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September 2004

Stand Up and Be Counted! Authors Coalition Survey

By Lisa Collier Cool

ASJA urgently needs your help. This month, we’re asking all members to take a minute or two to fill out a short survey from the Authors Coalition of America (ACA). This information has a crucial payoff for our organization, since it’s used to calculate ASJA’s share of non-title-specific royalties from photocopies made overseas. And these fees really add up: This year, we collected about $33,000 from ACA.

There’s also a major benefit for members, says ASJA’s executive director Brett Harvey, "This money helps us keep dues down, because it covers part of our operating costs." ASJA has not raised dues since 2000, while dramatically improving its services with a greatly expanded and redesigned Web site; more confidential pages in the newsletter; popular new conference features, such as the Personal Pitch sessions; the launch of our private online discussion forums; increasing Contracts Watch’s distribution to over 15,000 freelancers and editors; and beefing up advocacy with our new grievance committee and legal referral network.

Yet many members neglect to fill out this simple questionnaire that’s so vital to ASJA’s well-being. In 2003, when the survey was only available as a paper document sent along with the dues invoice, just 44 percent of you mailed the form back. This year, when we put the survey online, response jumped to 53 percent. But that still means that nearly half of our members aren’t standing up and being counted. As a result, we’re missing out on money that could be used to further strengthen ASJA, making your membership even more valuable.

For the current survey, our goal is to get an 80 percent—or better—response rate. "It’s so easy to fill out: It just takes a few mouse clicks," points out Brett, who urges members to complete the form online, if possible, at www.asja.org/members/ac/ac.php. (ASJA will continue to accept the paper version as well, which will be sent with the dues invoice you’ll receive this month, and can be returned to the office by mail or fax.)

Here’s a quick overview of the ACA. In 1994, Mark Fuerst and Janice Hopkins Tanne, then ASJA’s president and vice-president respectively, knew very little about "reprographic royalties," the legal name for fees collected from libraries, colleges, institutions, and individuals who photocopy copyrighted works. So when ASJA was approached by the Authors Guild (AG) about forming an organization to collect fees from copies made outside of the U.S., says Janice, "We were skeptical at first, but when we heard how much money was involved, we got very excited."

She, Mark and representatives from nine other writers’ groups, including the Authors Guild, spent many hours in meetings to hammer out the details. The result was the Authors Coalition, founded ten years ago. Since then, it has expanded to include 17 creators’ organizations. (For a list of participating organizations and other information on ACA, visit its Web site at www.authorscoalition.org.) The ACA’s mission is to distribute foreign photocopying fees for works for which no specific author can be identified. Since it’s not possible to send this money to the actual creators, foreign reprographic rights organizations send the fees for U.S. writers to the ACA, which divvies them up among its member organizations.

That’s where the survey comes in. Each year, the ACA requires the participating creators’ groups to poll their members to find out how many of them do various types of writing, such as textbooks, translations, magazine articles, or nonfiction books. A complex formula is then used to calculate each organization’s share of the pot. The more members a group has in each category, the larger its share, which is why your responses help boost ASJA’s bottom line.

Along with completing your survey, there’s another good deed you can do this month. On your dues invoice, you’ll see an option to round up your payment to $200, with the extra $5 going to the Writers Emergency Assistance Fund, which gives small grants to writers facing hardship due to illness, old age or extraordinary professional crisis. If every ASJA member made this modest donation, the fund would receive more than $5000, allowing it to assist more needy writers. Or if you’re able to do more, please include an extra contribution with your dues payment, whether it’s another $5 or $500.

Thank you for helping keep ASJA strong and compassionate.

LISA COLLIER COOL of Pelham, New York, is president of ASJA. E-mail the president through www.asja.org/contact.php.