Monday, July 07, 2008

Perspective

Just saw this in Variety – an article called Record Wages for Writers.

“Earnings for writers rose 4% to a record $943 million in the fiscal year ended March 31, reflecting accelerated work on feature scripts. Feature work jumped nearly 16% to $502.5 million as studios stockpiled, but TV earnings were hit by the strike, sliding 6.8% to $437.3 million.”

So that’s good news – writers made more money.

Here are some more sobering stats:

“The number of writers employed declined in both categories – off 1.1% in TV to 3,215 and 2.6% in features to 1,899.”

That’s just over 5000 guild writers working in TV and film. In all of America. Total.

So we spec monkeys, all 14 gazillion of us, we need to remember how unlikely it will be for us to hit it. Not to give up hope – no way – but to have some realistic expectations, and use the long odds as an inspiration to write even better. Yes, keep working your ass off. And yes, have a Plan B. And don't kill yourself if you don't get in the club.

My brother has the right mindset. He recently completed his first novel and last week sent out 25 query letters to literary agents. So far, 10 no thanks responses. Which, this morning on the phone, he chuckled at.

It’s hard. Keep trying. And laugh.

Oh, here’s another interesting bit:

“Only 100 of the 150 films projected to start principal photography this year had actually done so.”

So even when you’ve been greenlit, it’s not a done deal. Dear old Greg knows this firsthand.

And this:

“The median average annual earnings for members edged down 0.7% to $60,009 over the four-year period ending with 2007.”

60K median. And that factors in the multi-million-dollar scribes out there. So a lot of people aren’t making much more than their daycare providers.

But really what does this tell us?

We’re an unshakable lot. We are august (and not just John). We have balls, whether we’re boys or girls. We know there’s no chance in hell we’re gonna make it.

But dammit, we’re gonna try.

2 comments:

149films said...

Funny I should read this upon completing a revision of a short that I actually like and beginning a piece of prose (I don't know what to call it in length) that I actually like. Almost KNOWING I and a handfull of others in the universe may ever read it...and I might be the ONLY one who truly "likes" it. But I can't wait to sit on that porch and hear the kids playing while I turn a "her jump rope" to a "the jump rope", knowing I've made some huge step towards "making it".

Good post.
Jeff

Patrick J. Rodio said...

Fuck yeah!