PWAC: Canada's Freelance Writers

upcoming seminars (Toronto)

2007-01-03T06:39:00.000-08:00

Start planning your New Year's professsional development. If you are in Toronto over the next couple of months, be sure to spend an evening at the Northern District Library with PWAC-Toronto, who always have a fabulous event on offer:

Wed. January 17, 2007, 7 pm to 8:30 pm:
Specialist or Generalist: Jack-of-All-Trades or Master of One.
Should freelancers specialize in one particular area or try to
cover a wide, general body of knowledge? Find out what our
informed panelists, some of Canada's most successful freelance
writers, think and do.

Thurs. February 22, 2007, 7 pm to 8:30 pm:
Professional Interviewing Techniques
Tips on how to get information from subjects, featuring
experienced journalists and others who interview for a living,
such as police officers, psychologists, and so on

Location: Northern District Library (Room #200), 40 Orchardview
Blvd. (west off Yonge, just north of Eglinton)

Cost: PWAC members - Free; General public - pay what you can ($10
suggested pay at the door)

Afterwards: Join the panelists, PWAC members. and other writers
for Cheers with Peers in the Manchester Arms pub--conveniently
located downstairs from the library.

Details: www.networds.ca

... and remember to keep an eye on your local PWAC chapter website for information on upcoming events in your area.

Promising New Year

2007-01-02T07:59:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all PWAC blog readers. We start 2007 off with a bang:

The Canadian Magazines blog has proposed a New Year's resolution for the entire Canadian magazine industry -- raise the rates for freelance writing.

Read all about it here.

Thanks once again to D.B. Scott over at Canadian Magazines for championing the rates issue. Our two blogs referred to each other and linked up often in 2006, setting up an unprecedented dialogue between the writing and publishing corners of the industry. Here's hoping for much more of that in 2007!

And please note -- PWAC's blog will very soon be switching to a new format. At the launch of PWAC's brand new website, this blog will be incorporated fully into the PWAC homepage, and will look significantly different. Keep an eye out for the switch and follow us to our new look and location. We'll give you plenty of warning and we'll leave a trail of breadcrumbs.

holiday fun

2006-12-18T09:29:00.000-08:00

PWAC-Quebec Chapter President Craig Silverman has published a listing of 2006's greatest media errors and corrections (called The Crunks) on his very entertaining website Regret The Error.

Here's a holiday baking tip from The Crunks:

From the Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia:

A correction in this column Thursday about a June 14 Taste section recipe for French coconut pie incorrectly suggested that the recipe called for a pint of vodka. The accompanying recipe for homemade vanilla extract uses the vodka. The pie recipe then calls for one tablespoon of extract. Here’s the corrected recipe for vanilla extract, adapted from Lacy Smith’s "Sugar Daddy’s Treats”: Drop one vanilla bean in a one-pint bottle of vodka, and six months later, you have vanilla extract.

and not unrelated...

From The Oregonian:

A headline on Page One on Saturday should have made clear that Oregon Health & Science University will be studying the effects of meth, not cooking it.

The Crunks has been mentioned and/or linked to by many media outlets across North America, and Mr. Silverman appeared this morning on CBC Radio's The Current, reading a selection of his favorite 2006 media errors.

billable hours

2006-12-13T14:10:00.000-08:00

The Canadian Magazines blog has posted a funny, sad, poignant (choose your own adjective) analysis of the freelance writer's billable hours based, in part, on PWAC's Professional Writers survey.

The conclusion:

Freelancers in Canada make an average of $14.26 an hour, or just about double the national minimum wage. Again, choose your own adjective to describe these findings.

See the full posting here.

CFU release

2006-12-13T12:43:00.000-08:00

The Canadian Freelance Union has sent out the following release, in support of PWAC's call for freelance writers to NOT sign Sun Media's (a Quebecor company) latest contract:

Freelance writers say 'no' to Quebecor's rights-grabbing contract

OTTAWA, Dec. 13

Canadian Freelance Union (CFU) is deeply concerned about recent actions of Quebecor Media over its treatment of independent freelance writers.

Small independent writers are being forced to sign away virtually all rights to their work without reasonable compensation or even recognition of the value they bring to the newspaper. This is unfair and unacceptable, says CFU President Michael OReilly.

"Quebecor is one of Canada's largest media giants. It has revenue of over $6.3 billion worldwide, yet it wants to squeeze even more from some of Canada's lowest paid workers," says OReilly. "This is the most one-sided contract I have seen. It takes everything and leaves the writers with nothing but the legal liability should someone decide to sue. We are advising freelancers not to sign."

The CFU is a Local of the 150,000-member Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, which represents about 25,000 media workers across Canada.

CEP Vice-President, Media, Peter Murdoch says "this attack on freelancers is a direct result of staff cuts to newsrooms. In the rush to the bottom line, media corporations are eroding the wages of freelancers and jeopardizing the standards of the craft at the same time"

"CFU has the full weight of CEP and fellow media unions in calling on Quebecor to come to the negotiating table to discuss a fair deal," he says.

Last week Quebecor, through its Sun Media subsidiary, issued a 'take it or leave it' contract to its freelance writers. It demands that writers give the newspaper complete control over their works for no additional payment. It also demands exclusive use of the articles, "and any substantially similar content," for up to 60 days after publication.

"We are more than happy to work with our publisher colleagues to license whatever rights they would like. All we ask is to be treated fairly," adds OReilly.

For further information:

Michael OReilly, President, Canadian Freelance Union,
Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, Local 2040,
(807) 251-6536,
freelance@cep.ca

Link to release:

CFU Release

don't sign

2006-12-08T15:41:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 8, 2006

FREELANCE WRITERS REFUSE NEW CONTRACT TERMS FROM SUN MEDIA

The Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) and the Canadian Freelance Union (CEP Local 2040) are very concerned about the terms of a new freelance contribution contract for writers at The London Free Press, a Sun Media paper in London, Ontario.

London freelancers report being presented with unexpectedly negative contract terms, despite a positive, long-term business relationship with the paper. The contract comes with a signing deadline of December 11th, and continued work with the paper appears to be contingent on signing.

“We feel this contract, and the manner in which it was presented, compromises the basic rights of Canadian writers under the Copyright Act, and is just bad-faith business negotiation,” says PWAC President, and London freelancer Suzanne Boles. “The contract we’ve seen demands irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide rights to a freelancer’s work, with no extra remuneration for these extra uses.”

PWAC recommends that local writers do not sign this new contract. “It makes terrible business sense for writers to work under these conditions,” says Executive Director, John Degen. “The agreement makes a show of granting writers continued ownership of the copyright for their work, and then systematically strips away every one of those rights, including moral rights, while offering nothing more in compensation. It is against the very spirit of copyright and cultural production in this country.“

PWAC and the CFU strongly suggest Sun Media and The London Free Press withdraw the new contract, and begin negotiations for a better deal with freelancers. Most of the freelance writers and columnists in question have a long-time, positive working relationship with The London Free Press and want to continue their professional association with the newspaper. Their work is respected in the community, and their departure would be a loss for London and area readers.

PWAC and the CFU have been contacted by a number of London freelancers, and there is consensus against signing the contract. We call upon Sun Media to act in good faith and negotiate a new agreement.

PWAC, established in 1976, is the national organization representing 600 professional freelance writers and journalists in Canada.

More information:

Suzanne Boles, PWAC President
suzanne@writeconnection.org
(519) 680-1658

John Degen, Executive Director
jdegen@pwac.ca
(416) 504-1645

--30--

access AND respect

2006-12-07T09:41:00.002-08:00

Interesting contribution to the copyright reform discussion from DOC, the Canadian documentary filmmakers association, who are understandably struggling with the issue of rights clearance for incidental copyright usage in documentary films. DOC has published a white paper on the subject at their website. The white paper launch has generated some notice in the press and, somewhat predicatably, praise from user rights advocates, notably on Michael Geist's blog.

As creators who also depend on the use of copyright-protected material in our research and in our published work, writers sympathize with the dilemma facing doc-makers, and we support their struggle. There are many stories out there of writers warned off of specific passages in an article or book by lawyers and/or insurers nervous about the line of infringement under fair dealing. Access and affordable usage licensing are crucial issues for all creators and professional "users" of copyright-protected material, and we agree with the general conclusion of Howard Knopf's white paper, which states (emphasis ours):

There are relatively modest and achievable steps that can be taken in terms of legislation that would greatly improve the climate for documentarians in Canada. Even more immediately achievable would be a campaign to educate lawyers and insurers involved in the clearance system in order that excess caution not result in effective censorship and the end of innovation.

That said, we tend to agree with the Creators' Copyright Coalition's Chris Moore, who questions whether the issues detailed by DOC are appropriately dealt with as "copyright" concerns. Chris Moore's analysis appears on the CCC website, and in it he states:

Too often, the problem is not copyright at all. It’s what Knopf politely calls “risk aversion” by lawyers and insurers that obliges filmmakers into messy and costly searches for clearances in many of these situations.

...what we all need, is a culture of “access and rights.” When the operation of copyright in itself prevents access, clearly we have market failure, for rightsholders have an interest in encouraging, not preventing, access to their work. What is required is a market that can develop reasonable prices and convenient access.

In any copyright reform solution to this very real and very damaging problem for documentarians, Canada must make sure we do not concentrate only on the access issues at the expense of legitimate rightsholders. After all, documentary makers are themselves rightsholders interested in advancing their art and careers within a marketplace.

Sidenote: DOC and PWAC are both housed in the same cooperative office environment at Toronto's Centre for Social Innovation. Solidarity!

November Achievements

2006-12-05T09:11:00.000-08:00

Time for the monthly acknowledgement of PWAC member excellence.

The full Member Achievement Bulletin can be found at the following link:

November Achievements

and here are some highlights:

The New Brunswick Southwest (NBSW) chapter of PWAC took part in the first annual Kings County Word Day on Nov. 4 in Sussex, New Brunswick. The goal of the event was to make the local published authors more visible to the people in Kings County and to give them an opportunity to present their work through book displays and readings.

PWAC was well represented by several members from the NBSW chapter including (pictured left to right) chapter president Trudy Kelly Forsythe with chapter members Donna Spalding, Carmel Vivier, Dorothy Dearborn and Ross Mavis (image loaded through Flickr).

Toronto Member Noelle Boughton is excited to share her new spiritual biography of one of Canada's most beloved authors. Margaret Laurence: A Gift of Grace - A Spiritual Biography has been published by the Women's Press imprint of Canadian Scholars' Press Inc. Laurence died 20 years ago, but still offers writers and spiritual seekers critical lessons. Watch for Noelle's workshops and presentations to share those insights. She's been invited to speak at the Lakefield Literary Festival in July 2007.

Ottawa member Emily-Jane Hills Orford has published My Grandmother's Cane, a short story, in the new Ottawa literary magazine, The Voice. She has also published an article entitled The Sad Demise of Iqaluit's Igloo Cathedral in November's issue of Crosstalk. The article is a result of the author's recent visit to Iqaluit.

Prairies member Doreen Kerby has published an article on John Hus (1369-1415) in The Canadian Lutheran magazine. Hus was burned at the stake 65 years before Martin Luther was born. Says Doreen, "When I was in the Old Square in Prague, I was intrigued with the huge monument commemorating the 500th anniversary of his death. I was determined to write about this man."

Victoria member, Paula Wild has recently released The Comox Valley: Courtenay, Comox, Cumberland & Area (Harbour Publishing). The Comox Valley is a coffee table book chock full of photographs and information about the region. Color photographs combined with lively text capture the grandeur of the landscape, the flavor of the area’s distinctive communities and the larger than life characters who call this area home.

PWACers in the Times

2006-12-01T08:33:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoît Nadeau for an excellent review of their recent book, The Story of French, in the New York Times. That ought to sell a few copies.

From the review:

The authors, Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow, are bilingual Canadians with a sense of mission. They value French as a vehicle of expression uniting 175 million people scattered in a linguistic archipelago across several continents. They also see it as a counterweight to American political and cultural power. Unlike the French elite, which has “thrown in the towel on French,” they are spoiling for a fight.

Read the full article (may require registration) at:

The French Have a (Precise and Elegant) Word for It

... and thanks to PWAC's Quebec Regional Director, Bruce Wilson, who spotted the review while on business in Washington, D.C.

considered opinion

2006-11-30T13:03:00.000-08:00

It has been a little over a month since the Supreme Court of Canada released their decision in the Heather Robertson v. Thomson Corp. appeal. Since that day, there has been a great deal of discussion among writers (and publishers) about the meaning of the decision and its implications for the industry going forward. PWAC recently participated in a roundtable discussion at the Ontario Bar Association on this topic, and as is so often the case in the world of copyright, we came away with the sense that the discussion is nowhere near finished.

To help in everyone's understanding of just what was and what wasn't decided on October 12th, we present the following considered analysis of the decision, written by Warren Sheffer of Hebb & Sheffer, a Toronto law firm deeply involved in copyright and the cultural industries. This report was originally written for copyright lawyer Lesley Ellen Harris' website and copyright newsletter, and is republished here with her kind permission. You can subscribe to Lesley Ellen Harris' newsletter at her website.

Among those of Mr. Sheffer's insights PWAC finds particularly interesting is this bit (emphasis ours):

Notably, the majority, which seems to have been ultimately determined by the swing vote of the Court’s newest judge, Justice Rothstein, did not adopt a utilitarian perspective on Canadian copyright law that the Court had early expressed in its seminal 2002 decision Théberge v. Galerie d’Art du Petit Champlain inc. (In this case, artist Claude Théberge took exception to his art being chemically lifted off paper posters and transferred onto canvasses without permission, an act that the Court, by a slim 4-3 majority, found did not violate Théberge’s copyright). Accordingly, it would appear that the Supreme Court is not prepared to embrace fully a utilitarian approach to copyright law, or put differently, it does not appear that the Court will abandon or ignore the author’s right perspective on copyright espoused by the minority in Théberge. Where the latter perspective is generally more favourable to authors and artists and is rooted in the belief that copyright is granted to creators as a matter of natural justice...

Download the full report as a PDF below:

Writers' Rights Upheld

free press alert

2006-11-30T11:18:00.000-08:00

For Immediate Release: November 30, 2006

PWAC Objects to Court Pressure on Writer

The Professional Writers Association of Canada joins with Canada’s other free press advocates in supporting Toronto writer and editor Derek Finkle in his fight to maintain journalistic integrity in the face of extreme pressure from the courts.

Mr. Finkle, the best-selling author of No Claim to Mercy, a book about the Robert Baltovich murder case, has been court-ordered to turn over his research notes and other materials relating to the book. These events follow closely the cases of two other Canadian writers, Juliett O’Neill and Bill Dunphy, both of whom were pressured to release confidential information.

“In our view,” says PWAC President Suzanne Boles, “prosecutors are attempting to use a writer’s good and professional work to build their case, and that is not how a free society expects their justice system to act. The principle of source confidentiality must be respected and protected, or our free press unravels.”

The Baltovich case is going to retrial after the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned an original conviction. Mr. Finkle has expressed his intention to fight the court order and to protect the confidentiality of his research work and sources. Such action by the courts places a ridiculously heavy cost burden on an individual writer, and is unnecessary where prosecutorial due diligence is performed.

“A writer working within an established principle of a separate and free press,” adds Executive Director John Degen, ”is being forced to choose between respecting the courts and protecting his very career. As a society, we should refuse to subject our journalists to such unfair pressure.”

PWAC, established in 1976, is the national organization representing 600 professional freelance writers and journalists in Canada.

