The Business Side of Being a Writer
Taking care of yourself is the first, and maybe only, rule
This is a sad story. Wait, let me start first with the happy part of the story, since that’s relevant to the sad part. The other day, quite unexpectedly, I got a large, thick envelope from Anthem Blue Cross, informing me that I had qualified for health insurance through the Writers’ Guild. Hallelujah! This caught me by surprise, to say the least. I’ve belonged to the Writers’ Guild for many years, but I had earned only a trifling amount on Guild-qualified projects (that is, screenwriting for film or television) so I had never reached the threshold for perks like a pension or health insurance. The most I ever got were screener DVDs during award season and invitations to a few lectures by directors.
I always wondered about it, about this mythical golden embrace of the Guild, since many writers — most famously Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne — quested after that insurance package so strenuously that they took on Hollywood work just to qualify for it. I never gave it much thought because I never imagined I’d earn enough in Hollywood to even come close. I dutifully paid my quarterly dues in the Guild to stay in the union, but that was it.
I’ve been self-employed for decades. No one has paid for my health insurance, or into a pension fund…
