The forgotten conscience

By Naguib Mahfouz

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I've just learned that some publishers who deduct two per cent from book contracts to the benefit of the Writers Guild fail to transfer this money to the guild. I was a founding member of the Writers Guild some 30 years ago and since then every one of my book contracts incorporated this deduction that I expect to be paid to the guild in full. The Writers Guild 1975 statutes require publishers to deduct the two per cent on all book contracts signed, even when authors who are not guild members. The same percentage is put aside in all cinema, theatre and television contracts. The guild uses the income to support writers and promote their interests.

The state offers the Writers Guild financial assistance, as it does with any other professional syndicate. But if you compare the pension writers get from the guild with those that other professionals get from their syndicates, you'd be shocked. Some Writers Guild pensions are as low as LE30 or LE70. Writers are the conscience of the nation, defenders of enlightenment, champions of progress and reform, and they deserve better.

Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.