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

Orphan Works and Extended Collective Licensing (ECL)

July 22, 2015 — What’s happening with “orphan works”? What is “Extended Collective Licensing” (ECL)? Why should NWU members and other writers care? These issues are complicated, but important for working writers. Many NWU members are only beginning to understand what is meant by so-called “orphan works”, and most writers have never heard of “Extended […]

NWU Supports Librarians’ Objections to Publishers’ E-Book Licensing Terms

The National Writers Union today strongly endorsed the objections to major book publishers’ treatment of e-book licensing terms made public last week in an open letter from the American Library Association. “Readers need to know that the unfair demands of publishers, not writers, are the obstacle to library availability and lending of e-books,” announced NWU […]