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UNA calls for solidarity strike with Writers Guild Posted In: Announcements
In solidarity with our brothers and sisters in pen at the Writers Guild of America (West and East coasts), by this declaration I hereby call a STRIKE by all UNA members! UNA, Unpublished Novelists of America, may be the largest unofficial union stopping work in sympathy with WGA. Though a virtual community, our numbers are vast indicated by the number of writing classes, MF programs, and spa-oriented writing vacations advertised in Poets And Writers magazine. As a self appointed spokesperson for UNA, I hereby ask all members and affiliate members to cease and desist writing first drafts, tenth drafts or other rewrites, and put on indefinite hold any attempts to market (to agents or publishers) any novels, complete or incomplete. We are asking members to put on hold any actions associated with self-publishing (either print or P.O.D.)
Furthermore, we are working closely with representatives of UPA, Unpublished Poets of America, to expand our work stoppage to include that most ancient and meaningful form, the poem. Though we feel that the impact of our sympathy strike might at first be mistaken as “good news” by those agents and publishers supposedly inundated by so-called “slush,” inevitably as the months (and possibly years) tick away, we predict a quiet panic developing in the publishing world. How long can they rely on “already published” authors? How long can the waning market for fiction remain “exciting” without some previously unpublished UNA member breaking out to become the genius of the day? We, who count among our members all FGAFs (Future Geniuses of American Fiction) are as important as any directors or production union sitting home and writing blogs in sympathy with WGA.
Look at it this way: if farm produce could strike wouldn’t it also be “funny” if corn went out on strike? Sound like a story in The Onion? Maybe so, but sooner rather than later we’d all feel it, subtly at first (like the impact of ethanol on the price of vegetables), but the discomfort would grow into serious pain. Some joke indeed! Let them laugh all the way to starvation! Did people laugh when the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg joined the Allied Powers to fight against the Nazis in World War II? I think not. So laugh not at UNA (soon to be joined by UPA) and revel in our support!