More information:

Suzanne Boles, PWAC President
suzanne@writeconnection.org
(519) 680-1658

John Degen, Executive Director
jdegen@pwac.ca
(416) 504-1645

For a PDF version of this release, click the following link:

PWAC Press Release -- Nov. 30, 2006

citizen revolt

2006-11-29T07:57:00.000-08:00

Last week, PWAC staff attended an Ontario Bar Association roundtable discussion concerning the recent Supreme Court decision in the Heather Robertson case. We were there to present the professional freelance writer perspective on the ruling -- we won the big question, and will keep winning despite ongoing challenges on our side of the industry.

One thing we heard repeated from the "other side" of the roundtable was the challenge newspapers foresee incorporating a growing "citizen journalism" into the traditional business model for paid content in newspapers. The suggestion seemed to be that professional writing might somehow be out of fashion anyway.

Citizen journalism, if it is indeed a growing concern for Canada's newspapers in their hunt for content, is not such a futuristic concept, nor has it proven it has a place beyond certain highly specialized niches. Reader's Digest has been publishing their citizen journal, Our Canada (Where readers share their stories) for a number of years now. Youtube and the explosion of blogs are often linked to a perceived rise in amateur reportage, though the quality of that content has yet to prove anywhere near stable or dependable in the way traditional media, say newspapers, might require it to be. And there's recent news that the model has spread to other media, notably television. This report is from The Guardian online (though the full story appears to be locked behind a subscriber wall):

The race to successfully commercialise user-generated content has accelerated again with the launch of Sumo.tv, a dedicated UGC TV channel going live across the UK from today.

Sumo.tv claims to be the world's first user-content TV channel and will run on Sky channel 146, offering a 24-hour mix of new submissions and classic cult content.

The programming is supplied by and targets 18- to 35-year-olds, much of it based around the fail-safe combination of Jackass-style slapstick, gory stunts and weird experiments.

On the other side of that particular roundtable, The New Criterion (America’s foremost voice of critical dissent in culture and the arts) is now running a series of ads for their publication, selling the worth of their product on the notion of professional, high quality writing. What a concept.

A staunch defender of the values of high culture, The New Criterion is also an articulate scourge of artistic mediocrity and intellectual mendacity wherever they are found: in the universities, the art galleries, the media, the concert halls, the theater, and elsewhere.

Note to TNC:

If you're looking for some artistic mediocrity and intellectual mendacity to scourge, maybe have a glance at Sumo.tv.

complicated enough for ya?

2006-11-16T11:39:00.000-08:00

Clearly, copyright discussions won't be getting any easier the deeper we all dig into this important concept:

According to the New York Times, the creative team behind a hit Broadway show are suing two other productions of the same show, claiming copyright over the creative decisions they made in putting their own production together. In effect, they are claiming the other productions are copying the original, not just by using the same script (the use of which is legally licensed), but by using other creative elements (set design, directorial choices, etc.) without permission.

"The Broadway creative team is demanding, among other things, that the teams for both the Chicago and Akron productions provide a detailed accounting of all their revenues, from which “an appropriate license fee and damages” would be determined. The letter to the Chicago production also demands that [the choreographer of one of the newer shows] formally return any awards he won for his work on the show."

Stories like this illustrate just how slippery a concept intellectual property can be, and also just how much necessary value is placed on this property in traditional creator communities. Under the "value added" model of derivative creativity are there no necessary limits? What if the derivative work, (a new production of a Broadway show, for instance) does not actually add any value to the original product? If a choreographer makes no creative contribution to an established show, does s/he deserve a career enhancing award for the work?

Mag Awards

2006-11-14T08:47:00.000-08:00

If you have written for a Canadian magazine in the past year, please be reminded of the 30th Anniversary National Magazine Awards call for submissions, which opens December 1, 2006 and ends January 10, 2007. The 30th Anniversary Awards Gala will be hosted on June 15, 2007 at the Carlu in Toronto.

The submission process, instructions and guidelines, a list of categories, and other relevant information are available at the NMA website.

PWAC members are always in the list of finalists for these awards. Make sure you ask your assigning editor to submit your work for the NMAs, and good luck!

CMG Steps Up

2006-11-13T13:27:00.000-08:00

Any PWAC member who has done freelance work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) this past year will have recently received a pamphlet from the Canadian Media Guild entitled "Taking the Free out of Freelancer." Accompanying the pamphlet is a letter from Don Genova, president of the CMG's Freelance Branch. The Freelance Branch represents anyone who has signed a freelance specific services contract with the CBC.

Like the Canadian Freelance Union (CFU), a "national local" of the Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP), the CMG's Freelance Branch is organized labour's response to the writing on the wall in Canadian media. As a higher percentage of media work is contracted to freelancers, we need to be recognized by organized labour as an important ally in the struggle for workers' rights.

The pamphlet contains some inspiring advice, such as:

Show me the Money! As an experienced freelancer, avoid working for the minimum rates wherever possible. Your fee should reflect your experience and expertise. Remember: a staff reporter with five years of experience would never work for the salary of a rookie. You shouldn't either.

It's Your Work: As a Freelance Contributor, you own the copyright to your work. It is your intellectual property -- guard it with your life! If you choose to assign or sell your copyright, ensure you receive significant compensation.

For more information about the CMG's Freelance Branch, please see their website

For information on the CFU, please see their site.

October Achievements

2006-11-02T13:36:00.000-08:00

PWAC members, and entire chapters, have spent the early autumn achieving great success. A full list of PWAC member achievements for October can be found at the link below. Here are some highlights:

Quebec member Julie Barlow has released a book. Written with her husband Jean-Benoît Nadeau, The Story of French explores the origins, development and spread of the French language, explaining why French is still an influential international language in spite of the popularity of English. The couple will also be publishing US and UK editions of The Story of French this fall.

Prairies member Myrna MacDonald Ridley picked up a silver in the "press feature" category of the Canadian Farm Writers' Federation annual awards program last month. She received the award for her feature, "Blinded by the Night," that appeared in the Fall 2005 issue of Horse Health Lines (a Western College of Veterinary Medicine publication).

After 40 years in the writing business, Ontario-at-Large member Judy Scott has finally achieved a major goal - a cover story in a national magazine. Judy's feature, The Great Stone House, was featured in the September issue of Acreage Life, published out of Saskatoon. Now 66, Judy's advice: "Never give up!"

Quebec member (and Chapter President) Craig Silverman sold a book about media errors and accuracy based on his award-winning website, http://www.RegretTheError.com, to Penguin in Canada and Carroll & Graf in The US & UK. Craig's writing has recently appeared in The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Montreal Gazette, Report on Business magazine, Toro magazine, and Chocolat magazine.

Over the October 21st weekend, B.C. PWACers held their professional retreat on Saltspring Island. The theme "Advocacy and Activism" engaged 29 members from the region and eastern Canada. Wildlife artist Robert Bateman and author Terry Glavin both invoked the precipice as a metaphor for the eco-crisis. Bateman warned about the erosion of biodiversity, "the crowning glory of the planet." Glavin explored the writers' dilemma "the responsibility to contribute to a common conversation in the face of global warming and expanding capitalist economy." Whale expert Paul Spong fears that global warming will destroy the Orca food chain. Journalist Deborah Campbell transported us behind the media curtain that cloaks the "real" Iran. She linked two concerns, media concentration and why we need narrative non-fiction. Visits to two organic farms concluded the event. For more information on the Victoria Chapter go to: http://www.islandnet.com/pwacvic/homepage.html

Congratulations everyone -- click the link for the full list of October PWAC member achievements.

showing the money

2006-10-30T13:01:00.000-08:00

The Canada Council for the Arts, one of PWAC's operating funders (please see the right hand menu), has recently received supplementary funds totaling $50 million over two years. PWAC attended a meeting in Ottawa last week to discuss these extra funds and how they might be distributed within Canada's cultural industries (including writing and publishing).

The Council has released their plans for the $50 million today (details at the CC link above). Here's what it means for Canada's writers, in a nutshell:

There is extra money for individual grants to writers, which are to be awarded in 2006/07 -- specifically, writers who have made the "highly recommended" list in grant deliberations may now find themselves bumped up to the level where they actually receive a Canada Council subsistence grant.

Supplementary operating funds will be available for Canada's National Arts Service Organizations serving the writing community (this includes PWAC). This extra money is not guaranteed, but will be distributed through a competitive process and based on measurable outcomes.

Response to this announcement from the community has been swift. PWAC is closely linked with both the Canadian Conference of the Arts and the Canadian Arts Coalition, both of whom have celebrated the extra funding, but noted that it does not yet represent the stable increased funding the community has been asking for. Here is the Canadian Arts Coalition's message in full:

The Canadian Arts Coalition Welcomes Increase in Arts Funding

(October 30, 2006 - Toronto) The Canadian Arts Coalition applauds the federal government’s commitment to the arts as expressed in the increased funding to Canada Council for the Arts. As announced in May’s federal budget, the Council will receive an extra $50 million over the 2006-07 and 2007-08 fiscal years.

Today, the Council announced its plans to increase funding for arts organizations, individual artists and public access to the arts.

“The Canadian Arts Coalition welcomes the federal government’s allotment of $50 million in new money to the Canada Council over the next two years,” said Micheline McKay, the Coalition’s Co-chair and Executive Director of Opera.ca. “This is an excellent first step towards attaining stable, long-term and sustainable funding for the arts. The Coalition’s goal is to see an annual increase of $100 million in federal funding for the arts through the Canada Council.”

The Canadian Arts Coalition is the largest consortium of arts supporters: business leaders and arts philanthropists, sponsors and volunteers, artists and arts organizations, ever assembled in Canada. We believe that the future of our citizens, their towns and cities, and indeed, the nation itself depends on a rich, vibrant and diverse arts community.

www.canadianartscoalition.ca

a writer's place?

2006-10-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

Compare and contrast the position of writers in these two industry pieces:

Following up on their press release warning of the potential removal of the longstanding postal subsidy for print magazines, Magazines Canada has delivered a pre-budget submission to the Commons Standing Committee on Finance in Halifax this week. Read all about it at the Canadian Magazines blog.

Here's a highlight of their submission:

The effects of Canada Post's decision are many: It could mean cutting back on the amount of editorial and Canadian-content pages that can be produced. It could mean fewer jobs and assignments for Canada's writers, creators, illustrators and photographers.

And in (sort of) related news:

Editor &Publisher in the United States has published a report speculating that it might be decades before online revenue makes a significant impact on the newspaper business.

The full article is a fascinating read. It does not once use the word "content." Instead there's this:

We are fearful the recovery coming out of the current downturn could be even more muted as online continues to transform the newspaper’s most lucrative, and most cyclical category, classifieds.

the long & short

2006-10-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

The freelancer's dilemma is succinctly outlined in this article about the end of long-form journalism by Leigh Doyle. Published in The Tyee, a version of Doyle's article won the National Magazine Student Writing Award last year.

Please read the entire article. Here are some highlights:

Many writers cannot avoid romanticized notions when talking about long-form articles. They regard it as the heart and soul of journalism...

Over the past 10 years, [former Saturday Night editor, Matthew] Church has observed an unhappy trend. "Writers spend less time editing themselves," which has weakened the writer-editor relationship. "Mostly," he concedes, "it's because writers aren't being paid enough."...

...if long [newspaper] articles were to become more common, freelancers would have to contend with the paltrier rates newspapers traditionally pay.

The low rates are not so low that writers are deterred entirely from going long. The desire is strong enough that many work for small fees or honoraria. Otherwise, smaller general interest magazines of a certain level of quality -- such as Toronto's This, Vancouver's Geist, and Montreal's Maisonneuve -- would not exist.

Thanks to the Canadian Magazines blog for the tip.

postage unpaid

2006-10-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

Trouble, with a capital T, and that rhymes with P, and that stands for postal subsidy.

Magazines Canada has sent out this press release, warning of the potential loss of the postal subsidy on magazine distribution that has kept the readers and writers of Canada in material and markets for well over a century:

End of Canadian magazine distribution partnership with Canada Post may put affordable, accessible Canadian content magazines out of reach for Canadians in rural areas

Toronto -- The Canadian magazine industry is bracing for major upheaval with the news that Canada Post Corporation intends to withdraw its $15 million financial contribution to the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) within the next several months. The $15 million gap will mean that postage costs for the average magazine will jump by 31 percent and will drastically alter the way that magazines are delivered to Canadians. The steep and sudden increase in distribution costs is not viable for many publishers, putting at risk the choice and amount of Canadian magazines available to readers. It will also effectively put an end to a century-long partnership and to the subscription-based delivery model that has evolved because of federal government magazine policy.

"We are calling on the federal government to ensure that Canada Post's partnership within PAP is maintained until there's been a review and evaluation of Canada's magazine policy and how to best serve Canadian readers, writers, creators and the small-to medium-sized businesses that publish more than two-thirds of Canada's consumer magazines," says Mark Jamison, chief executive officer, Magazines Canada. "In our view, allowing cuts to a highly successful magazine program without first considering the consequences for the health of Canadian culture, is short-sighted."

Accessibility to Canadian magazines and carving out space for a Canadian voice has always been a challenge in Canada for two reasons: The country's geography -- with a relatively small population spread across a huge landmass -- makes magazine distribution more difficult and costly than many other countries. And culturally, competing with the enormous size and influence of the U.S. entertainment industry and its overwhelming number of cultural products is daunting. Because of the size of its population, U.S. magazines enjoy competitive advantages such as huge editorial budgets and economies of scale that Canadian publishers simply don't have.

The PAP helps bridge the geography of this country to deliver magazines to Canadians at an affordable price. It is also a proven and highly successful magazine policy framework and directly supports the federal government's cultural objectives of connecting Canadians to one another and of ensuring there is a choice of Canadian content available across the country.

Historically, the magazine sector has been highly effective in utilizing public investment to ensure a presence for Canadian opinions, perspectives and information. Today, Canadian magazines lead Canada's cultural media industry with a market share of 41% of total magazine sales and more than 80% Canadian-authored content -- both significantly higher than other cultural sectors such as Canadian film, music, books and television.

In addition, the sector has permanent publishing infrastructures in several provinces, which results in the employment of thousands of creative staff and freelancers including writers, editors, designers, illustrators and photographers. When Canadians buy Canadian magazines, they support the work of Canadian writers and creators and help ensure that investments in advertising, printing, packaging and distribution stay here in Canada. In total, the industry invests more than $1.5 billion in Canada.

"The magazine industry is already looking at alternative delivery solutions in response to the Canada Post decision, however we can't change 100 years of magazine distribution infrastructure overnight," adds Jamison. "Before allowing drastic cuts, we collectively ought to be looking at how we can do things differently and how we can best ensure that rural Canadians and others are able to access Canadian information, stories and ideas. This is especially true in rural areas where postal costs for magazine delivery could be prohibitive without Canada Post delivery."

Magazines Canada is a national, non-profit association representing Canadian consumer magazines across the country. Canada has a vibrant and culturally rich magazine industry with more than 2,300 titles. The industry employs more than 14,400 people through full- and part-time work including 5,000 freelance writers, editors, photographers, designers and illustrators. The industry generates more than $1.5 billion in revenue, making a significant contribution to Canada's economic growth.

- 30 -

For more information, please contact:

Mark Jamison
Chief Executive Officer
Magazines Canada
416.504.0274 x223
mjamison@magazinescanada.ca

writers win!

2006-10-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, October 12, 2006

PROFESSIONAL WRITERS WELCOME SUPREME COURT DECISION

The Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) is very pleased with today’s Supreme Court of Canada decision in the class-action suit Heather Robertson, et al. v. Thomson Corporation, et al. The judgment states:

“The central issue on this appeal is whether newspaper publishers are entitled as a matter of law to republish in electronic databases freelance articles they have acquired for publication in their newspapers — without compensation to the authors and without their consent. In our view, they are not.”

Today’s ruling in favour of freelance writer and longtime PWAC member Heather Robertson has upheld freelance writers’ ownership control of the work they produce (a fundamental tenet of copyright law), and helped to clarify the legal position of independent media workers in their contractual relationships with clients. Ms. Robertson’s class-action suit sprung from a dispute with The Globe & Mail newspaper over the reuse of her freelance work in certain online databases, a use Robertson insisted she had not contractually permitted and for which she was not compensated.

