LOS ANGELES - The power to put the entertainment industry back to work was in the hands of writers Tuesday as guild members voted on whether to end their three-month strike by accepting the terms of a tentative contract.

Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America, East, said he was confident the vote would end the walkout as soon as Wednesday.

Writers were lined up when the doors of the Writers Guild Theatre in Beverly Hills opened for voting.

Michael Perry, a writer for "Persons Unknown" and other crime dramas, said the proposed deal made him hopeful the guild and studios could be "partners in a growing pie" of Internet revenue.

"I want them to be fabulously, filthy rich. I just want my piece," Perry said.

Not all writers were ready to call off the walkout that halted television production, idled thousands of workers and devastated the Golden Globe Awards.

"If this deal passes, it wasn't worth it," said Alfredo Barrios, co-executive producer and a writer on the TV series "Burn Notice."

"If I had known three months ago, I wouldn't have voted to authorize the strike."

In New York, Warren Leight, a guild member and executive producer on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," said the hard-fought deal deserves approval because it provides more money than studios initially offered.

The money is for shows streamed on the Internet, among other gains.

Under the agreement, writers would get a maximum flat fee of about $1,200 for streamed programs in the deal's first two years and then get two per cent of a distributor's gross in year three.

Voting started in New York before West Coast guild members began casting ballots later in the day.

Winship said members were well-informed about the tentative contract agreement with studios that was approved Sunday by the guild's board of directors.

A number of writers voiced support for the agreement during information meetings over the weekend.

"I think it's a very informed vote. They've had a few days to think about this," Winship said before the New York voting started at a Times Square hotel.

"And they've had 14 weeks on the picket line."

Member approval would restart TV production immediately and remove a boycott threat from this month's Oscars.