Writers Have Little to Be Happy about with 2012 WGAw Earnings Report

The annual WGAw earnings report for 2012 (reporting 2011 earnings) came out today, and there isn't a whole lot of good news.  In fact, mostly the numbers are down compared to 2010, and the worst in six years of reporting.

This summary from David Lieberman, Deadline:

"The number of writers reporting earnings fell 2.3% to 4,338 — the lowest level in at least six years. The biggest category, television, was up a slight 0.4% to 3,320. That was more than outweighed by the 8.1% drop in screen writers to 1,562. Meanwhile, writers’ total reported earnings dropped 5.9% to $911.7M, the lowest level since the 2008 recession, although the WGA says the numbers could improve as late reports come in. Television writers generated $559.2M, -1.2% from the all-time high set in 2010. But screen writers saw $349.1M, -12.6%. 'While late reports will offset this decline somewhat, the last two years have resulted in 15% fewer writers employed in screen, earning 20% less in the aggregate,' the WGA says. The picture’s mixed for the residuals that the union collected. TV was up 14.0% to $183.1M helped by reuse of programs in foreign territories and an increase in the number of shows made for cable. But theatrical films fell 9.8% to $128.5M — largely due to a 23.9% drop in home video to nearly $30M ... "
(Deadline, David Leiberman July 2, 2012)

Here are some grids to illustrate the sadness:

 


Bottom line, this only underscores what I've been saying about the importance for screenwriters to diversify and move into other areas of writing, especially online and self-publishing e-books (see my earlier post: So...You Want to Be a Screenwriter—Snap Out of It!).  If you want a life as a working writer, and one that finds real satisfaction and appreciation from readers (real readers, not Hollywood gatekeeper-readers)—then, diversify baby.

Now, go be a brilliant e-book writer!