“It is never pleasant to take a respected business partner to court,” commented PWAC President Suzanne Boles, “and Heather Robertson put her career on the line for this class action. She has done heroic service to the business of writing in Canada.”

“In the last decade, Canadian media have increased their reliance on freelancers to produce the content they use,” added PWAC Executive Director John Degen. “The Supreme Court has now clarified the position of creators under copyright law, and the position of an important and growing media sector – the independent contractor.”

Full details of the decision can be found at the Supreme Court website.

“Freelance writers have always seen themselves as equal partners in the business of media in Canada,” said Boles, “and this ruling will allow the entire industry to move forward with a positive understanding of writers’ rights. We’ve reached a new starting point today.”

-30-

For more information, or comments:

Suzanne Boles, PWAC President
suzanne@writeconnection.org
(519) 680-1658

John Degen, Executive Director
jdegen@pwac.ca
(416) 504-1645

one decade later...

2006-10-06T13:01:00.000-07:00

Supreme Court Decision Next Week in Heather Robertson Class Action

PWAC has received word from Heather Robertson that a final decision in her class action case, Heather Robertson, et al. v. Thomson Corporation, et al., will be handed down next Thursday (October 12th) at 9:45 a.m. on the Supreme Court of Canada website.

For background information on this long-running legal battle for freelance writers’ rights, please see the summary of the case on the Supreme Court site at:

Heather Robertson Summary

PWAC will comment on the decision next Thursday.

We would like to take this opportunity to once again thank Heather Robertson, a longtime PWAC member and a tireless advocate for writers’ rights, for her decade of commitment to this case. The contract dispute at the heart of this case dates back to 1996. Heather Robertson’s heroic dedication to this struggle benefits all writers in Canada.

the ironies of expression

2006-10-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

This story has a whiff of too ironic to be true about it, and if it weren't coming directly from the website of the Montgomery County (Texas) Courier newspaper website, we wouldn't bother linking to it for fear of being pranked.

It seems a Caney Creek, Texas father has requested the banning of a specific book from the local high school curriculum after language in the text made his teenage daughter uncomfortable. The book is Ray Bradbury's 1953 classic Fahrenheit 451, a novel about censorship and book burning. The curriculum removal request came in the American Library Association's Banned Books Week, during which the ALA draws attenton to issues of freedom of expression and the freedom to read.

Said the offended teen: "The book had a bunch of very bad language in it. It shouldn't be in there because it's offending people. ... If they can't find a book that uses clean words, they shouldn't have a book at all."

Thanks to bookninja.com and the Freedom to Read folks at the Book & Periodical Council for spreading the news.

September achievements

2006-10-05T07:54:00.000-07:00

As always, the PWAC Member Achievement bulletin is available online. For the full text, please go here:

September Achievements

And here is a quick preview:

Irene Davis (PWAC-Toronto) has been awarded the 2006 Peter Gzowski Literacy Award of Merit, sponsored by the ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation, and given for quality reporting on issues relating to literacy. The award is for an article entitled "Literacy opens a brighter world," published November 22, 2005, in the Facts & Arguments section of The Globe and Mail.

Peter Mitham (PWAC-Vancouver), in collaboration with Douglas Gray, has co-authored Real Estate Investing for Canadians for Dummies (John Wiley). The book is a primer on investing basics, offering practical, down-to-earth advice on how to invest in property, be it residential, recreational or commercial.

Mark Kearney's (PWAC-London & Southwestern Ontario) latest book, Whatever Happened to? Catching Up With Canadian Icons, hits bookstores across Canada in October. Co-written with Ottawa writer Randy Ray, this book takes a where-are-they-now look at the fate of some 100 celebrities, newsmakers, and significant artifacts from Canada's past. Published by The Dundurn Group, the book is the eighth collaboration between Mark and Randy and can also be ordered on their website www.triviaguys.com

copycamp

2006-10-04T12:31:00.000-07:00

PWAC staff attended CopyCamp last week in Toronto. Billed as "an unconference for artists about the Internet and the challenge to copyright," the two-day gathering took place at Ryerson university.

CopyCamp saw an unprecedented sharing of ideas and information between traditional creative cultural workers (writers, musicians, visual artists) interested both in protecting their copyright and expanding their business models in the digital realm, and what has been labelled (mostly inaccurately) the copyleft camp-- those, mostly younger, artists and digital creators who are advancing new, and often radical business models for intellectual property based on a vision of the Internet as a vast open commons.

The event was full of energetic, sometimes provocative discussion, and went a long way toward fostering a mutual respect between these groups as we all attempt meaningful copyright reform in Canada. It also helped to dissect and, hopefully, discard many of the misunderstandings and rash judgments traditional to the debate.

Answers? No, not many solid answers to be found, but the questions and theories remain fascinating, and the goodwill and cooperative spirit of the whole event bodes well.

Executive meetings

2006-10-03T08:31:00.000-07:00

PWAC's National Executive Holds Two Days of Very Productive Meetings in Toronto

Below -- sunrise over Lake Ontario the morning of the Saturday exec meeting.

The PWAC National Executive spent last weekend around the board table at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto. Reports were delivered from all regions and committees, and the association's priority projects for this fiscal year were re-examined and finalized. Fueled mostly by coffee, bagels and fresh fruit, your elected volunteer leadership put in 17 hours of table time, plus travel and meeting prep. Two informal gatherings on Friday late-afternoon and evening, plus a delightful social gathering on Saturday night completed an exhausting, incredibly productive weekend. Minutes of the meetings are proceeding through edit and approval, and will be loaded to the members-only section of the website when completed.

Below -- (left to right) new Regional Directors Tracy Lyn Moland (Prairies and the North) and Kate Merlin (Atlantic) learn the ropes from Ontario RD Tanya Gulliver and Associate Director, Clare Leporati.

status of the artist

2006-09-22T11:38:00.000-07:00

NB: This posting is primarily about Ontario, though the broad concepts apply to PWAC members in all provinces.

PWAC Treasurer Sandy Crawley and Executive Director John Degen attended a meeting last evening with Ontario MPP Rosario Marchese (NDP, Trinity-Spadina) to discuss potential Status of the Artist legislation from the Ontario Liberal government.

A little background:

The NDP government of Ontario, with Mr. Marchese as Culture Minister, began looking at Status of the Artist concepts in the early 1990's, but there has been little progress on the file during two successive Conservative governments. When the Liberals took power under Dalton McGuinty, they promised to deliver a bill on Status of the Artist in the first two years of their mandate. This October will mark three years without a bill despite much consultation. Mr. Marchese called yesterday's meeting to deliver this message -- if the cultural sector does not increase its pressure on the current government to draft S of A legislation, we will not see a bill before the next election.

PWAC has long advocated for provincial status legislation in all provinces, as we believe it would have a direct positive impact on the lives and careers of Canada's freelance writers. We have participated in and appreciated the current Ontario government's consultations on the legislation.

For those unfamiliar with the Status of the Artist concept,the best description can be found in the original 1980 Belgrade Recommendation to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, available as a PDF download on the UNESCO site.

Here are two key components in the Recommendation:

Member States, recognizing the essential role of art in the life and development of the individual and of society, accordingly have a duty to protect, defend and assist artists and their freedom of creation. For this purpose, they should take all necessary steps to stimulate artistic creativity and the flowering of talent, in particular by adopting measures to secure greater freedom for artists, without which they cannot fulfil their mission, and to improve their status by acknowledging their right to enjoy the fruits of their work.

Member States should ensure, through appropriate legislative means when necessary, that artists have the freedom and the right to establish trade unions and professional organizations of their choosing and to become members of such organizations, if they SO wish, and should make it possible for organizations representing artists to participate in the formulation of cultural policies and employment policies, including the professional training of artists, and in the determination of artists’ conditions of work.

PWAC has been engaged for decades on the question of bringing clout to the contract negotiations between writers and their larger clients. An effective Status bill in Ontario would be a big step toward that clout, considering the concentration of media in that province. That said, many at the meeting last night worried Ontario may water down any legislation, stopping short of giving artists official designation as workers (and therefore not allowing them to form bargaining units).

Although Canada already has a federal Status of the Artist Act, it is imperative that provinces also pass legislation because contract law is a provincial matter. As PWAC discovered in its recent Professional Canadian Writers Survey, writers’ incomes have actually dropped in the last ten years, and we feel this is in large part due to the difficulty freelance cultural business people have in negotiating reasonable compensation.

If you live in Ontario, and are concerned that a Status of the Artist bill with bargaining provisions be presented sooner rather than later, you can contact your Member of Provincial Parliament directly to tell them so. It is recommended that any letter you send be marked Personal and Confidential to make sure it reaches the Member in good time, and that you try to actually meet the Member at the constituency office during Friday constituency hours.

alternative to all-rights

2006-09-19T09:22:00.000-07:00

At the risk of creating a snake eating its own tail, we now link to a blog linking to our own blog.

The Canadian Magazines blog, edited by industry experts D.B. Scott and Jon Spencer has picked up yesterday's PWAC posting about the Boing Boing Digital Emporium and their plans to sell electronic texts with iTunes-like pricing and ease of use.

What's interesting about this to Canadian freelance writers is to witness Canadian magazine industry insiders speculating about a future with this and similar services available to writers:

"One could see a situation in which freelance writers would sell one-time rights, say to a magazine, retain all other rights, post their work through a service such as this and be paid (albeit in thousands of tiny fees) for access to it. If the magazine wanted to buy secondary or archiving rights, that would certainly continue to be possible."

Brave new world?

Vancouver 2007

2006-09-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

Plan now to experience Vancouver in May 2007!

PWAC's National Conference & AGM 2007 will take place next May 24-27th in spectacular Vancouver, British Columbia. The PWAC National Conference Committee is working closely with the Vancouver Chapter and their Local Conference Committee to create a relatively inexpensive and memorable conference experience.

Block bookings have been reserved at the Vancouver Downtown YWCA Hotel, which will provide accommodations between $52 and $105 per night. Attendees interested in a more traditional hotel experience will be able to book rooms at the nearby Delta Vancouver, though these will be understandably more expensive. Most of the plenary and professional development sessions will take place on the downtown campus of Simon Fraser University Harbour Centre, which is handily located near both lodgings.

Work on schedule planning is well underway, and members will receive full notice of the 2007 National Conference & AGM, including the registration fee and delegate subsidy info according to the regular timeline. Look for updates on this blog, and a revamped Conference web page when the details are set.

In the meantime, mark your calendars, and prepare to spend a memorable spring weekend with your writing friends and compatriots on the left coast!

BTW, work is also underway for the 2008 National Conference & AGM, which will take place in beautiful Winnipeg, Manitoba.

iTexts (?)

2006-09-18T13:16:00.000-07:00

The daily blog Boing Boing is known for its advocacy of file sharing, and for theorizing about fresh business models for creators -- models that tend to keep interaction with intermediaries like publishers at a minimum (please see previous post).

Today Boing Boing is putting the marketplace's money where its mouth is, and has launched the Boing Boing Digital Emporium, which offers (so far) a small number of electronic texts (in PDF format) for sale at the Apple iTunes established flat rate of about a buck per download.

An emporium sale is a simple PayPal-mediated transaction with, as they put it, the majority of the proceeds going to creators. This is a bold and intriguing venture. It will be interesting to see the range of electronic texts they offer for sale, and some hard numbers over time.

in praise of the middle

2006-09-18T08:44:00.000-07:00

The word from some quarters is that the Internet is producing a much-longed for democratization of the arts, wherein the various middlefolk -- the producers, publishers, record labels and even prize juries -- lose their monopolistic influence on public taste, and are replaced by a sampling, discovering, hugely eclectic open marketplace, a fabulous and seemingly endless bazaar of sights and sounds. This is the kind of thinking that has led to our understanding of the "long tail" for cultural products. It's all out there, and a simple search will bring it right to your doorstep.

On the other hand, opinions vary as to the overall effect of this change on the quality of the art produced, and whether or not so grand a change is occurring. Today's Guardian features an opinion piece by Mark Ravenhill, questioning the actual cultural impact of all those aspiring rock stars on myspace.com. Here's a sample:

"A democracy of taste is a great thing to aim for in the arts. But the kind of mob hysteria of the Fringe, MySpace and Pop Idol is an altogether different - and less healthy - phenomenon. Publishers, managers, funders, critics, investors: we should keep questioning who they are, why they are there and whether they are hindering or helping a genuine cultural democracy. But used well, they provide a better structure for discovering talent than group hysteria. When it comes to art, the mob are rarely right."

Having your work downloaded for free and shared between thousands of people certainly seems to indicate a popularity value in what you produce. And there are numbers out there suggesting that which is most popularly shared and downloaded is often also bought in satisfying numbers. Certainly the idea that old-school prizes and bestseller lists have lost their influence might be very seductive to the up and coming writer whose book has recently been passed over for a short list (or even a long list).

Many writers bemoan the idea that awards tend to go to fairly predictable titles, suggesting an "awards-style" exists and you'd best write to it if you want to go to a swanky dinner someday. But will the awards-style be replaced by a mob-style? In which case, is it really the middlefolk who are responsible for the homogeneity of our cultural products?

cash grab?

2006-09-06T08:25:00.000-07:00

A story in today's Globe & Mail illustrates the continuing dispute between original creators, and those who use and profit from their work. Visual artists have organized a licensing collective to recover long-lost usage fees for having their work appear in museum and dealer catalogues (among other places). Art dealers and museum administrators are uncomfortable with the concept. While sympathetic to the 'idea' that an artist should be compensated for their work, they feel their side of the industry is too cash poor to participate.

The President of the Art Dealers Association of Canada is quoted as saying,"If a corporation is using an image on a Christmas card, artists should get their fair share. But [the same fee being required of dealers] is so counterproductive it defies the imagination." One Toronto art dealer accuses the licensing collective, the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers in Canada, of perpetrating a cash grab.

As working writers and small business people, we all understand the concept of paying certain 'costs of doing business.' When fair compensation for artists, the very backbone of the art dealer's industry, is not considered a cost of doing business, there is something very wrong. I can't imagine a working artist interested in bankrupting their own means of distribution and sale, so I'll assume the licensing fees requested by the collective are reasonable within the reality of the industry. On the other hand, artists seeking compensation being compared to "a Nigerian oil scam" does not indicate a high level of respect for original creators.

I'd be interested to examine the average artist/dealer or artist/public gallery contract in a couple of years time and see what rights are being bought with a flat fee.

Thanks to the Creator's Copyright Coalition website for the tip on this story.

UPDATE:

Here's the info on the Art Gallery of Ontario's web page concerning the economic benefit of their multi-million dollar expansion and Frank Gehry redesign:

Major economic benefits:

Increased tourism in Ontario
Job creation throughout hospitality and consumer sectors
Heightened appeal of region as a location for new businesses and other investments

Specific economic benefits*:

2,058 person years of employment generated by the construction project
$96 million in new labour income generated from the construction project
One-time addition of $100 million to Toronto economy for expansion project
$54 million in provincial and federal tax revenues generated by the construction project
245 permanent new jobs generated throughout the province
$3.8 million generated annually in tax revenues
$12.7 million in new tourism revenues throughout the province

* Prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers, April 2001 for AGO’s SuperBuild application

What's missing?

August achievements

2006-09-05T11:32:00.000-07:00

As we head into the writer's new year (post Labour Day), here's a selection of summer achievements from PWAC members:

Charlottetown, PEI member, Julie Watson, has turned her attention to writing for the web and as part of the process launched a new website for marketing her books at www.seacroftpei.com. This site is to support her move into more self-publishing projects through her small publishing house, Seacroft. She will be launching the first books through Seacroft for the Christmas market. Julie, along with partner Debbie Gamble-Arsenault launch an income earning web site, www.motorcyclepei.com this spring. "We have made as much profit from the web version than the printed directory, but don't get as much traffic and interest as we did with the printed version," says Julie Watson. "This is a comparison test to see if the web can come up to the printed version."

