Anticipating Professional Issues

Writers hope that there will be an audience for what they write and that they can get paid for their writing. To come full circle, we should remember the opening chapter of the book in which we made the point that scripts are blueprints, instructions to a production team, and that audiences don’t generally read scripts. Although writing may begin as a purely creative act, at some point the question arises: What is the value of this writing? If writing is a professional skill, then how much is it worth? What is someone paying you for? What are your obligations? Can you support yourself by writing for one or other of the visual media?

The answers to these questions can vary according to the market sector in which you choose to practice your craft. Broadly, the writing market divides between the entertainment world, the nonprofit world, and the corporate world. The first is perhaps more glamorous, more competitive, and more highly paid but is also a great deal riskier than the second and third, which is less familiar to most would-be writers. In any of these worlds, the overwhelming majority of writers is freelance.

The essential transaction between a writer and any media enterprise involves a transfer of ownership or an assignment of copyright. This is governed by the law of the country in which the contract is made and by the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 1886 to which 196 countries are signatory.