I’ve blogged before about why I think you should join the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain.
But I think it’s worth going through it one more time.
- They have a very good pension scheme
- They will have their lawyers look through your contracts in order to prevent you from being fucked
- There is a welfare fund to assist you should you fall on hard times.
- They negotiate minimum rates for theatre, television, film, and radio
- They will give you advice and help on all aspects of writing
You could say: Well, I’m doing all right on my own, why do I need them?
Because your position becomes more powerful, not less, when you are part of a group. Because – and I hate to have to be the one to break it to you – producers and directors do not have your best interests at heart. They have their own. And that’s as it should be.
Anyway, this Wednesday, 13th May 2009, the Guild is celebrating its 50th Anniversary. So there’s going to be a special offer.
If you want to join the Guild for the first time, either as a Full Member (must have sold something) or a Candidate Member (still working on that), you can do it for just fifty quid this year.
To become a member you need to call the Guild’s Membership Team on 01952 214 063 between 9.30am and 5.30pm on 13th May 2009 and quote the WGGB Anniversary Offer. The offer’s strictly limited to 50 people, though. You know. Being a 50th anniversary deal and all.
It’s a good deal.
7 responses to “Special Offer”
Hi Piers,
I thought those negotiations were done by your agent?
If you’ve got one, you should probably let your agent take point on that, as they’ll also be able to handle the negotiating side.
If you don’t have an agent, then the alternatives are to pay a lawyer, or get the Guild to look through it.
I wouldn’t recommend signing a contract without having some sort of legal professional go through it though.
ok thanks. so if i have an agent, what are the benefits of joining the guild?
pension schemes don’t seem to be worth anything these days.
what’s in it for me? i’d love to join, i just want to know what i’d be getting for my fifty quid.
do they do networking and social events that aren’t available to the general public etc? do they do mentoring schemes? is there opportunity to learn from other more experienced artists in your field or in other fields such as novels etc?
i’m asking this because it’s never been quite clear to me what it is and what it does apart from I know they’ll look at contracts and they send a weekly newsletter.
curious!
They do networking and social events. Sometimes they’re guild-only, more usually they’re cheaper for guild members.
There are no official mentoring schemes that I’m aware of, but it’d be easy enough to set up. Will have a word.
And as well as reading through contracts, the guild lawyers will enforce them if a producer tries to get away with not paying you.
That’s worth the money in itself.
cool. cheers for that.
I signed up! Thanks for the heads up, Piers. (I’ve been meaning to join for ages but couldn’t quite justify the £150 – I reckon that this way I can see if I think it’s worth it on the cheap and rejoin next year if it is.)
Oh – one thing about having an agent: I do have one, but he doesn’t handle a lot of my bread-and-butter work, which tends to be relatively low value work for hire. There are times when I know I would have used the Guild’s legal services if I’d been a member…
Gaahhh!!!! Guess when I read this… yep – the 14th of May. DRAT!