I'm interested to hear what others think about the impending television writers' strike and how it affects those of us who write books. According to an article in today's NY Times:
Indeed, most of those affected by such a strike have no direct stake in its issues.
The New York-based book industry, for instance, may find studios reluctant to buy film rights to new works at a time when no writers are available to adapt them for the screen. “In the first part of a strike, buyers will be sitting and waiting to see if it gets resolved,” said Amy Schiffman, who specializes in literary sales for Hollywood’s Gersh Agency.
Another interesting piece starts with a cutesy "Talk about writing yourself into a corner!" (Yeah. Tee. Hee.) Then goes on to detail a semi-scary policy that I would be hard put to go along with.
[The] writers union also tossed in a provision called a “script validation program” that has some members rooting, at least behind the scenes, for the enemy on this one topic.
The union wants members to submit copies of any half-finished scripts to headquarters.
“The filing of these copies will allow the guild to determine the exact status of the material at the beginning of the strike and may protect you in the event allegations of strike-breaking or scab writing are made against you or another writer,” the rule reads in part.
A lot of writers, a paranoid bunch by nature, are not thrilled with the notion of handing over ideas to other writers, whether they are union officials or not. “They are insane if they expect us to do that,” says a writer on a top-rated drama who declined to be quoted by name for fear of retribution.
Huh? Not wanting to hand over half-finished work makes us "a paranoid bunch"? Poo on the Times for that one.
(Oh...Lord...did I just agree with Ann Coulter about something? Excuse me while I scrub myself with Pinesol.)
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