SFWA Releases the Bud Webster Legacy Kit to Aid Authors in Protecting Their Literary Estates

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA) has released the Bud Webster Legacy Kit to aid professional writers in compiling the resources they need to protect their legacies. The Legacy Kit is available online at the SFWA website and as a PDF

The Legacy Kit was created in honor of Bud Webster, a driving force behind the SFWA Estates Program. It includes a checklist of important documents, sample book inventories and tables, and a layman’s glossary of important terms in addition to explanatory articles on the relevant topics. With this resource, writers can begin to plan what happens to their literary properties after their deaths. These materials will aid in that process, though they do not constitute or replace advice from a lawyer. 

The kit is available for all writers, not just SFWA members, to read or download and can be freely distributed with proper credit given. Other writing organizations are encouraged to share these materials, and the SFWA Legacy Committee members may be approached to develop seminars, workshops, and presentations on this important topic. The material will be updated quarterly to ensure relevance and incorporate new information as needed.

“SFWA hopes the Legacy Kit will help writers and their loved ones prepare their estates and protect their intellectual property in the event of emergencies or passing on,” said SFWA Vice President Tobias S. Buckell.

The Legacy Kit was written, researched, compiled, and produced by the members of the SFWA Legacy Committee, which falls under the umbrella of SFWA’s Estate Project. Committee members include Jean Marie Ward, Jeanne Adams, and Erin Wilcox. Others who contributed time and expertise to the effort include Julian Block, M. L. Buchman, Kim Headlee, James P. Nettles, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lawrence M. Schoen, Jonathan M. Wall, and Diane Whiteside. 

Bud Webster (1952-2016)

“It’s been a privilege to work on the Bud Webster Legacy Kit from its inception under Lawrence M. Schoen, to the creation of the Legacy Committee under Tobias Buckell, to today when it takes its place on the SFWA website alongside the Bud Webster Estate Project,” said Jean Marie Ward, who led the committee. “It’s not just about what happens to a writer’s legacy after their death. It’s also about helping writers get the most value for their creative endeavors while they live.”

A PDF copy of the Legacy Kit is available here.

The SFWA Estate Project promotes and helps preserve the work of those writers who helped build the science fiction and fantasy field, as well as more recently deceased writers, to ensure that legitimate publication of their works can take place without violating copyright protection.

[Based on a press release.]

3 thoughts on “SFWA Releases the Bud Webster Legacy Kit to Aid Authors in Protecting Their Literary Estates

  1. Well done! Bud would have been immensely pleased to know that he’d inspired this project. My congratulations to SFWA and the committee for this achievement and my thanks for so honoring my old friend Bud Webster.

    Curt Phillips

  2. I am SO fricking happy to see this effort finally in place and thank you so much to the volunteers who made it manifest. My only regret is that his wife did not live long enough to see Bud honored.

    Bud was just plain a good guy, with a heart the size of a planet, and did so much for SFWA. Well merited. This really made me smile.

  3. Pingback: Weekly News: 7th December 2020 - Author Help

Comments are closed.