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

TAKE AUTHORS SURVEY, BOOST NWU

What is the easiest way to support your union? Completing an Authors Coalition survey. Each response can generate the same income for the NWU as gaining one new member. In 2015, your participation helped us accrue nearly $160,000 in non-title specific royalty payments. This amount is directly linked to the number of completed surveys. However, […]

POTENTIAL BLOW TO UNIONISM

In June, the Supreme Court will make an important decision regarding unionism when it rules on Friedrichs vs. the California Teachers Association. The case stands to reverse a 40-year precedent established in the 1977 case of Abood vs. the Detroit Board of Education. That ruling established public-sector unions’ right to collect “fair-share fees” from all […]

ROBERT ALTMAN: IN THE AMERICAN GRAIN

In July 2010, I pitched a book idea: a critical examination of film director Robert Altman’s work to Reaktion Books of London. Why Reaktion? Why Altman? Reaktion publishes a Critical Lives series, which deals with cultural figures. I was interested in writing about film, so I drew up a short list of directors whose work […]