Toronto member, Michelle Ponto has recently accepted a position with CBS Memphis as their live web reporter and writer/producer for all new media broadcasts including video segments for the web and mobile phones. This particular station is the flagship TV station for the NY Times and Michelle will have the opportunity to work as a consultant with the other NY Times stations —a dream come true. Before taking on this position, Michelle worked as a writer/producer for Discovery Channel. She’s also written a number of TV pilots and has two feature films currently in production.

Victoria member, Katherine Gibson's follow-up book to Unclutter Your Life, is out this fall. During October, she will be touring Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Toronto with Pause: Putting the Brakes on a Runaway Life. Do take a few minutes to say hello when she comes to town. Dates and more information on Pause at her new website: www.katherinegibson.com

As well as new features in Muskoka Magazine, Beyond The City, Kawartha Life, and Timeless Spirit, Toronto member Martin Avery's new book with BookLand Press is a biography of Canada's golden Commonwealth Games champion, called Alexandra Orlando: Pursuit of Victory. The launch is planned for October at the Pickering Public Library, where he is Writer In Residence.

And the full Member Achievement Bulletin can be found here.

a geist says what?

2006-09-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

Michael Geist speaks out against -- that's against -- a proposed educational exception to copyright.

Now, if we can get Cory Doctorow to stop saying mean things about Access Copyright (at least I think that's who he means when he says Access Canada), we're on our way to that Internet utopia we've all been promised.

I'll just point to Geist's fourth objection, in which he makes a point I've heard from many writers who do not want to see their work hidden behind paywalls:

...rather than improving access, the exception will actually encourage people to take content offline or to erect barriers that limit access. Many website owners who may be entirely comfortable with non-commercial or limited educational use of their materials, may object to a new law that grants the education community unfettered (and uncompensated) usage rights. Accordingly, many sites may opt out of the exception by making their work unavailable to everyone.

As for Doctorow's assertion that Access Copyright wants to be paid every time a Canadian student turns on a web-browser, I'm hoping this conference in Toronto at the end of the month, which many an AC affiliate will be attending, will help to finally put ridiculous claims like this to rest. Cory Doctorow is an example to all Canadian writers about how to use the Internet in building and sustaining a writing career. His unmitigated animosity towards AC is a bit of a mystery to some of us.

words for sale (?)

2006-08-29T07:33:00.001-07:00

"The business of selling words to readers and selling readers to advertisers, which has sustained [newspapers'] role in society, is falling apart."

So says The Economist in its recent story Who killed the newspaper?.

Not the best of news for anyone planning on making their living in the sale of words:

Newspapers have not yet started to shut down in large numbers, but it is only a matter of time. Over the next few decades half the rich world's general papers may fold. Jobs are already disappearing. According to the Newspaper Association of America, the number of people employed in the industry fell by 18% between 1990 and 2004.

...Having ignored reality for years, newspapers are at last doing something. In order to cut costs, they are already spending less on journalism.

Or is it merely a case of a broad format change? The Economist looks into the future and finds:

An elite group of serious newspapers available everywhere online, independent journalism backed by charities, thousands of fired-up bloggers and well-informed citizen journalists: there is every sign that Arthur Miller's national conversation will be louder than ever.

Loud is good. And these citizen journalists? They'll be paid how?

Thanks to D.B. Scott at the Canadian Magazines blog for the tip.

the art of self promo

2006-08-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

Canadian writer Kenneth J. Harvey is featured in the Globe & Mail's Arts section today. Harvey has written over a dozen books, and if you recognize the name but have never read the books it might be because he shows up in your e-mail in-box from time to time.

Harvey is a tireless self-promoter. According to the article (by Michael Posner):

"... half his working day, he says, is now devoted to the business of writing -- not the prose, but the selling of Ken Harvey. He also runs a polished website (http://www.kennethjharvey.com) that trumpets his reviews, news of foreign-language sales, upcoming books and previous interviews."

PWAC's own Paul Lima, is the freelance writing version of Harvey. http://www.paullima.com/ is just one of the many methods of self-promotion Lima uses to keep his name and services in front of potential clients.

online words

2006-08-21T10:21:00.000-07:00

Google has bought, and will launch, the online word processor Writely.

According to its creators, Writely is a way to create, edit, share and store written documents online. You can access your documents from anywhere, write directly online, enjoy instant collaboration with editors, and have access to a sophisticated word processing program anywhere you happen to be (computerwise). Writely documents can be saved as PDFs or with RSS, allowing you to blog instantly from a working document.

Attempts to log on to Writely today have failed, probably due to huge traffic to the site, but you can check out the program's information blog here: Writely Blog.

Many online references to Writely have mentioned storage security and privacy concerns related to storing all your writing online. As with all online tools and activities, use of Writely will no doubt depend on individual comfort levels.

Faces on Places

2006-08-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

PWAC Toronto member Terry Murray is featured on the prominent Torontoist blog today. She is interviewed about her new book from House of Anansi, Faces on Places about the many and various gargoyles and other sculptures featured on Toronto architecture.

Congratulations Terry on a great book and some wonderful PR!

ethics question

2006-08-10T11:24:00.000-07:00

A number of American journalism blogs are buzzing this week about a profile that appeared in the LA Times (West) Magazine this past weekend. In her piece, staffer Claire Hoffman writes about Joe Francis, the founder and CEO of the Girls Gone Wild video empire, a soft-core offshoot of reality television in which young, often inebriated women lift their shirts and perform all sorts of other 'wild' acts for a camera crew who have spontaneously invaded their night out on the town.

There are some nasty, jaw-dropping bits of information in the article -- not a flattering profile by any defintiion, and in fact an article that could spur criminal charges -- but the journalistic point in question is how the piece opens.

"Joe Francis, the founder of the "Girls Gone Wild" empire, is humiliating me. He has my face pressed against the hood of a car, my arms twisted hard behind my back."

Radical new journalism, or a compromised objectivity intentionally overlooked? As journalism blog The Morning News asks " How can someone who has been abused by her subject continue to write objectively, particularly when so much of the material also deals with abuse?"

former member mourned

2006-08-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

Tim Whitehead

A weekly economics columnist for The Brantford Expositor for more than a decade, PWAC member Tim Whitehead has died in Paris, Ontario.

From the obituary published yesterday in The Expositor:

The decision to give up a high-paying job in Toronto and establish a home-based business allowed him to spend more time with his wife of 18 years, Shauna DeSouza-Whitehead, and children, Jessica, 16, and Trevvor, 15.

"It gave him an opportunity to really get to know his kids," said Shauna. "He was a very gentle man. A real softie."

PWAC sends condolences to Mr. Whitehead's family and friends.

we feel your pain

2006-08-08T08:10:00.000-07:00

Rogers Communications put in uncomfortable financial position because of a tricky contract:

Canadian media giant Rogers is contemplating the importance of clear writing and proper punctuation after CRTC regulators rule against them in a contract dispute.

Read the full Globe and Mail story at the link below. Here are some highlights:

A grammatical blunder may force Rogers Communications Inc. to pay an extra $2.13-million to use utility poles in the Maritimes after the placement of a comma in a contract permitted the deal's cancellation.

Rogers was dumbfounded. The company said it never would have signed a contract to use roughly 91,000 utility poles that could be cancelled on such short notice. Its lawyers tried in vain to argue the intent of the deal trumped the significance of a comma. "This is clearly not what the parties intended," Rogers said in a letter to the CRTC.

But the CRTC disagreed. And the consequences are significant.

The $2-million comma

Canada's freelance writers, who have been struggling with contract issues for years now, sympathize. There is nothing worse than a contract used to undermine the spirit of a traditional business arrangement.

Copyright and libel chill

2006-08-02T07:15:00.000-07:00

Freedom of Expression alert:

Michael Geist, Canada's resident Internet law and copyright theorist (and a speaker at PWAC's 2006 National Conference), has written a very interesting column illustrating a link between copyright and freedom of expression concerns on the Internet, specifically a potential libel chill on opinion expressed via blogs, comment functions and chatrooms. The full column can be read at the link at the bottom of this posting. Here are some highlights:

The case places the spotlight on the liability of Internet intermediaries. The importance of the issue extends well beyond just Internet service providers - corporate websites that allow for user feedback, education websites featuring chatrooms, or even individual bloggers who permit comments face the prospect of demands to remove content that is alleged to violate the law.

The difficult question is not whether these sites and services have the right to voluntarily remove offending content if they so choose - no one doubts that they do - but rather whether sites can be compelled to remove allegedly unlawful or infringing content under threat of potential legal liability.

The answer is not as straightforward as one might expect since Canadian law varies depending on the type of content or the nature of the allegations. In the case of child pornography, the Criminal Code does not require a site to remove content based merely on an unproven allegation. Instead, sites can only be compelled to remove such content under a court order. The same is true for other unlawful content such as hate speech.

Allegations of copyright infringement similarly do not require a site to remove contested content. Liability would depend on whether the site can be said to have authorized visitors to infringe copyright. The Supreme Court of Canada has set a high threshold to determine when a party "authorizes" infringement. Merely hosting content, even after being made aware of an unproven infringement allegation, is unlikely to meet that standard.

Read the full column in the Toronto Star, the BBC International or here:

Canadian Libel Law Raises Net Free Speech Chill

July Achievements

2006-08-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

Hot weather does not deter PWACers from completing their amazing achievements. The full Member Achievement Bulletin is available at the link below. Here are some highlights:

Martin Dansky from Quebec wrote a script and directed/produced his first short film called Birthday Boy Eats Cake, to appear at festivals across Canada and in Italy.

Robert Fripp from Ontario decided to become his own publisher, and totally revamped his URL RobertFripp.ca to market two titles. Power of a Woman / Memoirs of a turbulent life: Eleanor of Aquitaine will soon be issued as an eBook and, shortly thereafter, a POD. He is also reissuing Let there be life (Paulist Press, HiddenSpring imprint, 2001) as an eBook. Meanwhile his play in Shakespeare's English, Dark Sovereign, has caught the attention of director Nate Merchant. Here's hoping.

Roxanne Willems Snopek of Vancouver has written a fiction book called Targets of Affection (Cormorant Books, July 2006). Targets of Affection is the debut novel in a veterinary mystery series dealing with the human-animal bond.

Take a look at the full member achievement bulletin:

July Achievements

writer re-hired

2006-07-31T10:07:00.000-07:00

According to a report today in the BC online paper The Tyee, regular columnist and writing coach Vivian Smith has been rehired by the CanWest paper The Victoria Times Colonist after recently losing her job. According to this and other reports, Smith had her contracts cancelled after she wrote a column describing the many wonderful free activities for tourists in and around Victoria. Apparently, the Times Colonist received a number of complaints about that column from local tourist industry representatives, some of whom, presumably, are advertisers in the paper.

Here is an excerpt from the story in The Tyee:

"I need to be able to write without fear or favour on matters that I think will be of interest to readers," Smith told The Tyee, adding that she thinks the incident might be useful to publishers everywhere. "I think it will remind all parties about the importance of separating advertising concerns from editorial."

Read the full story here:

Veteran Journalist Fired, Rehired by Times Colonist

ED Reviewed

2006-07-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to PWAC's Executive Director, John Degen, for the rave review he received on his first novel, The Uninvited Guest (Pub. Nightwood Editions), in the Globe and Mail this past weekend. Way to go John!

Read the review online here.

Suzanne Boles
President,
Professional Writers Association of Canada

using the audience

2006-07-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

Moral rights take a beating —

Following up on the last item, here’s a bit of older news (a week and a half old) from the blogosphere.

It seems the National Post so liked what they read on spacingwire, the blog for Toronto’s excellent Spacing magazine, that they reprinted it as a Post item, with the blog writer given a byline… but without actually asking permission. The original posting was written by Spacing editor, Shawn Micallef.

Read all about it various places – the link above is directly to the spacingwire item; the Canadian Magazines blog mentions it, and the Toronto Star’s media watcher Antonia Zerbisias had it first.

Some interesting bits from the spacingwire coverage:

"If, for example, the National Post had written their own piece on fans’ reactions to World Cup victories and quoted Shawn’s post, all would be okay in our world. But instead, they lifted the piece, edited out parts that they wished removed, and gave Shawn a byline — all without our permission. It seems the “©2006 Spacing Publications” at the bottom of every page on this website does not hold much weight.

Shawn had originally quoted text from John Barber, a Globe and Mail columnist and a National Post competitor. The quotes from Barber played an integral role in shaping Shawn’s Spacing Wire post. But the National Post removed Barber’s words which dramatically warped Shawn’s point-of-view. To add a bit of intrigue to the situation, Shawn is a frequent contributor to the Globe and Mail and has consciously decided not to have anything to do with the National Post.

We asked that Shawn be paid more than what he would have received if he was commissioned to write the piece. We also asked for an apology that would appear on page A2 of the paper. Both requests were granted..."

part of the audience

2006-07-13T11:11:00.000-07:00

We're getting to this article a little late, by web standards (it's a week old), but it's worth a read nevertheless.

Clive Thompson, blogger, technology expert and one of the smartest, most successful Canadian freelance magazine writers working today muses on the evolving practice of journalism. This article was written for cbc.ca, which has recently turned ten years old.

Media in the age of the swarm

Some interesting bits:

Compare the Christian Science Monitor and The Wall Street Journal...

The Monitor leaves all its stories permanently online for free, while the Journal locks its behind a pay-to-see wall. Bloggers thus almost never link to Journal articles, while they love to link to Monitor articles. Because it makes itself so amenable to blogging culture, the Monitor taps into pass-around culture and these rolling cascades of popularity.

...Ask writers who blog regularly (like me), and they'll tell you how exciting it is to be wired in directly to your audience. They correspond with you, pass you tips, correct your factual blunders, introduce you to brilliant new ideas and people. The Internet isn't just an audience: It's an auxiliary brain. But you have to turn it on, and it takes work. You can't fake participation and authenticity online.

For science and new technology writers, you might want to add Clive's blog to your bookmarks:

Collision Detection

June Achievements

2006-07-11T08:10:00.000-07:00

Summer doesn't slow down professional writers. The PWAC Member Achievement bulletin for June is available here.

And here are some highlights:

Lanny Boutin’s second book, Mummies: All Wrapped Up is now out. The richly illustrated 32 page children’s book, which investigates the who, how and why of Mummy making, was developed by Reed Publishing, for the school market, to assist children in writing informational reports. It will be available through Thompson Canada.

Paul Lima is holding a series of summer workshops in Toronto, including: How to Conduct Effective Interviews (and Write Powerful Article Leads); How to optimize your Web site for the best possible Search Engine results; Copywriting 101; How to Write Media releases; The Art of the Query Letter; How to Find, Price and Manage Corporate Writing Assignments. Descriptions, prices and registration information are available at his website.

Ellen Michelson, retiring from Central Technical School, Toronto, will work with the Pedagogical Centre and the Home Rule Government in Greenland, advising on English instruction. English is Greenland's third language; Danish is the second, and Kalaallisut (related to Inuktitut) is the first for most of the island's 60 000 residents.

Free Inquiry @ Indigo

2006-07-10T13:21:00.000-07:00

Having prompted much recent discussion among freedom of expression advocates, Indigo has returned Free Inquiry magazine to its magazine racks. According to this Globe and Mail story, the original blocking of the June/July issue was done "by accident."

Indigo made headlines a short while ago, after intentionally blocking the distribution in their store of Harper's magazine, apparently as a result of Harper's publishing a series of controversial Danish cartoons.

