And also, Chuck Wendig is there.
Last year saw Alan Dean Foster take his royalties struggles with Disney public. The author had written several novels tied to the Star Wars franchise, including the novelization of A New Hope as well as the acclaimed Splinter of the Mind’s Eye. While his fight with the company is now close to an end, other franchise fiction writers are also taking exception to the company’s practice in regards to their work.
The issue with Disney regarding back royalties has been resolved. Further news relating to this matter to be released shortly to the public.
Alan Dean Foster, May 1st 2021
Notably, a number of authors have joined together with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America to create the “DisneyMustPay Joint Taskforce”. Among its ranks are the likes of Neil Gaiman, Tess Gerritsen, Mary Robinette Kowal, and for some reason Chuck Wendig wibble wobbled his way in there, too.
Notably, the group has acknowledged that while Foster’s case is (mostly) resolved, there are many others that have not been. They’ve been contacted by numerous writers of franchise works such as Star Wars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spider-Man, and Indiana Jones, as well as a host of other film, television and comic franchises now owned by the Mouse in regards to suddenly dried up royalties.
The#DisneyMustPayJoint Task Force is in making sure writers’ working conditions are fair and safe, but individual negotiations are,rightly, between the authors, their agents, and the rights holder. Hence, the Disney Task Force is looking at structural and systemic concerns.One of those concerns is identifying the authors whose royalty payments may have been missed as a result of acquisition integration. Working with the task force would have streamlined identifying those authors for Disney– since we have current contact information for our various members –and Disney knows when acquisitions happened and for which properties.
The group wants writers who believe that they’ve been unfairly denied royalties or proper recompense on franchises owned by Disney to contact them via their official website.
Source: iO9
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