New MWA Active Membership Criteria

Lee Goldberg, who’s on the board of the Mystery Writers of America, has revealed new changes to the active membership guidelines:

1) An author of books must have received a minimum advance of $1,000, royalties

of $1,000, or a combination of advances and royalties in at least that amount.

2) The initial print run for the author’s work of fiction or non-fiction must be at least 500 copies.

3)  That an author of short stories must have received a cumulative

amount of $200, with only payments of $25 or more counting toward the

total. Scholarly articles or chapters of non-fiction books will be

treated like short stories, for purposes of Active Category

qualification.

4)  That a playwright or an author of screenplays or teleplays must

have received a minimum payment commensurate with the standards and

practices of the Writers’ Guild (film/TV) or Dramatists Guild (stage

plays), and that the work must have been produced.

So for those contemplating joining MWA as an active member, keep these regulations in mind.