a Free-Lance Committee. NASW President Laurie Garrett has named Joel Shurkin, one of the most frequent voices on NASW On-line, chair of an ad hoc committee that will become formalized at our next annual meeting in Baltimore in February. So let Joel know if you're interested in serving on the new Free-lance Committee. Only assertive, hard-working activists need apply! Together, we can make NASW more responsive more quickly to the needs of free-lance writers.
To aid in focusing sharper attention on the issues that are important to writers who sell their articles and books by the piece rather than work for a salary, we've renamed this column, bringing back the term free lance. I don't like the term free-lancer because it's so general it doesn't identify us as professional writers. We also dropped the word corner because Howard Lewis said he thought that corner can imply a few people getting together off to the side, not part of the main party. So, with this issue, we're joining the main party. Free-lance writers are a major part of NASW and I hope that this column and the new Free-Lance Committee can work together to make NASW membership more meaningful to free-lance writers.
In the next few issues of ScienceWriters, the Free-Lance Writing column will tackle different complex issues important to free-lance writers. Contracts are a hot topic of discussion on NASW On-line and in many authors' forums, and our next column will discuss what to look for in a good contract and what to get removed from a contract. Joel, who has had experience as both author and agent, will write about the infamous indemnity clause.
I'll be calling on some other experienced authors to discuss their ideas for a model contract. Let me know what your problems and experiences have been with contracts. Do you feel your contracts are getting better or worse? What role do you think NASW should play in serving as a guide to good contracts? Contact me by any of the numbers listed below.
Last year at the First Annual NASW Professional Day that took place on the first day of the AAAS annual meeting in Atlanta, we held a workshop on free-lance issues that was heavily attended. Next year several of the seminars and workshops that are being planned for the Baltimore meeting will be interesting to free-lance writers, including one workshop on authors' rights. So, please plan to come. The biggest day of professional meetings will be on February 8, but seminars on using the Internet will continue on following days. You will receive a complete program in the mail prior to the meeting.
NASW has decided to join the Authors Registry, the newly organized central directory of authors. The Registry will be ready by the end of 1995 to serve as a marketplace where parties interested in using your work know how to contact you, according to Paul Aiken, the Registry's managing director. And, the Registry will also begin in the first three to six months of 1996 to make royalty payments, he said. The Registry plans to make royalty payments for works published in foreign countries and for articles that are re-used in electronic forums.
In order for NASW members to actually be on board and able to benefit from the Registry, NASW must send out a data form to all members, getting such information as whether you want interested parties to contact you, your agent, your lawyer, etc. NASW is sending the form out to members with this issue of the newsletter. If you don't want your name in the Registry, just throw the form away. If you do want your name in the Registry, please fill out the form promptly and return it to NASW. Diane McGurgan will send all the completed NASW members' forms on to the Authors Registry. We need to get on board so that our members can begin benefiting from this central registry.