| |
August 27, 2009: PWAC Quebec member Tracey Arial on the Google Books Settlement
If you're still on the fence about the Google Books Settlement, PWAC Quebec member Tracey Arial's position paper on the topic sums up her reasons on why she decided to participate:
After reading everything I could get my hands on about the settlement, I think that I have very little to lose by being included and potential future income and exposure to lose out on if I opt out. I probably won't get anything for five years, but after that, who knows?
I like the idea of a readily-accessible digital list of books, and opting in gives me the right to determine how much of my book gets displayed and how much people in the US will pay for it. The settlement also creates a really cool copyright rights registry that I think is worthwhile. Also, by being part of the class, I'll make it legally clear that I actively manage my copyright - and that could become important in the future.
The September 4, 2009 deadline to opt-out is almost here. Refer to the following helpful resources on the Google Settlement from Access Copyright to learn more and decide on the right course of action for you:
The Google Settlement Site: the place to visit if you are choosing to opt-out of the settlement or make a claim to your works.
"Why the Google Settlement Matters To You?": a short summary of the settlement written by Access Copyright.
"Overview of the Google Settlement": Access Copyright PowerPoint presentation on the settlement.
Access Copyright staff are also available to help if you have any questions on the settlement or need assistance with navigating the official Google Settlement website. Please call anytime at (416) 868-1620 or toll-free at (800) 893-5777 or send an email.
August 20, 2009: The benefits of professional associations
For those of you out there considering joining PWAC or another professional writers' association, PWAC Manitoba member Doreen Pendgracs' article on Fuel Your Writing may be of interest. One of PWAC's long-term members and active volunteers (she won the PWAC Prairies & the North Volunteer Award in 22009), Doreen writes about the 12 different organizations she has joined and the various benefits of each:
My wallet's getting pretty thick with all the membership cards. But each of these organizations serves its own unique purpose for me. Some have already helped me immensely, and I in turn have enjoyed the volunteer opportunities serving them and their communities, helping me make the creative part of this world a better place in my own small way.
I was surprised when a writer I recently met said that he doesn't belong to any writers' groups! I'm surprised he doesn't feel isolated. Or maybe he likes it that way. Not me. I love feeling connected to so many amazing creators across North America.
Links are provided for the different organizations for readers to learn more. Take your career to the next step and reap the benefits (both tangible and otherwise) - join, make the most of your membership, and count your successes!
August 19, 2009: PWAC Submission to the Standing Committee on Finance
On Friday August 14, 2009, PWAC filed its written pre-budget submission with the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance. In it, PWAC calls for the government to tackle several issues relating to taxation and benefits for freelance cultural workers. The text follows and will be presented in person to the Committee early this autumn.
-------------------------
"...the largest subsidy to the cultural life of Canada comes not from governments, corporations or other patrons, but from the artists themselves, through their unpaid or under paid labour."
- Applebaum-Hebert Report, 1982
Wages and fees for self-employed, freelance writers have remained static for close to thirty years. Creators in Canada annually contribute over $40 billion in economic activity. Canadian writers and artists, on average, make just over $20,000 per year without the benefit of the safety net others enjoy, including EI, extended health benefits and retirement savings plans. The creative community drives innovation, generating concepts and ideas that spread well beyond the entertainment and media clusters to influence, to name a few, science, industry, and, yes, public policy.
PWAC would ask that the Committee recognize the risks taken and extraordinary sacrifices made by the creative sector and consider the following changes to the Canadian Income Tax Act:
- Reintroduce an income tax averaging system that allows artists to spread their tax burden over a period of at least five years, recognizing the fluctuation and unpredictability of income generated from self-employment in the arts. Creators should not be punished for their commitment to their craft and their successes. Prior to 1982, income averaging was an option for all self-employed workers and was introduced on a provincial level by Quebec in 2004, where artists can spread out earned income over seven years.
- Increase basic personal exemption to at least $30,000. Similar measures are in place in the province of Quebec and in Europe (most notably Ireland, where there is a 250,000 euro exemption on income derived from creative output) where vital and successful creative workforces thrive. In 1995, Quebec introduced an exemption on an artist's first $15,000 in copyright royalties, when their income is under $30,000.
- Extend EI and CPP benefits to self-employed artists, add incentives similar to the RESP top-up to encourage contributions to RRSPs, and allow artists to deduct payments for extended health plans from their income tax. These are merely the typical benefits that an enlightened and progressive employer routinely provides their employees. Self-employed artists are denied these benefits and security. We urge the Government of Canada to take on the role of an enlightened employer and support Canadian innovation and creativity.
As a further recommendation, PWAC would request that that Ministries of Finance, Industry, and Heritage commission and fund a in-depth study of the benefits and costs of tax reform for artists such as proposed herein. Long-standing models for such initiatives exist throughout Europe and in Quebec and could be used to provide reliable data. PWAC would be willing to take a lead role overseeing such a study in partnership with representatives from all artistic disciplines.
Thanks your for allowing us the opportunity to voice our concerns and express our ideas. If Canada is to remain a leader in sustainable, new technologies, we must actively support the imagination and entrepreneurship in which our artists excel.
The Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC), established in 1976, is the national organization representing over 650 freelance writers and journalists in Canada.
Submitted by: David Johnston, Executive Director, Professional Writers Association of Canada
cc: Tony Clement, Minster of Industry; James Flaherty, Minister of Finance;
James Moore, Minister of Heritage and Official Languages
August 17, 2009: Moncton Writers Present Fall Workshops on Photography, Editing
The Moncton PWAC Chapter will host two skills-building workshops this fall on photography and editing.
