Book Division

The NWU Book Division represents authors, contributors, and ghostwriters of books of all types in all genres and formats: fiction or non-fiction, single-author or anthology, published by large or small commercial or academic publishers or self-published, distributed on paper or as audiobooks or e-books.

The Book Division provides a place for networking, information sharing, and mutual support in our working lives as authors, especially through the NWU-BOOK email discussion list. The Book Division also takes a leading role in the NWU’s advocacy work on copyright and other issues of particular concern to book authors.

The Book Division is a national caucus within the NWU. Book authors are members of their respective local NWU chapters as well as of the Book Division.

The Book Division has published a variety of resources and advisories for authors about book contracts, copyrights, e-books, licensing, and other issues. NWU members are also eligible to receive assistance and advice from the NWU Grievance and Contract Division (GCD) on book contracts or disputes with publishers or others.

The Chair or Co-Chairs of the Book Division are unpaid member volunteers elected by the NWU’s triennial Delegate Assembly.  The current Book Division Chair elected at the 2021 Delegate Assembly is Dan McCrory, (Southern California Chapter), writingbiz@yahoo.com, phone 323-719-2173.

Contact the Book Division Chair if you would like to be part of this work or have ideas for what the Book Division should be doing.

    • Report infringements of your copyrights (including infringements by publishers) to the U.S. National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center. Reporting is essential to document the nature and extent of infringement problems.

Latest Division News

Amazon Selling Plagiarized Books

On March 20, Book Division Co-Chair Aleah Barley, joined Authors Guild Executive Director Mary Rasenberger and a number of Authors Coalition member organizations on a conference call to explore ways to stop plagiarism on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and Kindle Unlimited (KU) platforms. The call was in preparation for a possible letter writing campaign […]

Yusef Salaam on Writing While Black

In commemoration of African American History Month, NWU’s New York chapter presented “Writing While Black” on February 13th at NWU headquarters in midtown Manhattan. Veteran journalist Herb Boyd, who is also an Amsterdam News columnist, led journalists Bill Fletcher, Jr. and Yusef Salaam, along with poets Eartha Watts-Hicks, JP Howard, and Raymond Nat Turner (co-chair of NWU’s […]

Response to our appeal and FAQ from proponents of “Controlled Digital Lending”

There’s been no direct response from the Internet Archive in the month since the NWU and dozens of other organizations launched our campaign against so-called Controlled Digital Lending (CDL). Unauthorized scanning and distribution of digital copies of printed books continues, unchecked. The defenders of CDL have, however, posted their own new FAQ which is obviously […]