Thanks to bookninja for the tip on this story.

the write initiative

2006-07-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

What happens when a writer is sure there's a market they can tap, but his publisher doesn't believe him? He goes ahead and taps it himself.

Read how a US non-fiction author produced his own profitable audio-book (from The New York Times):

Do It Yourself Audio Book

And some highlights:

While growing in popularity, audio books remain resolutely mass-market-oriented, and Mr. Rubinstein's nonfiction book, which sold fewer than 15,000 hardcover copies, simply had not generated enough revenue to justify the costs of producing a recorded version.

For many authors that would have been that. Mr. Rubinstein, however, was unbowed. He enlisted the help of a friend and sound-studio operator, Joe Mendelson, and managed to recruit a cast of some of his well-known fans...

PWAC on TV

2006-06-26T13:37:00.000-07:00

PWAC President Suzanne Boles and VP Carolyn Gibson recently appeared on the local London Ontario television show To the Point with Jim Chapman, talking about, among other things the Professional Writers Survey Report, and the challenges of a career in freelance writing.

You can check out the full interview at the show's website below:

To the Point with Jim Chapman

(Please note: Some Mac users have reported not being able to see the stream. We are attempting to get a Mac-friendly version.)

UPDATE Mac users can download a free Windows Media Player at this link for their computer. Then under the File menu,click Open URL and paste the following URL:

http://www.jimchapman.ca/stream/2006_0613_seg02.asx

Age of Reason

2006-06-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

News Flash: Reasonable Requests to Respect Digital Copyright Are Met with Reasonable Responses

If you've observed any of the copyright reform debate in the last couple years, you may have noticed that the rhetoric can sometimes get a bit testy. Use of terms such as piracy, zealotry, greed, spying, bullying, stealing are standard and all sides are certainly guilty of the occasional rush to judgement. In the ongoing quest for common ground, may I direct everyone's attention to a recent development on the incredibly popular blog Boing Boing, a loud and, at times, extremely aggressive voice for the free digital culture folks.

Boing Boing recently reported on a digital controversy involving the great NPR program This American Life (hosted by Ira Glass -- brilliant radio), in which TAL requested that certain other websites stop their practice of providing TAL content for free. Now, TAL provides most if not all of its content for free itself on its own site, and it apparently would like to continue to control access to that content itself.

The initial reporting on Boing Boing seemed to indicate this takedown request from TAL was interpreted as some sort of nasty, legal attack on free culture -- a nastygram, they call it. Today, Boing Boing has published a rebuttal of that interpretation from a former This American Life intern. In the intern's description of how TAL produces its product, I hear the voices of all cultural creators who are trying to figure out how to make their product fit into the digital reality:

"You have to understand that This American Life is produced differently than just about any other show on the radio. They get big names on there. They pay well. They score the whole show with great music. All of these things make it difficult to give away programs for free...

...In any case, Ira's not trying to cheat you. He is, in fact, a very nice guy. Like, for instance, if he were going out to get lunch, he'd ask you if you wanted anything, and then he'd bring it back, and he wouldn't make you pay for it."

Since the initial reporting on Boing Boing, the websites in question have complied with TAL's request for control of its own content. Brave new world.

Of Mice and Copyright

2006-06-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

Following up on the recent James Joyce copyright posting, here's more news from the world of famous writers' estates, as reported by The Guardian:

An American judge intervening in a long-simmering feud has ruled that the rights to John Steinbeck's most famous novels - including The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men - should be seized from his publisher and handed to his descendants.

In a case that could have significant consequences for families of artists who fought for creative control, New York judge Richard Owen ruled that Penguin Books must forfeit the copyright of 10 of Steinbeck's works, even though the novelist had signed the rights away in 1938.

The ruling has a connection to the highly contentious Sonny Bono copyright extension legislation in the US, but the implication most interesting to Canada's professional writers is the ruling's grant of preferred status to the creator as copyright owner, despite a written contract transferring copyright. Specifically, the ruling as reported allows that "young authors could not know in advance "the high stature they would attain" and that it was therefore fair to allow them or their descendants to renegotiate copyright agreements."

Steinbeck died in 1968, which means under the Sonny Bono extension the inheritor of his copyright (whether it be the family or the publisher) may continue to derive exclusive remuneration from his works until 2038. This would mean a pile of cash in any case, considering Steinbeck's stature and his place in curricula around the English speaking world, but add to that the Oprah effect and the money in this case grows immense. Oprah Winfrey chose Steinbeck's East of Eden for her book club in 2003 and spiked his sales worldwide.

So, Steinbeck signed away all rights to his work in 1938? And we thought all-rights contracts were a relatively new phenomenon.

Callwood Celebrated

2006-06-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

PWAC founding member, June Callwood has received the Canadian Library Association's Advancement of Intellectual Freedom in Canada Award.

Here is the CLA's press release:

(Ottawa) – June Callwood, journalist and columnist, magazine writer, television host and interviewer, author, social justice activist, and free speech advocate, is the 2006 recipient of the Award for the Advancement of Intellectual Freedom in Canada, presented by the Canadian Library Association (CLA).

Callwood is a founding member of many organizations and associations that have come to play a vital national role in defending Canadian civil liberties and freedoms: the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, PEN Canada, Feminists Against Censorship, The Writers' Union of Canada, the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC), and the Electronic Rights Licensing Agency.

“Long before they were safe or fashionable, June Callwood was a courageous and principled pioneer in many social justice causes, especially those involving children and women,” says CLA President Barbara Clubb. “Her efforts have paved the way for others to follow.”

She has helped found more than 50 human rights and social action organizations, including Digger House, a youth hostel and safe haven for homeless youngsters; Nellie's Hostel for Women, a non-profit organization for women and children in crisis; Jessie’s Centre for Teenagers, a drop-in centre for teenage mothers; and Casey House, the first hospice in Canada to provide support and palliative care for people with HIV/AIDS.

Callwood continued to give volunteer service in an executive capacity to many organizations and agencies, as well as to many others associated with Canada's culture industries in publishing and communications; including the Book and Periodical Council, the Toronto Arts Council, the Canada Council Literary Advisory Committee, and the Advisory Committee of CanCopy (now Access Copyright).

In addition to her volunteer service, Callwood has been a prolific author, with more than 30 books to her credit (including at least 10 as a ghostwriter), a magazine writer with hundreds of articles published, and a host of several acclaimed television series capturing diverse aspects of Canada's cultural heritage. She served as a Writer-in-Residence at the North York Public Library.

Several years ago, to honour the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Persons Case in 1999, Library and Archives Canada highlighted the “Famous Five” together with the achievements of 11 other Canadian women who have made significant contributions to the improvement of the lives of Canadian women and children, including Callwood.

For decades Callwood has championed causes for the disenfranchised, the unheard, and the minority communities in Canadian society. She has been called “Canada’s Conscience” and “St. June.”

The Canadian Library Association is Canada’s largest national and broad-based library association, representing the interests of public, academic, school and special libraries, professional librarians and library workers, and all those concerned about enhancing the quality of life of Canadians through information and literacy.

- 30 -

For more information on the CLA Award for the Advancement of Intellectual Freedom, contact Dr. Antonia Samek, Chair of the CLA Advisory Committee on Intellectual Freedom, (780) 492-0179 or toni.samek@ualberta.ca.

Yes, the complexity, yes

2006-06-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

PWACer Chris Moore has a great and timely posting on the Creator's Copyright Coalition blog regarding the James Joyce estate and the issue of permissions in the use of copyright protected material, especially as concerns academic uses. As though copyright weren't complex enough, now I have to choose sides between Molly Bloom ("yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes." -- Ulysses, Episode 18 Penelope) and those who might help me better understand Molly Bloom?

This is a fantastically difficult issue, detailed in a New Yorker story available for free at this link:

The Injustice Collector

As Chris Moore writes:

The power of the global academy versus the power of the Joyce fortune… who’s the little guy here?

Under copyright law, being the grandson of a great and popular writer entitles one to a number of rights and privileges concerning the work of that author, BUT does it entitle Stephen James Joyce to everything he demands?

PWAC @ Mags University

2006-06-09T14:06:00.000-07:00

The Professional Writers Association of Canada participated in this week's Magazines University, the annual conference and professional development gathering for the magazine industry in Canada. Executive Director, John Degen participated in a panel discussion on the writer/editor relationship, presenting the results of our recent writers survey report, and spreading the word about the need to increase writers rates within the industry. He also joined PWAC lawyer Marian Hebb for an intensive session on legal issues facing magazine publishers, and took the opportunity of this discussion to push PWAC's standard freelance writing agreement to a crowd of small magazine publishers.

Finally, PWAC President Suzanne Boles and John Degen attended the Magazines Canada volunteer appreciation reception and, again, spoke with the assembled publishers, large and small, about PWAC's recent conference, the survey report and our ongoing issues. President Boles remained in Toronto for meetings with Access Copyright directors (and PWAC members) Michael OReilly, Doreen Pendgracs and Guenther Krueger.

Member Update

2006-06-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick follow-up on last week's member achievement posting from Executive Director John Degen:

Reading the Globe & Mail Books section on the weekend, I was delighted to see Guelph PWAC member Laurie Gough's latest book Kiss the Sunset Pig. An American Road Trip with Exotic Detours favourably reviewed. Laurie Gough is an accomplished travel writer with publication credits in many of Canada's best newspapers and magazines. She recently read from Kiss the Sunset Pig at Toronto's Harbourfront Reading Series.

Read an Excerpt from Kiss the Sunset Pig. Listen for her Tuesday, June 13, 11:00 am on CBC Radio (Sounds Like Canada) discussing travel with two other travel writers.

-- jd

Member Achievements

2006-06-02T08:27:00.000-07:00

Another busy month for PWAC members (and staff).

Some highlights:

Doreen Pendgracs recently completed her Competent Leader (CL) designation in the Toastmasters International program. As a member of the Prairie Voices club, Doreen is currently working towards her Advanced Toastmaster (ATM-Silver) designation. She is a professional speaker who has presented assorted special interest seminars such as The Art of Feng Shui and customized writing classes for a wide variety of clients.

After so-called retirement, Judy Scott has sold a major feature story for the June issue of Acreage Life magazine published out of Saskatoon. It is about heritage split-rail fences. She hasn't been published in a national magazine since 1998 and is glad to be back! The tip for placement of this story came from fellow PWACer Carolyn Black.

Nora Rock's book Wrongfully Accused: Innocents on Death Row (Altitude Publishing) tells the stories of some of the 122 people released from US death row since 1976 on evidence of their actual (not just "technical") innocence... Nora was born in Iowa; researching this book made her proud to be Canadian.

Vancouver literary press Nightwood Editions has published PWAC Executive Director John Degen’s first novel, The Uninvited Guest. John has previously published two books of poetry with Toronto’s Pedlar Press. John will be signing copies of his book at the University of Toronto Alumni Book Fair (June 3), and BookExpo Canada (June 12th). The launch party for The Uninvited Guest takes place in Toronto, Thursday June 15th (6:30 p.m.) at Mitzi’s Sister (1554 Queen Street West), a great bar in Parkdale. Details about John’s writing can be found at http://www.johndegen.com.

Check out the full listing of recent PWAC member achievements here:

PWAC Member Achievements

More Survey Talk

2006-05-31T11:05:00.000-07:00

D.B. Scott over at the Canadian Magazines blog has dug a bit deeper into the Professional Writers Survey report. Scott is one of the Canadian industry's most respected consultants, and his blog is daily reading among publishers and editors.

For the full posting, check out this link:

http://canadianmags.blogspot.com/2006/05/freelancers-and-industrys-challenge.html

And here is the highlight:

"Realistic rates for freelancers is a significant issue and one of the biggest challenges facing this industry. As one senior editor said: we hold down rates, because we can. Publishers can do it because there has always been a steady supply of young hopefuls willing to work for peanuts. But if the payment erosion continues in the direction demonstrated by the PWAC research, even those young writers will likely have second thoughts.

An across the board 20% increase in freelance rates, right now, would cost the industry about a 1% increase in its total costs. And the average would still be something less than $1 a word."

PWAC in the news

2006-05-23T08:29:00.000-07:00

The London Free Press has run a brief piece on the recent PWAC elections (Londoners in both the President and Vice-President positions), as well as the survey report. Here is a brief excerpt:

LONDON HOME TO PWAC EXECS

Just think of London as the national headquarters for professional writers.

London writer Suzanne Boles has been acclaimed national president of the Professional Writers Association of Canada for this year...

Read the full article at the following link:

London Free Press

Freelance Survey

2006-05-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

The Canadian Professional Writers Survey report is now available for download as a PDF. Every PWAC member will receive the report in its printed version, but if you want a head start on your reading please feel free to check it out electronically.

The report was distributed widely during our National Conference & AGM in Ottawa last weekend, and it has already begun to make waves out there in the broader community. Check out mentions of the report on the Canadian Magazines blog and on copyright warrior Russell McOrmond's blog as well.

Here is the full report as a PDF (this is a direct download, and it's a large file, so don't click unless you have time):

Canadian Professional Writers Survey

and the summary results of the questionnaire:

Summary Results

PWAC Takes Ottawa

2006-05-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

PWAC celebrated 30 years with a fantastic National Conference & AGM 2006 in Canada’s capital between May 11th and May 14th. The Conference saw the release of PWAC’s Professional Writers Survey Report, which was brought to Parliament Hill by a squad of PWAC members during our Lobby Day (May 11).

The PWAC Executive met privately to discuss the findings of our survey with the Minister of Labour, the Honourable Jean-Pierre Blackburn (photo above). As well, PWAC was privileged to welcome the Minister of Canadian Heritage, the Honourable Beverley J. Oda, as our special guest for the PWAC 30th Anniversary Gala Dinner at the Canadian War Museum. In her address, Ms. Oda commented directly on the report’s recommendations, and pledged to consult with PWAC going forward.

With the release of the survey report, and our successful meetings in Ottawa, PWAC has renewed our dedication to representing freelance writers nationally and in every region of the country.

In the photo above (right to left): PWAC Treasurer Sandy Crawley, President Gordon Graham and Vice President Suzanne Boles meet with the Honourable Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Minister of Labour.

Ottawa Update

2006-05-03T08:18:00.000-07:00

PWAC in Federal Spotlight at National Conference & AGM 2006

PWAC is very pleased to welcome the Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, as our special guest to our 30th Anniversary Gala Dinner, Saturday May 13th at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. Our keynote speaker for the night is Ken Alexander, Publisher of The Walrus.

Tickets for this dinner are still available. PWAC members who have registered for the full conference receive a ticket as part of their package. Everyone and anyone else, please go to this link to purchase your ticket.

The PWAC National Executive will also be meeting with the Honourable Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Minister of Labour, for discussions of PWAC issues prior to our Thursday cocktail reception.

Other highlight events:

PWAC's cocktail reception, featuring keynote speaker Paul Wells (Maclean's magazine), at the Ottawa Delta Hotel, Thursday May 11th between 6 and 9 p.m. $10 for those not registered for the full conference (includes one drink ticket).

PWAC Awards Banquet, Friday May 12th, 6:00pm to 7:00pm cocktails, 7:00pm to 10:00pm dinner and awards. Location: National Press Club. Keynote address by Dorothea Helms, PWAC member and winner of last year's Barbara Novak award.

Creator Copyright, or Creator Copyleft: A Brave New World, featuring guest speaker professor Michael Geist. Saturday May 13th, 9:30 am to 11:45 am, Ottawa Delta Hotel (room to be announced), $20 (non PWAC-members)

Full Public PD workshops - Saturday afternoon, $40

As well, please come visit the trade fair - Saturday 11am to 2pm at the Delta.

If you are a professional writer in Canada, can you afford to miss these hugely important conference events?

