A. D. Coleman, a founding member of the NWU, believes in sharing the wealth of experience he's gained as an award-winning freelance writer of more than 3,000 essays and eight books since 1967. That's why he teaches two NWU workshops to educate and empower journalists in New York.

The first workshop, called the "Contract Training Seminar," is based on the Journalism Division's model contract and deals primarily with copyright and contract negotiations. Allan puts his spin on the topic by calling it "Playing Hardball," and bases his pitch on Alex Karrass' advice: "You don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate." Says Allan, "I want my writing colleagues to know what copyright is, where it comes from historically, what rights they have automatically as makers of intellectual property, and what they're giving up if they sign those rights away. I want them to understand that an ultimatum disguised as a nonnegotiable contract remains an ultimatum, and that they need to develop some principled resistance to being bullied."

Allan devised the second workshop, "The Joys of Subsidiary Rights Licensing," when he realized that the union, while encouraging members to retain their copyright, also needed to educate them about how to benefit from those rights. When he initiated the course, Allan was earning about 20 to 25 percent of his writing income -- from $6,000 to $8,000 a year -- from relicensing his essays. (Allan has also taught the criticism and history of photography part-time since 1970, and lectures both nationally and internationally.)

"Subsidiary-rights licensing challenges participants to rethink the status of everything they've ever written and published -- to think of it as inventory and to treat it as if it merited a long public life by recycling and multipurposing it," says Allan. "One participant told me recently that in the first year after taking the seminar he made $10,000 from repurposing his material based on my strategies; that's the kind of success story that gladdens my heart."

Raised by writers who became publishers -- Frances and Earl M. Coleman founded Plenum Publishing Corp. -- Allan "took it for granted that writing was something one did." In addition to winning a number of prestigious grants and awards for his photography writing, Allan recently received his first grant for creative writing from the Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island. His first book of poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction was published last year.

Though Allan's work doesn't leave him much time for NWU activism, he was determined to find a way to make a contribution to the union. Teaching the two journalism seminars twice a year is the perfect solution. Journalists beware: Taking Allan's workshops could help you increase your income and enhance your career.

(Republished from Between the Lines, the newsletter of the New York Local of the National Writers Union, Vol. XIX, no. 7, July-August 2001, p. 3. By permission of the author. Copyright © 2001 by Susan E. Davis. All rights reserved.)

Susan E. Davis, co-chair of the NY Local of the National Writers Union, wrote this piece for its newsletter, Between the Lines, for which she serves as editor. She writes about graphic design for HOW magazine, has published four books (The Cabin was issued by The Taunton Press on Sept. 15, 2001), and is working on a novel, "Swimming Upstream." Contact: sednyc@earthlink.net.

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