What Film & TV Writers Actually Make for Their Work

I don't often put quotes from other articles on this blog of mine because it is supposed to be about what I'm doing. However, MELANIE McFARLAND had some very interesting data which might surprise many of you about what writers actually make for their work. Please read the full coverage in Melanie McFarland's "On TV: Forget Hollywood; writers strike is a blow to locals, too" in Seattlepi.com on January 8, 2008 (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/346583_tv09.html):

"Out of some 10,500 film and television writers who are members of the guild, the WGA estimates that 46 percent did not work within the past year. Among those who did work, about 25 percent made less than $37,700. Half don't clear six figures. And when you look at a writer's average annual income over a five-year period, it comes out to about $62,000.

"What people need to realize is that it's not just about the people who are making six figures," said Bainbridge Island-based strike captain Sara B. Cooper. "It's about the people struggling to break in. It's about the people who write that one script, who are working reality shows with no benefits, who work insane hours and get abused by their employers and have no one to intercede for them. It's about a lot of people who just want to get a taste."

Cooper, who says she has been a guild member since 1990, offers her career as an example of that struggle. She lived in Los Angeles until 2001 and has been on the writing staffs of a number of series including "House," "The X-Files," "Chicago Hope," and "Homicide: Life on the Street" (writing under her former married name, Sara Charno).

"I'm not going to lie," Cooper said. "Sometimes we do get paid an obscene amount of money for what seems like very little work. When I was on staff, I was doing really well." During that time, she said, she was supporting a family and saving money for the children she planned to have.

Cooper also wrote the script for 2001's "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," for which she was paid the guild minimum at the time, $95,000. That was before her agents, lawyers, business managers and the government got their cuts.

Since 2001, however, she's been living the life of most WGA members, pitching stories and reaping peanuts. Recently, she said, she came up with several story ideas and pitched them. Then she waited. The studio came back months later and asked her to pitch again, and ended up buying one story. For a little more than six months of work, she says she grossed $16,000."