Busy PWACers

2006-05-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

The April Membership Achievement Bulletin is being sent to PWAC members today. Readers of this blog get a preview:

Adrian Blake is pleased to announce that he now writes a weekly column about motorcycling called Twistgrip for The Toronto Sun's Autonet section. Adrian also writes monthly for a bestselling American custom motorcycle magazine, and he designed a popular tour for Edelweiss Bike Travel (Austria), the world's leading motorcycle tour company.

The Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting has awarded a fellowship to Alison Kathryn Dyer, a freelance reporter from Newfoundland, Canada, to attend the 8th Annual Workshop for Journalists, June 11-16, 2006, focusing on marine and environmental science at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography. This six-day immersion program gives reporters an opportunity to learn about the basic science underlying the news in their communities and to improve the accuracy and clarity of their science-based reporting. The workshop includes basic research in the field and lab with scientists and graduate students; and lectures that examine the intersection of science, policy, and politics. Eleven journalists, primarily from the U.S., will attend the 2006 workshop.

For the full picture of what PWACers were up to in April, see the entire bulletin here.

Encouraging Budget

2006-05-03T07:33:00.000-07:00

The following press release is the response of the Canadian Arts Coalition, of which PWAC is a founding member, to yesterday's federal budget. PWAC has long advocated increased and stable funding for the cultural sector. We are encouraged by the news in this budget, and look forward to ongoing discussion with the Minister of Canadian Heritage, the Honourable Bev Oda, who will be our guest at PWAC's 30th Anniversary Gala Dinner (Saturday, May 13 at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa):

Canadian Arts Coalition welcomes new public investment
in the arts as a first step

May 2, 2006 ― (Toronto, Ontario) ― The Canadian Arts Coalition welcomes the federal government’s commitment to increase public investment in the arts through the Canada Council for the Arts – a move that was articulated in the federal budget released earlier today.

“The Canadian Arts Coalition is encouraged by the government’s decision to increase public investment in Canadian artists and arts organizations,” says Bob McPhee of Calgary Opera, one of the many organizations supporting the Coalition. “This is an encouraging first step and demonstrates the government’s commitment to address the urgent need for arts funding.

Going forward, the Coalition says it plans to keep on working with Minister Oda and her colleagues to fully address the need for longer term, sustainable investment in the arts and to urge the government to make this a priority for the fall agenda.

“The Canadian Arts Coalition has had a positive first meeting with Minister Oda and we are encouraged by her commitment to ensuring that the arts are eventually properly supported,” adds McPhee. “We are confident that when we meet with Minister Oda and her colleagues again we will address these issues in a productive manner.”

The Canadian Arts Coalition represents a broad group of arts organizations which recognize the economic and social benefits of supporting the arts.

“Talented people like to live and work in dynamic communities that have cultural infrastructures because the quality of life in these communities is unequivocally better,” adds McPhee. “There is tremendous value in supporting the arts. It’s critical to the quality of Canadian community life and our cultural competitiveness as a country.”

The Canadian Arts Coalition is the largest group of artists, arts executives and business leaders ever assembled from across the country who are united in the view that greater public investment in the arts through the Canada Council for the Arts is essential to Canada’s future. Arts and cultural organizations include opera, orchestras, visual arts, theatre, magazines, museums, writers and dance, among others.

-30-

For more information on the budget, please go to the federal budget website.

Creator Copyright

2006-04-27T07:46:00.000-07:00

Canadian Musical Creators Form Their Own Association Over Copyright Concerns

Both the Globe and Mail and Wired magazine covered the recent announcement by a number of prominent Canadian musicians that they intend to speak for themselves on copyright reform, rather than being lumped in with the opinions and copyright lobbying of the recording industry as a whole.

As quoted in the Globe story, the Canadian Music Creators Coalition release had this to say about the impetus behind their formation:

"Record companies and music publishers are not our enemies, but let's be clear: Lobbyists for major labels are looking out for their shareholders, and seldom speak for Canadian artists."

The lesson Ottawa may want to draw from this most recent development on the copyright front is that there are no easy answers to the challenges of reforming copyright for the digital age, and no single solution changes that will satisfy everyone. Any new law is going to have to recognize a multitude of stakeholders and draw fair distinctions to represent their interests.

Check out the new coalition at their website link above. Here's some of what you'll find there (quoted directly). It certainly doesn't sound like the standard line from the recording industry:

1. Suing Our Fans is Destructive and Hypocritical
Artists do not want to sue music fans. The labels have been suing our fans against our will, and laws enabling these suits cannot be justified in our names. We oppose any copyright reforms that would make it easier for record companies to do this. The government should repeal provisions of the Copyright Act that allow labels to unfairly punish fans who share music for non-commercial purposes with statutory damages of $500 to $20,000 per song.

2. Digital Locks are Risky and Counterproductive
Artists do not support using digital locks to increase the labels’ control over the distribution, use and enjoyment of music or laws that prohibit circumvention of such technological measures. The government should not blindly implement decade-old treaties designed to give control to major labels and take choices away from artists and consumers. Laws should protect artists and consumers, not restrictive technologies. Consumers should be able to transfer the music they buy to other formats under a right of fair use, without having to pay twice.

3. Cultural Policy Should Support Actual Canadian Artists
The vast majority of new Canadian music is not promoted by major labels, which focus mostly on foreign artists. The government should use other policy tools to support actual Canadian artists and a thriving musical and cultural scene. The government should make a long-term commitment to grow support mechanisms like the Canada Music Fund and FACTOR, invest in music training and education, create limited tax shelters for copyright royalties, protect artists from inequalities in bargaining power and make collecting societies more transparent.

PWAC & CBC

2006-04-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

PWAC Executive Director on CBC Radio Tonight (10:30 p.m.)

Earlier this week, PWAC ED John Degen recorded a short commentary on the topic of copyright reform in Canada for the CBC Radio program The Arts Tonight. The commentary is slated to run this evening on CBC Radio One. The piece was written as one writer’s response to the ongoing need for reform of the copyright system in Canada, and deals specifically with the education sector’s request for a digital copyright exception.

The Arts Tonight airs on CBC Radio One at 10:05 p.m. (10:35 Newfoundland), and the commentary is set to run some time after 10:30 p.m.

Geist & PWAC

2006-04-12T08:16:00.000-07:00

Michael Geist To Speak at PWAC National Conference & AGM

Another Great Reason to Come to Ottawa May 11-14

Following up on his 2006 Hart House lecture, which was recorded for national radio, television and podcast (and blogged about here), University of Ottawa Professor Michael Geist (Canada Research Chair in Internet & e-Commerce Law) will be PWAC’s featured speaker at Creator Copyright, or Creator Copyleft: A Brave New World, one of our professional development offerings on Saturday May 13.

Prof. Geist, columnist for the Toronto Star and Ottawa Citizen, will present his ideas about where copyright has been, where it is going, and how creators can take a leading role in shaping a new copyright paradigm, and indeed a new copyright law, for ourselves.

Prof. Geist’s ideas are challenging and controversial. Some may find them uncomfortable, some exhilarating. Either way, a moderated Q & A will follow. All views and ideas welcome.

Creator Copyright, or Creator Copyleft: A Brave New World takes place between 9:30 am and 11:45 am, Saturday May 13th, at the Ottawa Delta (room to be announced).

This event is FREE to registered Conference attendees, and $20 for any interested non-registered friends and colleagues of PWAC (everybody else).

May 13th includes a day-long schedule of fantastic professional development events featuring some of PWAC’s own expert members and a number of guest speakers. For full details on our scheduled PD events, please go here:

PWAC Conference Schedule

Check out the full National Conference & AGM info

Click here to Register for the Conference

To register for the Geist seminar ONLY, contact PWAC by e-mail at: cleporati@pwac.ca

Ottawa Never Looked So Exciting!

March Achievements

2006-04-04T13:37:00.000-07:00

PWAC members have had a busy winter, full of professional and personal success.

Some highlights:

Kathy Buckworth’s book, The Secret Life of SuperMom, released by Sourcebooks (Naperville, Illinois) in 2005, has had foreign rights sold in Indonesia and China. The translated versions will appear on the market within in 18-24 months.

On March 29, 2006, the Atlantic Community Newspaper Association (ACNA) released its 2006 newspaper awards nominations. PWAC NBSW chapter president Trudy Kelly Forsythe is nominated in the Best Sports Feature or Story category for her feature "Girls Hockey Catches On" which ran in the Kings County Record in Sussex NB on Feb. 1 2005. The ACNA awards take place in Saint John on May 6.

Michelle Ponto’s dark suspense script entitled, The Calling, has been picked by a New York film company and is currently in production. This is Michelle’s second short film this year. The first one, Al, was a co-writing project and was produced this Spring by Green Sky Productions in Toronto. Michelle also has a couple of feature length films in the pre-production stage.

And the full Member Achievement bulletin is available at this link:

March Achievements

Online writing resources

2006-04-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

A quick reminder to PWAC members from across Canada, and in fact to any would be members stopping by -- our largest chapter, PWAC Toronto, provides great professional development opportunities, not just for Toronto members, but for everyone. Check out the notes from past evening PD seminars on their website at:

http://www.pwactoronto.org/seminar_notes.htm

Geist Copyright Lecture

2006-03-31T07:15:00.000-08:00

The very fast-talking Prof. Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet & e-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, gave the 2006 Hart House Lecture last night in Toronto. His topic, of course, "Cultural Monopoly & The Trouble With Copyright." PWAC staff attended.

Geist did an impressive job of boiling down the history of copyright law in Canada, using incredibly rapid powerpoint slides. His take home point: the copyright landscape has changed, and continues to change at an almost unfathomable pace. While traditional stakeholders (his term) in copyright (the creators, producers and secondary copyright holders) continue to have their voices heard within the ongoing process of copyright reform, a new class of stakeholder has emerged -- the user -- and this new class is demanding a new vision for copyright. The moment has arrived, according to Geist, to choose the kind of copyright law we want for Canada's future. He advises us to choose wisely.

Comments from PWAC's Executive Director, John Degen, who was in attendance:

I enjoyed the lecture immensely. That said, I wish Geist had resisted the urge to take yet another public swipe at former Heritage Committee Chair, Sam Bulte, who was defeated in the last federal election. I felt this irrelevent and very personal criticism -- Geist showed a video clip of Ms. Bulte being ridiculed and embarrassed at an all candidates meeting -- marred an otherwise fair-minded and balanced analysis of current copyright challenges and opportunities. The nasty public attacks on Ms. Bulte during the last election, which Mr. Geist unintentionally inspired with a blog posting questioning the ethics of some of her campaign funding, crossed a line in my opinion.

Ms. Bulte is widely criticized for labelling her critics "pro-user zealots," and fair enough (a very, very poor choice of words from a politician), but what is so often ignored in the analysis of Bulte's defeat is that she was targeted by a very organized interest group, and relentlessly bullied on this issue during her campaign. If we are discussing campaign financing in Canadian federal elections, then Bulte is probably a fair target, but we're talking about copyright, and on copyright Bulte put in more good work than anyone else during the last session of Parliament. Disagree with her opinion on copyright? -- fine. Paint her as crooked on copyright? Well, I'm not sure that stuff has a place in a Hart House lecture.

At no time did Geist ever appear, in my opinion, soft on copyright. In fact, he stressed several times that he stands for strong copyright laws. He is simply proposing some intriguing changes to the current law, based on his analysis of the current landscape for the creation and use of copyrighted material. For example, I asked the following question:

As a writer, I have been challenged on the current life + 50 years term of copyright for my work. I have been asked, "Why should you retain copyright for your work fifty years, or even one year, after you're dead? After all, you're dead. That work should immediately transfer to the public domain as your contribution to the world's knowledge base." Can you give me the answer to this question, from the creator's point of view.

Geist's reply was that he would propose not a single, across the board, static term for copyright (life + 50 years), but rather a series of terms, some of which would be easily renewable, based on the type of material being copyrighted and on the owner of the copyright. If I understood him correctly, he stands for protecting a writer's moral and material interest in their work for a set term, and for possibly making that term renewable, should there be ongoing material interest in the work from which the writer, or writer's immediate family, could benefit.

What writer could argue with that?

And so, the long, long copyright reform process in Canada continues with new energy. If we could just drop the negative politics, we might actually get somewhere everyone wants to go.

Canadian writers on the podium

2006-03-28T08:09:00.000-08:00

Interesting writing-related press release from the government today:

Australian Students receive Canadian Books as Part of Commonwealth Games Legacy

March 28, 2006:

The Government of Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts have provided a collection of Canadian books to each of the 57 schools in the shires of Nillumbik and Campaspe to celebrate the ‘Adopt a Second Team’ initiative. On March 23rd at a reception at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne, Canadian Government representatives presented the books to student representatives from selected schools as a lasting gift to commemorate the valuable ties fostered between Canada and the communities during the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

“Canada is internationally known for excellence in literature, and we are delighted that we will be able to give Australian students an opportunity to learn more about our country and its outstanding writers and illustrators,” says Canadian Consul General Richard Kohler.

The collection of books has been selected to specifically suit the needs and age level of the students. In addition, each school will receive French-language books to introduce the students to Canada's other official language. The 57 schools are composed of 42 elementary schools, eight high schools, two special schools and five combined elementary/high schools.

“In addition to marking and enriching the return to school for the students in both shires,” says Consul General Kohler, “we hope the important cultural friendship that was formed between Canada and the communities during the Games will live and expand through the donation of these books. It also expresses Canada's strong commitment to the promotion of cultural diversity.”

A similar ‘book legacy’ project was organised by the Government of Canada and its portfolio agencies during the 2000 Sydney Olympic/Paralympic Games. Approximately 30 schools from the City of Ryde, Canada’s ‘twinned’ city for the Games, received a Canadian book collection.

This ‘book legacy’ project was organised by the Department of Canadian Heritage, in conjunction with the Canada Council for the Arts, Library and Archives Canada, Foreign Affairs Canada and the Canadian Missions in Australia.

Toronto Seminar

2006-03-15T12:34:00.000-08:00

Check out this fantastic panel of speakers at PWAC Toronto's Evening Seminar -- Wednesday March 22

Fine features: Crafting that great magazine story

Great magazine articles are fascinating, informative—and even touching. They’re also challenging to write, and perhaps even more challenging to sell. In this seminar, experienced and award-winning writers and editors will talk about how to create that great magazine story. From idea generation through pitching through the mechanics of narrative and emotional elements, this seminar will provide you with valuable tips to help you in writing those great magazine pitches you’ve been dying to get started on. Panelists include:

Cynthia Brouse
Cynthia Brouse has worked as a copy editor, researcher and writer since 1980 for such publications as Saturday Night, Toronto Life, Maclean's, Report on Business Magazine, Canadian Business, Reader's Digest and The Globe and Mail. She was managing editor of Saturday Night for two years and also spent five years on the communications faculty at George Brown College. Cynthia now freelances as a writer, copy editor and teacher/trainer. She has taught part-time at Ryerson University since 1987 and is a former coordinator of the Magazine Publishing Certificate Program in the Continuing Education
Division. Cynthia has been recognized several times by the National Magazine Awards, including the gold award for Personal Journalism in 2000, and four honourable mentions.

David Hayes
David Hayes is an award winning feature writer whose work has appeared in publications such as Toronto Life, Saturday Night, Report on Business, Toro, The New York Times Magazine, The Globe and Mail and enRoute. He is also the author of three books, plus two more as a co/ghost-writer. A former faculty member in the magazine stream at Ryerson University's School of Journalism, today, he teaches Advanced Magazine Writing in Ryerson's G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education.

