A course offered by the Australian Society of Authors.
Developing your creative ability is of course, important, but it is only part of the picture. To have financial stability you need to equip yourself with the business skills to develop and grow your artistic career. Understanding your rights, knowing how to negotiate a fair deal, establishing a good working relationship with your publisher and understanding your worth as a creator are essential aspects of your business. Join us for the day to discover how to take charge of your career and create a viable,and enjoyable, small business.
9-5pm, Online via Zoom video conference
9-10 am
What’s Your Work Worth? (Juliet Rogers/Olivia Lanchester)
When is an offer fair and when should you run for the hills?
Industry standard payments explained
What you can do to maximise those standard payments
When do you walk away?
Learn the differences between a traditional publishing agreement, a vanity agreement and everything in between
10-10.30 am
To Agent or not to Agent? (Juliet Rogers/ Olivia Lanchester)
Mover, mouthpiece, manager... and money!
Pros and cons of having a literary agent
How to divvy up the money
How to appoint an agent - so that you're both protected
When and how to walk away from an agent
How to resolve a dispute with an agent
10.30-10.45am
Morning Tea
10.45- 11.45am
Don’t Get Pulped, Get Prepared (Ian McDonald, Simpsons Solicitors)
How to avoid being sued
When is defamation an issue and how can you reduce that risk?
Can you use real people in your story? What about references to real businesses and brands?
Can you set your novel in a real place such as the National Library or the Opera House?
Is truth always a winnable defence?
Does fictionalisation remove the risk?
11.45am-12.45pm
The 5 “Ps” of successful negotiation: (Juliet Rogers and Olivia Lanchester)
How do you resolve a dispute with your publisher, without losing their goodwill?
Preparation
Priorities
Politeness
Patience
Perseverance
12.45-1.30pm Lunch
1.30-2pm
Demystifying Your Royalty Statement (Juliet Rogers and Olivia Lanchester)
Participants are invited to send in their royalty statements for discussion (personal details and amounts will be redacted) to asa@asauthors.org with ‘Royalty Statements’ in the subject line
What should appear on a royalty statement
How to read what does appear
When to expect a statement
What to do when one doesn’t arrive or you think there is an error
Why it is often preferable to opt for a royalty based on RRP rather than net receipts
2-3pm
Where to Hoard Your Acorns (Matthew Tucker, Creative Crunchers)
Matt will help guide members through the many issues they face when trying to run a creative business – what to claim, when to claim it, how to handle substantiation requirements, tips and traps, handling advances and royalties, GST, income averaging, non-commercial loss provisions and planning for tax payments.
What can you claim and when can you claim it?
How do you handle advances?
What about superannuation?
Do you need to register for GST?
Do you pay tax on overseas royalties?
How to get through the long famine between the feasts?
3-3.15pm Break
3.15- 4pm Diversifying Your Talents to Make a Living (Sunil Badami)
Sunil is a writer, performer, broadcaster, academic, mentor and storyteller.
Identify your skills
Where could these be used?
How do you build up the courage to try something different?
4-5pm Drinks
About the presenters
Juliet Rogers has had a career in the book publishing industry in both New Zealand and Australia. She was Managing Director of Random House NZ, a position she held for some nine years before migrating across the Tasman and becoming Managing Director of Random House Australia. From 2002 to 2011, Juliet was CEO of Murdoch Books and since leaving that role has been running her own business, The Wild Colonial Company, publishing books, high-end gift stationery and mentoring and consulting within the wider book industry. Juliet chaired Booksellers New Zealand for a number of years and was President of the Australian Publishers Association for three years until 2009. She has also been Chair of the book industry charity, the Indigenous Literacy Foundation for the past five years.
Olivia Lanchester is the Legal Services Manager at the Australian Society of Authors (ASA). Previously, she worked as an intellectual property lawyer in private practice and as a freelance editor. Olivia runs the ASA's Contract Assessment Service and has reviewed hundreds of publishing contracts during her time with the ASA. She is passionate about informing ASA members on their rights and optimising the contractual position of writers and illustrators. Olivia is deeply interested in copyright reform and helps to coordinate the ASA's advocacy on copyright, unfair contracts and digital lending rights.
Ian McDonald (MA (HONS), LLB, Dip. Ed.) has been a Special Counsel with Simpsons Law Firm since April 2011. Prior to joining Simpsons, Ian was the principal of a boutique copyright law firm and before that worked for 17 years specialising in copyright at the Australian Copyright Council at which he became a Senior Lawyer. Ian is a well-known and popular speaker and writer on legal issues relevant to the arts and publishing, including defamation. Since the beginning of 2014, Ian has also lectured in “Cultural Property, Ethics and Law” in the Master of Art Administration at the University of New South Wales Art & Design (what was the College of Fine Arts), covering – among other things – topics as diverse as sedition, privacy, defamation, obscenity, censorship and governance issues relating to museums and galleries.
Sunil Badami has done lots of things to pay the bills while he makes his art. From managing a pub on a mountain on the Isle of Man to a sex shop in Kings Cross, he’s had more jobs than haircuts! But while such work experiences can make for great material, and can save the headspace you want to keep creating, how can you use your creative skills and talents in ways that help you not only do what you do best, but in ways that can offer more productive and better paid opportunities to do so? What are the opportunities for writers seeking flexibility that don’t involve just making coffee? In an engaging, entertaining, enlightening and far ranging discussion, writer, academic, broadcaster and ASA mentor Sunil Badami will tell you some stories from his varied career and how he’s managed to find lots of different, interesting and lucrative opportunities, as well as offering some insights and tips on how you find more ways to help support yourself and your creative work.
Matt Tucker CPA is Principal @ Creative Crunchers, an arts and entertainment industry specialist accounting firm located in Fortitude Valley, Qld. He enjoys looking after a range of clients including individuals, partnerships, companies and trusts and has a particular interest in structuring, Film + TV production companies and their casts and crew. He has served on the boards of PlayLab and Radio 4ZzZ, volunteered for Arts Law Centre of Qld and Transit Lounge and spoken for YAQ, QPIX, MEAA, QMusic, BigSound, APRA/AMCOS, InTune Music Conference, Griffith University Film School, New York Film Academy and Music Industry College.
The ASA wanted to extend the invite to SCBWI by offering you to join them for ASA member prices. If you are interested, the link to the special is here.