We need a core of activist members, but we don’t require any particular member to be active. You can be as active or as inactive as you want.

Yes, some of us write for pleasure and don’t depend on writing income to support ourselves. Yet our writing has value: since publishing is a profitable business, we deserve to be treated with respect and consistency and to receive a fair share of the proceeds. We all need to ask for what we deserve so […]

Agents’ loyalties are to some degree divided: since they represent a number of clients, they may have to back down on some issues to protect their ongoing business relationships with publishers. Agents also get a cut of money an author gets but may not fully back the author on other issues. We advise members on […]

In our experience, more established writers aren’t treated less well when less experienced writers demand better treatment. We all gain. Since writers are constantly expanding into new writing fields, anyone could be a beginner at any turn in his or her career. When a journalist writes a novel, she’s suddenly a beginner again.

We are not a service organization. We are an activist organization of writers who work together to get better wages and conditions for all of us. Members get access to valuable resources (contract advice, press passes, etc.) but we are a union, not a club. Our primary raison d’etre is advocacy and change.

We give writers the resources we all need to make a living, especially contract advice and grievance. We are an activist organization that believes in working together and sharing information. Our resources come from pooling information and speaking out collectively.