Paul Wilson
Paul Wilson is a freelance writer, editor and translator. He was Associate Editor of The Idler magazine from 1988 to 1992, Senior Editor of Saturday Night magazine from 1998 to 2001, and most recently an Editor of The Walrus magazine. Paul has contributed essays, articles and reviews to many North American and European publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, the Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, the National Post and other literary and general interest magazines. His translations are also familiar to readers of the New Yorker, Granta, Foreign Affairs, The New York Times and The New York Review of Books. His translation of The Engineer of Human Souls by Josef Skoverecky was awarded the Governor General's Award for Fiction in 1984, and his translation of Ivan Klima's My Golden Trades was short-listed for the Independent newspaper's International Translation Award in 1993.

Plan ahead! Future seminars include:

April 18 - Crime pays: A look at reporters who cover crime and corruption

May 16 - Well-connected: Using the Internet to write better articles

Location/Time: Northern District Library, 40 Orchardview Blvd. (west off Yonge, just north of Eglinton); 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Fee: PWAC members - Free; General public - pay what you can ($10 suggested)

Afterwards: Join the panellists, PWAC members. and other writers for Beers with Peers in the Manchester Arms pub —conveniently located downstairs from the library.

More info: visit www.pwactoronto.org

Writer Retreat

2006-03-15T12:02:00.000-08:00

PWAC received this notification today. Members who attended our 2004 National Conference and AGM in New Brunswick will be very familiar with the setting for this retreat:

I want to apprise you of the retreat for writers at work, and for Book Groups, which I have founded in St. Andrews by the Sea, NB.

I am a former Fellow at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, and a James A. Michener Fellow. I offer instruction in screenwriting, the novel, and the memoir. I have taught fiction writing, nonfiction prose and screenwriting at Colgate University, Colby College, Western Connecticut University and Columbia College. I am the author of five novels published by Random House, Doubleday, Simon & Schuster and Alfred A. Knopf. Two memoirs published by Little Brown and Alfred A. Knopf. And the screenplay, “Fallen Angel” a Hallmark Hall of Fame Christmas movie starring Gary Sinise, which won the highest rating for a television movie in 2003.

The Retreat is a 150 year old house in the center of the village amidst shops, restaurants, and internet café, and the inimitable Algonquin Hotel, open year round offering a spa, fitness center and fine dining. Summer activities include sea kayaking, whale watching, sailing, golf on a world class course, swimming, tennis and biking. In the winter months there is cross country skiing across a stunning landscape.

The Retreat offers a comfortable, private room with a queen size bed and a shared bath down the hall. Breakfast is provided each morning. Residents may use the kitchen, garden deck, and two living rooms on the first floor.

Tutorials are held in the evenings. Applicants of all abilities are invited rear round. Admission is based upon a manuscript or portfolio.

I've had some wonderful writers working there, John, and if you can help me get the word out about the retreat, I will be very grateful.

Thank you so much.
Don J. Snyder

Mr. Snyder can be reached at the following e-mail address:

Hancockpt@aol.com

Interesting work/subject

2006-03-15T09:19:00.001-08:00

A longtime PWAC member passes this information on to her fellow members. For those with an interest in travel, other cultures, and international relations.

Haiti Election Observation Mission

CANADEM is recruiting short-term observers to monitor the upcoming elections in Haiti. There will be two observation mission deploying to monitor both election rounds.

Selection Process:
The CANADEM Elections Roster contains many hundreds of qualified elections experts who possess both the preferred and essential criteria for any given observation mission. Selections for an observation mission is a highly competitive process and it is likely that those who do not possess both essential and preferred criteria will not be selected for participation.

To be considered for this mission, you must be registered with CANADEM. The following criteria are also considered essential:

Have a valid Canadian passport;

Be in excellent health and fully mobile;

Be willing to sign and adhere to a code of conduct for short-term international observers, including a statement of political neutrality in Haiti;

Be willing to follow instructions, including safety procedures;

Be willing to work long hours in conditions which are sometimes difficult; and

Be able to work in a team and deal with difficult situations in a positive manner.

Have prior election observation and/or electoral assistance experience, preferably in a post conflict or volatile environment;

In addition, the following criteria are preferred:

Be proficient in French or Creole; and

Have knowledge of the country or region.

CANADEM is no longer accepting applications for the observation mission to Round 1. Applications for the mission to Round 2 may still be considered.

For full information on the CANADEM Electoral Assistance Program and the necessary qualifications for an observation mission, please read the Election Observation Missions and FAQ page on their website.

February Achievements

2006-03-01T12:04:00.000-08:00

As we enter March, let's look back and see what PWAC members have been up to. Your February 2006 Membership Achievement Bulletin is now available at the link below:

February Achievements

PWAC members -- Remember to get your achievement announcements in to National Office before March 31st in order to have your good work noted in the next bulletin. Achievements can be sent to
cleporati@pwac.ca.

Exec in action

2006-02-27T14:37:00.000-08:00

February meeting

PWAC's National Executive met for two full days (Saturday, February 18th and Sunday, February 19th) in PWAC's boardroom at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto. The Executive weekend also included a meeting between staff and the core Executive on Friday afternoon, and a Saturday evening social gathering with Toronto chapter President Nate Hendley.

The Exec heard reports from all regions and committees, as well as progress reports on our upcoming National Conference and AGM in Ottawa (May 11-14 -- REGISTER NOW!) and the Professional Writers Survey.

The full minutes of February's Executive meetings will be loaded in the members only section of pwac.ca in coming weeks. For those members interested in what happened at the meeting, but not particularly fond of reading minutes, watch out for an e-mail bulletin from PWAC President Gordon Graham, updating the entire membership on Executive business.

Appearing in the photo above are (clockwise from the top centre), Past President Liz Warwick, Membership Coordinator Clare Leporati, Ontario RD and National Conference Committee Chair Tanya Gulliver, Quebec RD Bruce Wilson, President Gordon Graham, Vice President Suzanne Boles, Treasurer Sandy Crawley, Prairies and the North RD Liz Katynski, Atlantic RD Jodi DeLong and BC RD Katherine Gibson. Not pictured, but present, is Executive Director John Degen (standing on a chair, taking the photo).

Toronto Seminar

2006-02-22T10:01:00.000-08:00

PWAC Toronto presents:

Wed. Feb. 22, 7 PM - Writing to live: Finances for freelancers, from GST through to retirement

Whether you are 22, 32, 42, 52 or 62 -- or younger or older, or any age in between, this timely seminar is for you. Learn the do's and don't's that will save you money, save you grief with Canada Customs and Revenue, and help you plan ahead so you can retire with dignity. Panel members include:

- PWAC member and tax preparer/adviser Sunny Widerman
- Brian Bowes, a CMA and financial planner specializing in the unique finances of artists and other such independent creative
types
- Paul McLaughlin, veteran freelance writer, communications consultant, author and journalism instructor

Location/Time: Northern District Library, 40 Orchardview Blvd. (west off Yonge, just north of Eglinton); 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm

Fee: PWAC members - Free; General public - pay what you can ($10 suggested)

Afterwards: Join the panelists, PWAC members. and other writers for Beers with Peers in the Manchester Arms pub -- conveniently located downstairs from the library.

Executive Meeting Brief

2006-02-22T07:32:00.000-08:00

PWAC's National Executive met last weekend (February 17 - 19) in Toronto for two long days and nights. As we heard reports from across the country and from our many active committees, there was a tremendous sense of pride in how well the association is operating. PWAC is making steady progress on our priorities for the year (as identified through the strategic planning roundtables at last year's National Conference), is on-track with our budget, and is benefitting from the solid performance of our full-time staff.

It was the first chance for most of the Executive to meet face to face with our new Treasurer, Sandy Crawley. We were all impressed with his remarkable mix of artistic and political achievement, and his deep knowledge of issues such as copyright, Status of the Artist, and arts group governance.

On Saturday night, we were joined by Toronto chapter president Nate Hendley, who reported that his chapter--the largest in the country--is humming along nicely, with many activities, and new members joining every week.

PWAC members can expect to hear reports from the president and their RDs within the next couple of weeks.

Google Books update

2006-02-17T08:23:00.000-08:00

The ongoing digitization of vast numbers of books, many out of print and in the public domain, and many not, has been one of the more controversial moves by American search engine giant Google. Opinions on the copyright correctness of this practice vary wildly.

So, here's a question: As a writer, how would you feel if you discovered Google had scanned and digitized your book and offered all or part of its contents as searchable digital text online?

Keep in mind that Google appears, according to their own policy sheet on this, to be restricting access to texts it knows to be under copyright protection. See their FAQ on Google Books here. Google Book Search even has a special page of instructions for authors who want to individually participate in the program. Check that here.

I don't expect a consistent response from the writing community.

For instance, highly successful Canadian science fiction writer, Cory Doctorow, thinks Google is doing writers and publishers a gigantic favour with this project. Check out his opinion at Why Publishing Should Send Fruit-Baskets to Google. You don't have to agree with his take on "product improvement" to feel the seductive sway of an argument advocating a vast new public library space for the countless out of print books out there.

On the other hand, even when someone is going to do you a favour, don't you prefer it when they let you know ahead of time.

Just asking.

Irish Struggle

2006-02-02T09:38:00.000-08:00

News out of Ireland is that the enlightened tax scheme that provides exemptions to cultural incomes has been changed in an effort by the government to realize greater tax payments from high earners in the arts. The Irish government has been floating the idea of an income exemption cap for a year or so now.

Understandably, the Irish Writers Union has spent much of the last year protesting potential changes, arguing that the majority of Irish writers earn well under 50,000 pounds (sound familiar?), and therefore changes to the exemption laws would really only hurt those it was intended to help the most. Furthermore, changes to the tax laws aimed at collecting from superstars would only serve to prompt Irish superstars to move from Ireland, presumably to the Cayman Islands. See the Irish Writer's Union page on the exemption here.

The actual budget of Ireland incorporating the changes to the exemption is here.

I challenge anyone out there to explain to me how this incredibly complicated scheme now works. Check out the example of Ms. X, a singer/songwriter and recording artist, under Revenue: Examples of Restriction in Reliefs section of the budget document.

PWAC has long advocated for a tax exemption scheme for writers' incomes similar to the previous Irish model. We would be perfectly willing to discuss a cap to any scheme, as long as we can understand it.

Whom to Pitch?

2006-01-27T07:26:00.001-08:00

Just half a year ago, Chatelaine, the Rogers Media title and legendary Canadian women's magazine, experienced a bit of a shake-up when editor Kim Pittaway left her job, citing editorial interference from higher up. More shake-ups this week as the magazine has lost Pittaway's interim replacement at executive editor, Beth Hitchcock and designer Kim Zagar. The magazine has also recently lost art director Caren Watkins.

No word yet on whom to address your pitches to, though, according to the story in Masthead online (subscription required), Beth Hitchcock will be staying on until February 3. After that, your best bet seems to be "To whom it may concern." Or perhaps "Dear Ted Rogers."

Seriously though, here's the latest version of the Chatelaine masthead, as listed on their website.

new market info

2006-01-20T08:02:00.000-08:00

A great spot to check for new Canadian magazine markets is D.B. Scott's blog, Canadian Magazines.

Scott reported yesterday on St. Joseph's Media's relaunch of Canadian Family magazine (and website) positioned to compete with Today's Parent (the highly successful Rogers Media title). I've put a call into Lisa Murphy, editor in chief at the new Canadian Family to check on their freelancer policy, but assuming they will be accepting freelance work and pitches, here are the contact details from the Canadian Family website:

Lisa Murphy, Editor in Chief
editor@canadianfamily.ca
111 Queen Street East
Toronto ON M5C 1S2
416.364.3333

I'll update you all here when I hear back from the magazine.

UPDATE: Lisa Murphy has called back to say Canadian Family will definitely be accepting freelance pitches. She added that CF is still in frantic relaunch mode, and writers should perhaps wait 2 to 4 weeks to make initial contact. By that time, the magazine will be fully launched and ready to look at new writers.

residencies for writers

2006-01-11T13:21:00.000-08:00

Here's some interesting info for professional writers in Canada. Vancouver is looking for a Writer in Residence, while Toronto is offering a beautiful place to stay for a month to writers.

Gibraltar Point International Artist Residency Program

Submissions for the Spring 2006 term of the residency (on beautiful Toronto Island) are now being accepted by Toronto Artscape. This one month residency is open to artists of all kinds, and regularly accepts professional writers, providing office space, lodging, food and social activities (optional) for a one month residency period.

For full details and an appication form, please visit the Gibraltar Point website.

Vancouver Public Library
Call for expressions of interest: Writer In Residence Program
AUGUST 14 - DECEMBER 14, 2006

Looking for a setting to inspire? Spend four months writing in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia - home to a remarkable natural environment and a lively cultural community.

From August 14 to December 14, 2006, the Vancouver Public Library will be hosting a resident author. The aims of the residency are to foster greater appreciation for Canadian writing within the community, offer members of the community an opportunity to interact with the resident author, and to provide the space, time and resources for a Canadian author to write.
The Writer-in-Residence will provide advice to emerging writers through one-to-one consultations, seminars and school visits. This full time position (35 hours/week) requires 25% of the author's time be spent on library programs or projects, leaving 75% of the work week available for creative writing.

Applicants are encouraged to identify innovative ways their residency would foster an appreciation for Canadian writing and involve communities not typically exposed to Canadian literature.

Requirements
- Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada
- Minimum of one critically well-received title published professionally,
including a complete work of fiction, short stories, poetry, drama or
literary non-fiction that lends itself to public reading
- Professional teaching or public speaking experience
- Comfortable and willing to engage with the public one-on-one and in group
settings
- Active participant in the writing community
- In the early working stage of a new writing project intended for
book-length publication

Remuneration: $4000/month (contract position)

Assistance available for travel expenses

*Note: Responsible for finding own accommodation in the Greater Vancouver
area

Expressions of interest must include a cover letter and resume with a
history of literary publications, and three letters of reference that
speak to previous experiences teaching, conducting library programs,
facilitating workshops or other forms of public presentation. Applicants
are also asked to submit a 20-30 page sample of recent writing along with
reviews of earlier works.

Application Deadline
Completed applications must be received by 5 PM (PST) on January 20, 2006
Applications can be faxed to 604-331-4080, Attention:
Author Residency Selection Committee, c/o Barbara Edwards or mailed to:

Author Residency Selection Committee
c/o Barbara Edwards
Vancouver Public Library
350 W. Georgia St., Level 7
Vancouver, BC V6B 6B1

* TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT BASED ON CANADA COUNCIL GUIDELINES. POSITION AND LENGTH OF TERM SUBJECT TO CANADA COUNCIL FUNDING.

Write perspective

2006-01-05T06:07:00.000-08:00

While the concerns of cultural workers, like freelance writers, may not be hitting the headlines during this election season, there are still ways for you to keep on top of your issues, and ways to make your views heard. Here's a couple of great resources:

The Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) has a special page on their website dedicated to the election. The page, available here, lists the CCA's five key priority items for cultural workers. Item Two, Equitable Treatment for Canadian Artists and Creators, might be of particular interest to PWACers.

As well, the Canadian Arts Coalition has produced a brilliant website outlining artists' concerns for the election. See it here.

Prime yourself on the issues, get out to an all-candidates meeting, and make some noise.

Writer controversy

2005-12-20T08:36:00.000-08:00

Professional writers are in the centre of a controversy bubbling in American medical circles, according to a recent story in The Wall Street Journal.

According to the article (available under subscription online):

The Annals of Internal Medicine tightened its policies on writer disclosure this year after a University of Arizona professor listed as the lead author of a Vioxx article in 2003 said he had little to do with the research in it.

The practice of letting ghostwriters hired by communications firms draft journal articles -- sometimes with acknowledgment, often without -- has served many parties well. Academic scientists can more easily pile up high-profile publications, the main currency of advancement. Journal editors get clearly written articles that look authoritative because of their well-credentialed authors... Drug companies say they're providing a service to busy academic researchers, some of whom may not be skilled writers. The companies say they don't intend for their ghostwriters to bias the tone of articles that appear under the researchers' names.

