I don’t know the situation regarding residuals for others in the production team. I believe that others, including directors, also get residuals. But I would suspect that there are others who should get residuals, who don’t.

That’s a good point. And obviously, I’m not in a position to disagree. But considering that the book is your piece of art and yours alone from characters you created (I assume,) and out of your head only (I assume,) isn’t it somehwhat different. Especially, when the TV writers are creating content for TV shows that they didn’t originate, and just as well characters they didn’t create, which was only one part of the production process. And with that said, why doesn’t the entire crew see residuels?

I’m not trying to prove a point. I’m just asking, as a writer from your point of view isn’t it very very different? And does that factor into your opinion at all.

I count on royalties to feed my family. On those rare occasions that I have agreed to write books without royalties, I have asked for a larger upfront fee to compensate me for all the time and effort that goes into my work.

If my publisher were to start distributing my work online without royalty payments, that would be tantamount to theft, as far as I’m concerned. I work damned hard to earn my royalties. They are part of fair compensation for the value that I help to create.

Television and film writers deserve no less. And that’s why I support them.

No. I know. I was referencing you when I was addressing the other guy.

I understand where you were coming from. Thank you. Sorry for the confusion.

Represent!

Wow, you need a better union. :-)

A lot of the anti-strike comments here seem to be suggesting that screenwriters getting residuals is a rare and magical gift that they should be supremely grateful for. In truth, it’s a long-established custom in our society that creative artists receive a percentage whenever their work is resold. Novelists, musicians, songwriters, and playwrights, just to name a few examples.

You may not agree with that system, or you may think that plumbers and pizza makers deserve the same deal – and that’s fine if you feel that way. But don’t be thinking them greedy screenwriters invented it. :)

What screenwriters DON’T get (and all of the above do) is the right to retain the copyright on the works they create. The studios get the copyright to all the creative work involved in making a movie or tv episode, they need that in order to be able to sell it. That’s just how the system works, and nobody’s arguing with that.

But it means that while J.K Rowling owns the copyright to the Harry Potter books she writes, and makes a little money off of each copy sold – Steve Kloves doesn’t own the copyright to his scripts for the Harry Potter movies, Warner Brothers does So without an ironclad contract, Kloves would have no way to claim his rightful percentage of the massive profits the movies bring in.

And that’s if he’s lucky enough for the studio to admit they made a profit. Joss Whedon’s been having a lot of fun in interviews by having people guess how much he’s made in residuals for co-writing Toy Story. The answer is $0.00, because according to Disney, Toy Story didn’t make money.

The bottom line is that residuals are not “bonuses”. Screenwriters actually accept a lower fee than they should get up front, in exchange for residuals. That’s how they share the risk with the studios – if the movie they wrote tanks, they don’t get the rest of their fee.

And if that writer’s up-front fee seems amazingly high to you, remember that it’s not a weekly paycheck – a movie or TV writer who sells one or two scripts in a year is a rarity, and selling one brings no guarantee whatsoever that they’ll ever sell another. (Just one example – William Goldman won an Oscar for writing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and then didn’t make another sale for five years.)

Bear in mind also that a screenwriter typically spends months writing a screenplay, and if no one buys it (and usually, nobody does) they worked all those months for free.

It’s a hard enough life to be a working writer in Hollywood, without studios trying to REDUCE your residuals. Which is what is happening nowaways, and that’s what motivated the writers to strike.