Courtney Milan: Today, I’m thinking about how *often* we have to bite our tongues because authors aren’t legally allowed to form a union but the fucking landlords are like “hey, you know what would be great? If all of us raised our prices in unison. That would be great.”

Today, I’m thinking about how *often* we have to bite our tongues because authors aren’t legally allowed to form a union but the fucking landlords are like “hey, you know what would be great? If all of us raised our prices in unison. That would be great.”

JAIL FOR LANDLORDS. JAIL FOR 1000 YEARS.

But no reason to be cruel, we can let them pay rent on their cells so they don't have to feel like hypocrites.

Should have a spot to tip the jailer.

Rent on cells increases 50% each year while maintenance takes 6 months to show up and maybe half-ass fix something. Tip jar is mandatory. If you can’t pay, you get moved to an outdoor pen open to the elements.

It’s a start

Wait authors are prevented from unionizing by law? The hell?

Everyone who is not providing “labor” within a strict definition is not allowed to coordinate with one another about pricing or other contractual details.

The goal is to make sure that commercial entities continue to compete with each other on price, rather than collude to raise prices. It’s not a bad goal, it just needs to be updated for our current century.

Right. Because I'm sure the ever-shrinking number of major publishers *totally* aren't talking to each other about how much they're paying authors.

Remembering the “double delete this email” from the Apple antitrust/coordination suit.

Would you believe I've had publishers get mad at me and accuse me of breaking the law because I encourage other authors to negotiate on their contract terms and help them understand what they're signing? Coordination, clearly. >.<

I can believe that, but also, that’s some horrible bullshit right there.

I had one publisher try to get me kicked out of the web serial networking/author community Discord servers over it. Thankfully instead the server admin took my side in a big way but it'll probably significantly affect my relationships in that space going forward wheee.

TIL that not only does my mom not consider the hundreds or thousands of hours it takes to get a novel ready to publish “labor”, but it also doesn’t meet the statutory definition. Brb, gonna go sit in my corner and weep

Yeah. It’s fucked. It would be labor if they were paying you via W2. But…alas.

Wow. Would it change if, say, you incorporated, and then paid yourself from corporate coffers, and did a W2 each year? The corporation gets paid by publishers, YOU get paid by the corp.

I ask because this is how Sandra and I do it.

But who would you negotiate with? If you’re a W2 employee of your corporation, the terms of your employment are set by your corporation. Unions can’t really negotiate with Company B about employees at Company A.

I would like a word with your mother. Not a loud one. Not shouty. Just a quiet word. (I tried writing a PhD thesis and failed miserably - for various reasons - but I know writing is labour.) Also used to be a high school teacher and my ‘parent needs talking to’ has been awoken.

💖💖💖💖 thank you. Yeah, she has…a way about her sometimes

And I’ve never written a PhD thesis but I’ve known many who have. It may be you dodged a bullet, honestly 😭 it definitely seems like labor, and often very important labor, but not always the best path for all people

Ah. Huh. I would have thought writing was labor. Doing it well is hard at any rate

Well, see, writing *is* labor but you don’t sell time writing. You sell rights to a manuscript. If you are being paid as a writer to work for someone, you can unionize.

Well that at least makes internal sense even if it's a misapplication of an otherwise good rule Thank you for explaining to me

Yeah, it’s even goofier when you realize that Uber drivers can’t unionize. We badly need an update on antitrust law that takes into account power dynamics.

does it matter ... how much you're being paid as a writer? or for how long?

A sad world, where cops can form a union but authors can't.

Well, at least they are finally getting raided by the FBI over this stuff.

What? Why can't authors form a union? Why is sag OK but not book authors? Also tangentially connected is there is a musicians union so why do musicians get screwed at every turn?

It’s a long story that involves grandfathering, but TL;DR SAG members are not licensing their rights in the same way authors are; they’re generally work for hire and are typically considered employment.

Thank you.

And Harlan Crow be like, “Look, we made an app for that!”

I had to check: authors have unions in Norway. They argue the contract of authors with the organization of publishers. I have not checked other countries, but from my search it seemed it was the same in Denmark. Link to article in Norwegian.

Forfatterne bryter forhandlingene - Den norske Forfatterforeningwww.forfatterforeningen.no Selv etter vel ett år med forhandlinger om normalkontrakten, er det fremdeles ingen bevegelse å spore hos Forleggerforeningen. Forleggerne fikk frist til 7. desember med å presentere et reelt tilbud. ...

Oh as an organizer I would love to chat with you sometime about the union we do have in the National Writers Union, and the work we are doing towards securing more official collective bargaining rights!

So, what is SFWA, legally? I thought they had engaged in union-like bagaining.

SFWA is a 501(c)3 charity. The organization advocates for genre writers on issues like copyright, payments, etc as part of its overall mission to support, advance, and promote SFF writing.

*raises hand* Um, what's this about authors aren't allowed to form a union?

I thought the RWA was what you had instead of a union which one reason why I was so angry overwatch happened to it.

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