SFWA President Kate Ristau:
Tasting Notes from Recent Advocacy, Education, and Outreach

Some days, the publishing industry is like a nice cup of tea: warm, supportive and just the right amount of comforting. Other days, it burns your tongue and scalds your hands. It’s overly sweet or way too bitter. 

Let’s take the metaphor one step further and spill the tea, shall we?

This week, the judge in the Anthropic case ripped apart the proposed settlement in the class action lawsuit. When his reasoning came through, I saw echoes of Jason Sanford’s Genre Grapevine. Sanford discussed how the settlement works off minimal definitions for which books to include in the class. 

The class leaves some authors with an empty cup. 

I am personally one of those authors, holding traditionally published books in my hands that were never copyrighted by my publisher. (If you’ve been wondering about copyright and how it works, you’ll want to check out the latest piece by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Presents, Protecting Your Intellectual Property, which covers the basics, the myths, the scams, and more.)

Sanford and Strauss are concerned about copyright and liabilities, and so are we. The judge read those same tea leaves, and he argued that the settlement is being “forced down the throat of authors.”

That is tough to swallow. 

I want to assure you that, at SFWA, we hear that complaint, that frustration, and that gross tea. We are meeting with our own counsel to discuss the gaps in the class definition, while also working on informing eligible class members about their eligibility. We don’t want any authors to miss out on being compensated for the use of their work.

While all this shakes out, we’re also heading to Washington, D.C., where Isis and I will be meeting with congressional staff and lawmakers to discuss how these cases impact authors, in addition to other concerns such as book bans and the future of publishing.

When we are there, we invite you to join us for Tea in D.C. this Monday, September 15, from 5-6PM at Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse, 201 F St NE, Washington, D.C.

I’ll pour your first cup. We’ll chat about copyrights and claims. And importantly, we will talk about the work you are doing and how SFWA can help you!

It’s going to be a great weekend on the East Coast. Make sure you check out the full lineup of SFWA events at the Baltimore Book Festival.

I’ll leave the tea metaphor to steep for a bit and just say that this situation is complicated. We think your work never should have been stolen. We know this is impacting thousands of SFWA members. We want you to be paid for your work. 

So, for now, make sure you fill out the contact form if eligible for the class action, and join us in D.C. if you can. Some tempests can’t be contained in their teapots, but we’re here for you in any storm.

Keep writing – and we’ll keep putting the kettle on.

Kate Ristau

SFWA President