SWG Freelance February / March 2014
Dues Doing You In? ...the many writing associations, memberships, unions and more vying for your hard earned writing dollars By Michelle Greysen As professional writers in this ever changing business world of words and the struggle to maintain rights and yet secure paid work there are few perks to having a writing lifestyle and many costs associated with a hallway commute. The further consideration of aligning one’s area of writing with an association has to bring with it benefits that outweigh the high cost of membership. It is a competitive market out there for the hard earned writer-dollars and picking and choosing just where to put down your money to best benefit your professional writing goals gets more difficult to select each year.
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Being a dual province resident with a working writer lifestyle in Alberta and Saskatchewan while crossing both fiction and non-fiction, I try to be supportive of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta and the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild and at least alternate years of membership from one to the other when the dollar is stretched. The Writers’ Guild of Alberta (WGA), founded in 1980, strongly hovers around the 1000 member mark for many years now and serves to inspire, connect, support, encourage and promote writers and writing. The modest $70 year fee is open to all writer residents or former residents of Alberta. The Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild has a comparable $75 a year fee and the Guild is open not to just Saskatchewan resident writers and former residents, but to anyone in the province who may simply be interested in supporting Saskatchewan writers or staying current with the Saskatchewan literary scene. A prairie writer at heart, I feel an equal allegiance to the Canadian Farm Writers Federations (CFWF), and hold membership via their provincial offshoot, the Alberta Farm Writers Association (AFWA) dedicated to serving the common interests of agricultural journalists, reporters, editors, broadcasters and those in business and government in agricultural communications. Many Canadian writers also working across the continent or globally hold memberships in the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), the professional association of independent nonfiction writers claiming to give freelance writers the confidence and connections to prosper since 1948. With a $50 application fee and a $210 annual fee this is a serious consideration for those seasoned professional freelance writers working beyond Canada. It is no longer a choice of simply supporting your local writing group and your provincial guild but instead has
become a juggle of the dollars out spent to the benefit of securing more dollars in. As a long standing member of the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) it has made sense for me to align my freelance writing with this over thirty year old organization. PWAC was founded in 1976 originally as the Periodical Writers Association of Canada, and this nation-wide non-profit organization continues to play a leading role in the writing industry. A point system qualification for the currently 700+ membership of non-fiction writers ensures a strong working professional membership. The $240 a year rate is not considered lightly in any writer’s budget but for me the referral to a well paying market as a direct result of my membership connections each year more than pays for supporting PWAC while it in turn supports my writing business. The benefits are many fold according to Sandy Crawley, PWAC Executive Director, “Before I took on the senior staff position I was a member of PWAC and sat on its board as treasurer. This organization is unique in the sense that it straddles the Arts and Cultural Industries sector. Our members write in every genre imaginable including some that may not even have a name yet.” Crawley sees the association from many sides, “As a lifelong freelancer working in live performance and recorded media I have found the same generosity that exists among apparent competitors to be a remarkable force that engages the community of writers and drives the creative impulse in a field that can otherwise lead to a sense of isolation.” The colleague support benefits go hand in hand with the PWAC alignment of many industry partnerships and a forefront stance in striving for industry standards, fair contracts with fair rates s well as co-lobbying for freedoms and rights of professional writers in Canada. As a believer in fair dealing and an Access Copyright rights holder I understand the need for clear contract, copyright holdings and the value in striving to protect the plummeting income of independent communications professionals. I hold a member card in the Canadian Freelance Union (CEP Local 2040) that was created to help independent media workers deal with the growing inequities for those working as a contractor in media, print, radio, TV and web. The CFU also recognizes the pool of associated partner societies and offers a reciprocal partnership with PWAC members and as well as a special rate partnership with The Writers Union of Canada (TWUC), Crime Writers of Canada (CWG), Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild (SWG),