'Rural Writers', Survive France
Nick Inman
Nick Inman announces a new site of service to many of our members.
As part of a project to link up dispersed freelance writers/photographers in France I have started a group called "Rural Writers" on the Survive France networking site:
http://survivefrance.ning.com
I'm not sure what we are going to achieve but I thought it might be a useful first step for us to know of each other's existence and see if there is information we can usefully share. As isolation is a common freelance problem, it may just be useful to have a means of sharing concerns and ideas.
I have deliberately done this outside the framework of the Society of Authors and the NUJ because I know there are many writers who are not members of either organisation but who share similar professional interests. Who knows, perhaps we will attract one or two new people to join the formal structures.
Nick Inman announces a new site of service to many of our members.
As part of a project to link up dispersed freelance writers/photographers in France I have started a group called "Rural Writers" on the Survive France networking site:
http://survivefrance.ning.com
I'm not sure what we are going to achieve but I thought it might be a useful first step for us to know of each other's existence and see if there is information we can usefully share. As isolation is a common freelance problem, it may just be useful to have a means of sharing concerns and ideas.
I have deliberately done this outside the framework of the Society of Authors and the NUJ because I know there are many writers who are not members of either organisation but who share similar professional interests. Who knows, perhaps we will attract one or two new people to join the formal structures.
posted by SOAF Chairman at 2:33 AM
1 Comments:
Nick, you are on the right track in a sense. The real problem is that, as you rightly pointed out, freelance writers live in a relative vacuum. We all want the same things but somehow believe that our individual actions will get us where we want to go. What we need is a very much stronger united front. By all means run local groups but those groups should be part of a cetral structure. Divide and conquer is a very well used tactic. We should be consolidating.
I was heartened by the news that SOAF was considering a self publishing route for authors - not before time! The problems in the past with that route were costs and the taint of not being a 'real publishing'. Technology is leading the way and if writers don't get their collective act together the publishing houses will continue to publish an ever increasing amount of 'personality' driven dross.
One of the major problems facing us, whether we like it or not, is the fact that money as a medium of exchange is dead and unless we writers make our mark soon and gain a sufficiently good 'credit rating' we will become extinct. George Orwell may very well have got it right. The 'Ministry' will determine who writes what. Sound far fetched? Take your eyes off the page and look around.
I live on the every rural sticks but if I was anywhere near Paris I would be up to my elbows getting a website, publishing and distribution network set up.
We, we writers have the power and yet we never tire of handing it publishers who don't give a rat's handbag about talent development. A publisher's first aim is to make money. Nothing wrong with that it is after all a business. But to continually want to make money out of the lowest common denominator is because we allow it and the only way to stop it is to open up in opposition i.e. we self publish in a thoroughly professional manner and compete.
I know nothing about websites apart from helping to design a few in my business life and I am too far away for physical contact but we have the technology: we have computers and I for one am up for doing what I can to support SOFA and bring some sense into the business of publishing.
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