Magazine Awards

2005-12-08T12:50:00.000-08:00

National Magazine Awards Call for Entries – Deadline January 10, 2006

The National Magazine Awards Foundation is searching for Canada’s best in magazine journalism, photography and design. Each year, over 2,000 entries from across the country are judged and winners are presented with Gold and Silver awards. This year’s Awards will be presented on June 9, 2006 in Toronto.

Aside from the personal pride, monetary reward and sense of accomplishment that comes with winning a NMA, this year's winners will be added to an online database which will be accessible to the media, students and the Canadian public. This database is an informational archive of all winners to date and was launched in October 2005.

Submissions for this year's Awards will be accepted online only until January 10, 2006. For eligibility details and to submit your entries, please visit www.magazine-awards.com.

National Magazine Award for Best Student Writer – Deadline: February 1, 2006

The National Magazine Awards Foundation and Department of Canadian Heritage are proud to announce the launch of the first annual National Magazine Award for Best Student Writer. A separate judging panel comprised of a cross-section of journalism teachers and editors will select one student to receive the $1,000 cash prize at the National Magazine Awards on June 9, 2006 in Toronto.

Full-time, post-secondary student writers are encouraged to submit a non-fiction article (French or English) published in a Canadian consumer magazine or university publication in the 2005 calendar year.

highest court

2005-12-06T06:23:00.000-08:00

Today is Heather Robertson day in Ottawa. The Supreme Court of Canada will be hearing arguments in Heather Robertson, et al. v. Thomson Corporation, et al.. Apparently there are still some good seats available in the public galleries, so if you are reading this in Ottawa, bundle up and get thee to Wellington Street. A ruling is expected to be handed down on this case in coming months.

UPDATE: See more about today's Supreme Court hearing at the Creators Copyright Coalition website.

copyright omnibus

2005-12-01T08:53:00.000-08:00

Dispatches from the copyright front lines:

The Creators Copyright Coalition website dives into the satellite radio question, with an op-ed from regular contributor (and PWAC member) Chris Moore. Whether you're aware of it or not, satellite radio has arrived in Canada, with American providers making all sorts of promises about Canadian content. CBC's formerly web-based Radio 3 is now available on Sirius, for example, but are the real interests of Canadian creators being served by this new radio model?

Heather Robertson 's class action on behalf of Canadian freelancers reaches the Supreme Court on December 6th -- that's next Tuesday. Ottawa-based writers should clear their schedules for that day and lend their presence to this moment of import for Canadian creators.

A Quebec lower court has ruled in favour of a freelance writer in a dispute against an Edmonton publisher. See the publicly available ruling here.

the road to clout

2005-11-30T12:11:00.001-08:00

PWAC is currently in working agreements with two unions, the Canadian Media Guild (CMG) and the new Canadian Freelance Union (CFU) through the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP). We are not ourselves a union, though we do have official bargaining standing under the Federal Status of the Artist Act.

The PWAC National Executive views all of these arrangements as integral parts of a process we call "getting clout." It's something our members have been asking for, loudly and clearly -- early results from our online survey back that up as well.

The formation of the CFU has many in the writing and publishing industry talking, though no outcome is clear right now. If you have an opinion on this topic, feel free to use the comments section of this blog to air your views.

In the meantime, here's an interesting overview of the situation from the current issue of THIS Magazine (warning, this article may contain a slightly romanticized view of the writing life -- it should in no way be understood that all freelancers live on a diet of rice and beans, nor would most freelancers consider PR work "selling out"):

Unite the Write

November Achievements

2005-11-30T09:29:00.000-08:00

PWACers have had a very busy autumn so far. For the full Membership Achievement Bulletin, go to November Achievements. And here are some highlights:

Martin Avery

Martin Avery, Writer In Residence at the Pickering Public Library, is planning The Great Canadian Winter Novel Marathon, to be held the third week in February at the Pickering Central Library. His new website is up and running at www.martinavery.com.

Lanny Boutin

Lanny is ‘not so’ patiently waiting for her first children’s book John Diefenbaker: The Outsider Who Refused to Quit to emerge from the printer. Her second children’s book Mummies: All Wrapped Up, is due out spring 2006, and she is feverously working on her third book, Titanic: The Canadian Connection.

Lyn Hancock

Lyn Hancock survived the perils of her first power point presentations Paddling around the Top of Vancouver Island (with readings from her book There's a Seal in my Sleeping Bag) to a standing-room crowd in Nanaimo. E-mail her (lynhancock@shaw.ca) if you'd like to paddle in Belize next March. She also did her popular slide presentation - Books Begin in Backyards - featuring her soon-to-be-published book Tabasco the Saucy Raccoon to Langley, BC schools mid November. In October, she returned from a family (press) trip to Laos and Cambodia, and in December she goes to Australia.

Magazine blog & awards

2005-11-25T06:57:00.000-08:00

Keep up on all the news and new writing markets in the Canadian magazine industry at this free blog:

Canadian Magazines

Written by D.B. Scott and Jon Spencer, two super-connected magazine insiders, the Canadian Magazines blog is a great resource for markets information and general industry scuttlebutt.

Also:

Know someone who's been doing great volunteer work for the Canadian magazine industry (besides most Canadian freelance writers, ha, ha)? Show them you care by nominating them for a Magazines Canada Volunteer Award. Many freelance writers serve on the boards or volunteer committees of Canadian magazines. If you are one of these folks, get thee to the nominations web page:

Magazines Canada Volunteer Awards

Writers in Court

2005-11-24T09:03:00.000-08:00

Please be reminded that longtime PWAC member Heather Robertson gets her first day in the Supreme Court of Canada on December 6th. Ms. Robertson is leading a class action suit against Thomson Corp. claiming infringement of copyright related to digital reuse without permission and/or payment. Interested visitors are welcome to attend her court date.

The Supreme Court is on Wellington Street in Ottawa, west of the Hill. According to Ms. Robertson, we will then most likely have to wait months before a decision is announced in the case.

Also heading to court is Peter C. Newman, one of Canada's most prominent professional writers. According to a story in today's Globe and Mail, Mr. Newman is facing a lawsuit from former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, concerning Mr. Newman's recent book The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister.

From the the Globe story (available free online):

The lawsuit, filed in an Ontario court, asks that Mr. Newman be ordered to hand over the tapes and other ”confidential” material to the National Archives of Canada for ”safekeeping.”

Mr. Mulroney also wants the income from the book to be donated to charity.

Mr. Newman has also been sued for another book on a famous Canadian figure recently.

He is facing a libel lawsuit from publishing mogul Conrad Black.

a brighter future

2005-11-23T09:28:00.001-08:00

Heritage Minister, Liza Frulla announced yesterday that the government will increase funding for the Canada Council for the Arts, effectively doubling the Council's budget by 2008.

As an important part of the cultural sector and a grateful recipient of Council funding, PWAC has been very supportive of the call for increased funding for the arts. PWAC's Executive Director, John Degen was one of over 70 arts professionals working the Hill earlier in the fall under the banner of the Canadian Arts Coalition. The Coalition was asking for just this kind of increase.

Highlights from the announcement:

“Brilliant visual artists, inspired writers and gifted performers capture the stories of our country in works of art, literary works and song. The artistic excellence of which Canadians are so richly capable must be saluted and celebrated,” said Minister Frulla. “Today I am proud to demonstrate to Canadians the Government of Canada’s commitment to artists and the arts.”

The Canada Council for the Arts is the principal channel through which the federal government provides support for professional artists and non-profit arts organizations. In 2007, the Canada Council will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Today’s announcement doubles the Council’s funding so that it will reach $300 million by 2008. The new funding will allow the best arts organizations in all regions of Canada to attain new standards of creative excellence and innovation. The increased funding provided for artists’ tours and shows, both in Canada and abroad, will enable people from Canada and elsewhere to share the richness of Canada’s cultural excellence — in all its diversity.

The Government of Canada recognizes the importance of a thriving arts sector for Canada’s competitiveness and prosperity. This type of investment helps build vibrant communities that contribute to the social and economic development of every part of Canada.

30 Thank Yous

2005-11-18T08:01:00.000-08:00

PWAC would like to say a huge thank you to our first two Gold Level sponsors for our 30th Anniversary National Conference:

Access Copyright, The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency

Altitude Publishing, creators of the Amazing Stories series of books.

Mark that calendar, our 30th Anniversary National Conference will take place in Ottawa:

Thursday, May 11 to Sunday May 14, 2006

Maclean's columnist, Paul Wells will be our featured speaker at a special 30th anniversary cocktail reception on Thursday, May 11th.

Full details for registration, accommodations and the schedule of events will be posted as they come in, both here and on our website at:

http://www.pwac.ca/agm2006/default.htm

Please click here to see our sponsorship levels. If you are interested in being a sponsor, or have a great idea for a local (Ottawa) or national sponsor, please contact our Conference committee chair, Tanya Gulliver at tanyagulliver@gmail.com. If you are interested in booking a Trade Fair booth, please contact Kim Arnott at kim.arnott@sympatico.ca.

Northbound Books

2005-11-16T08:40:00.000-08:00

A letter of thanks has arrived at PWAC national office in Toronto from the North Slave Young Offender Facility in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Longtime PWAC member, and recipient of the 2005 Quebec Regional Volunteer Achievement Award, Hélèna Katz has helped to organize the collection and distribution of books for the youth at the North Slave facility.

PWAC is very proud of the great work Hélèna has done for troubled youth.

Western Selections

2005-11-15T05:28:00.000-08:00

PWAC members enjoy the benefit of local chapters across the country. Chapters provide networking, professional development, promotion, and social contact for professional writers working in isolation. Chapters range in size from well over 100 members (Toronto) to 6 members (Southeast New Brunswick).

Traditionally one of the strongest PWAC chapters is located in Victoria BC. PWAC-Victoria currently boasts 50 professional writers, making them the third largest PWAC chapter. To get a sense of life on the Western edge, all one needs to do is visit PWAC-Victoria's online Reading Room, which features selections from the writing of Victoria's best writers.

For instance:

"Dan Lewis tucks Happy's leg under his arm and trims the horse's ragged hoof. Then he pulls a rough and glowing U-shape from his portable forge and hammers it into a custom horseshoe. Between hammer strokes, he considers the nature of the Kispiox valley.

"There's a lot of independent, even eccentric, people up here," he muses, choosing his words carefully. "But people in the Kispiox will put up with a lot of eccentricity if you can build a good fence."

The ability to build a fence is Dan's metaphor for the kind of self-reliance--some might call it sheer cussedness--you find in many a resident of this mountain-surrounded valley northeast of Terrace, northwest of Smithers. Tell them what to do and they'll tell you where to go in language you may not care for. Leave them alone, and they'll go about their business of surviving and thriving in a region where straight economics might dictate they should pack up and leave for the nine-to-five life of the city."

-- from Building Fences in the Kispiox, by Rosemary Neering © 1998, Published in Beautiful British Columbia, Summer 1998.

and:

It's a game they play. Brian Bell of VIH Logging Ltd. tries to plug up the dry land log-sort. He's keeping the logs coming from his two helicopter logging sites west of town. "But we're only working at half capacity," laughs Dave Carson, Contract Supervisor for Weyerhauser. There's a bit of competition here, but these partners know how to cooperate. "We're trying to develop something here for the long term," says Dave, "We have a good relationship, making sure it works for everybody."

Key to the success of the operation near Port McNeill, British Columbia, is the "Kamov K32," the Russian-made helicopter that is ideally suited to steep-slope logging. VIH Logging has two Kamovs operating out of service and refueling bases in neighbouring valleys. This morning we're heading out the logging road to Malook Creek, wary of the off-highway trucks with loaded 14-foot-wide bunks that barrel down out of the hills.

"Pick-up out on Alice Lake Main, past 30," barks Brian into the radio.

"Better find a hole!" comes back a quick response and we do, in time to avoid a loaded rig charging down the single-lane gravel road. We stay in radio contact all the way up, but nearing the base, Brian switches frequencies and we pick up the chatter of the pilots and fallers working above.

-- from Russian Chopper Handles Mountainsides, by Gil Parker © 2000, Published in Canadian Forest Industries, June 2000.

lest we forget

2005-11-11T07:38:00.000-08:00

This image provided under a Creative Commons agreement, by greybeard on Flickr.

Writers Defy Google

2005-11-09T08:02:00.000-08:00

No doubt you have heard tell of search engine giant Google's Print Library Project which seeks ultimately to digitize all printed content in the world's libraries, and which has been moving forward with, arguably, little regard for the rights of copyright holders. Last month the Association of American Pubishers filed suit against Google in the matter. Here is a bit from their October 19th press release:

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today announced the filing of a lawsuit against Google over its plans to digitally copy and distribute copyrighted works without permission of the copyright owners.

“The publishing industry is united behind this lawsuit against Google and united in the fight to defend their rights,” said AAP President and former Colorado Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder. “While authors and publishers know how useful Google's search engine can be and think the Print Library could be an excellent resource, the bottom line is that under its current plan Google is seeking to make millions of dollars by freeloading on the talent and property of authors and publishers."

Announced late last year, the Google Print Library Project involves the scanning and digitization of millions of published books from the collections of three major academic libraries-- Stanford University, Harvard University and the University of Michigan—from which Google plans to create an online, searchable database. Oxford University and the New York Public Library are also participating in the Library Project, but are only making available works in the public domain.

Over the objections voiced by the publishers and in the face of a lawsuit filed earlier by the Authors Guild on behalf of its 8,000 members, Google has indicated its intention to go forward with the unauthorized copying of copyrighted works beginning on November 1.

Following this release, the American Author's Guild president, Nick Taylor, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post. Some highlights:

Only if my book sells well enough to earn back its advance will I make additional money, but the law of copyright assures me of ongoing ownership. With luck, income will flow to my publisher and me for a long time, but if my publisher loses interest, I will still own my book and be able to make money from it.

So my question is this: When did we in this country decide that this kind of work and investment isn't worth paying for?

That is what Google, the powerful and extremely wealthy search engine, with co-founders ranking among the 20 richest people in the world, is saying by declining to license in-copyright works in its library scanning program, which has the otherwise admirable aim of making the world's books available for search by anyone with Web access.

Google says writers and publishers should be happy about this: It will increase their exposure and maybe lead to more book sales.

That's a devil's bargain.

Globe readers may have seen popular Canadian author Russell Smith's column on the Google battles this past Thursday. Perhaps appropriately, Smith's full column is being protected by its publisher behind a subscription wall. And, ironically, I used Google extensively in gathering materials and links for this blog posting.

Copyright. It doesn't get less complicated, does it?

Member Achievements

2005-11-01T07:17:00.000-08:00

The October Membership Achievement Bulletin has been sent to PWAC members. Here are some highlights and a link to the full document:

Jackie Byrn
Type of Achievement: break-through into new market
Jackie Byrn has secured assignments from CNS(Catholic News Service based in Washington, DC) CNS has 5 million readers and distributes stories internationally. Assignment subject, world record holder Sister Madonna Buder, age 75, is an international triathlon sports figure based in Spokane, WA Jackie Byrn's coverage of Sister Madonna's events have appeared in the BC Catholic and online at xtri.com since 2001.

Allison Finnamore
Type of Achievement: The Henry Heald Award, awarded by the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation
The bronze award was presented to Allison and her colleague Kevin Hursh for their contribution to the Farm Credit Canada Website, www.fcc-fac.ca . The presentation was made during the federation’s annual meeting in Lloydminster, Alta. Allison is the immediate past president of the organization for agriculture writers, broadcasters and communicators.

Gordon Graham
Type of Achievement: New market
Gordon's started writing case studies for another big software company: Intuit in San Diego. He did two in August, and his clients liked them so much they quickly assigned him four more. Gordon has written for some of the biggest names in technology, including IBM, Oracle, Autodesk, and many others.

Here is the full bulletin.