Renowned British Columbia photographer John Watson will present the first workshop on October 3 at the Moncton Public Library, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. "Take Photos that Sell" is a full-day session that provides the information and techniques for creating better photographs. The event is tailored for beginning photographers and writers/journalists who want to use their images to accompany articles, enhance a website or build a stock library.
Watson will discuss key elements for good photos and provide information on how to sell photos, what magazine editors are looking for, submission requirements, and more. There will be a presentation followed by a shooting session with 'assignments' and critiques.
Watson began his professional career as a weekend photographer for the local newspaper in Charlottetown, when he was just 15. After receiving his basic education at Holland College, John opened Imagemaker Photographic Studio in 1989. Four years later, he relocated his business to Vancouver, BC, but maintains ties with PEI and often returns to the region on assignment.
John's photographs have appeared on the covers of books and magazines in Hong Kong, the UK, USA, Canada and Europe, and have graced the inside pages of many publications around the world. To view his work, visit his website at imps.ca
Cost is $85 and includes refreshments. Participants are responsible for their own lunch. Payment is required in advance. Please pre-register by emailing your name and telephone number to info@monctonwriters.ca and put "Photography Workshop" in the subject line. Payment is accepted by cheque made payable to "Moncton Chapter PWAC" and mailed to: Deborah Carr, 143 Taylor Lane, Hillsborough, NB, E4H 3C7. The deadline for registration is September 25. Class size limited to 15, so register early to avoid disappointment.
The second editing workshop, cheekily called "The Secrets of Sin (oops.. Syntax)" will be led by by Frances Peck at the Moncton Press Club on November 6 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.This seminar looks at syntax from various angles, including how to shape it for different documents and readers.
Topics covered include subordination and coordination, periodic versus cumulative sentences, proximity of subject and verb, echo words, and special techniques such as ellipsis and isolation. This is the fourth in a series of very popular editing workshops Peck has given in the Maritimes (which means they fill up fast!).
Cost is $150 for members of provincial writers' associations and $170 for general public. Price includes the seminar, workbook, coffee breaks, and lunch. Advance payment is required to confirm registration. Registration deadline is October 23. Seating is limited to 25 participants, so register early to avoid disappointment.
For any queries, please email info@monctonwriters.ca or call Deborah Carr at (506) 734-2367.
Visit the Moncton Writers website at www.monctonwriters.ca for information on these and other upcoming workshops and events of interest to writers and editors.
August 12, 2009: Ontario Principal Approves Plea to Pull Pulitzer-Winner Novel from Grade 10 Reading List
The latest title to be removed from a school reading list is not an unfamiliar one. Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird has, once again, been contested as appropriate reading material, this time for the Grade 10 class at St. Edmund Campion Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario.
While the parent whose child is to enter Grade 10 at the school in the fall has yet to provide the required written complain, the Principal, Kevin Maguire, made a decision regardless. Language was once again cited as the complainant's issue with the book. The Toronto Star writes:
"The parent was concerned about some of the language in the book," said Bruce Campbell, spokesman for the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board.
Principal Kevin McGuire made the decision at the end of the school year to resolve the complaint quickly. The book, a fixture on high-school reading lists across the country, will still be available in the library, said Campbell.
"The school administration was aware of the parent's concern and made the decision to use another board-approved resource that teaches the same concept for the coming year," said Campbell.
Considering the vast multicultural make-up of the Brampton community the school serves, one wonders which "board-approve resource" would feature acceptable language while still administering a narrative voice appropriate to the serious civil rights injustices of the particular time and place the book illustrates.
In a typically eloquent exerpt, Franklin Carter of the Book and Periodical Council's Freedom of Expression Committee discussed this recent censorship effort by the Dufferin-Peel Catholic School Board:
"There will always be a small number of people to take offence to words, images and ideas in books and think that the best way to protect society is to remove them... But in the long run, it is illiberal, arbitrary - and censorship usually fails. People will read what they want to read anyway," he said."
While this PWAC blogger does not question the ingenuity and determination of young adults to access information and the reading material they desire, one wonders the effects of shielding them from Mockingbird. This is, after all, the book that first taught many children and youth about the world, its justices and injustices.
How much later will those lessons come when a youth is protected from such a wonderful novel?
August 10, 2009: PWAC Members: Not Your Average Writers
PWAC has always emphasized the versatilities of its members. In addition to being accomplished professional writers, many PWAC members are also workshop leaders, radio personalities, and experts in a dizzying array of topics. Take, for example, new PWAC member Mirella Amato, a speaker and judge of all things beer. Amato is the focus of today's Toronto Star article about women as the forgotten beer consumer.
To learn more about PWAC members, visit www.writers.ca, the simple-to-use database of Canadian professional writers. Search for a writer, view detailed profile information, and find the knowledge and expertise you require for your next project.
August 08, 2009: BCAMP to host Magazine Writers' Craft Fair
BCAMP, the British Columbia Association of Magazine Publishers, will host the Magazine Writers' Craft Fair on Saturday, August 15, 2009 at Simon Fraser University. According to the BCAMP website, the event promises to be:
The essential professional development event for established, emerging or aspiring writers who are interested in crafting their careers in magazine writing. Industry professionals share their knowledge in an intimate and interactive forum.
Sounds great! To sweeten the deal, BCAMP is offering a discounted rate of $35 for students and members of BCAMP, Federation of BC Writers, Canadian Authors Association, The Writers' Union of Canada and PWAC. Non-members pay $45.
To learn more and to register online, visit www.bcamp.bc.ca/writerscraft.
| |
