Links of Interest

CRAFT: A nice article on voice.

http://www.genreality.net/voice

WRITING QUERIES: Agent Jessica Faust talks about why some queries work and some don’t.

http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/04/query-letters.html

She also discusses how long you should keep querying.

http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-long-to-query.html

LINE EDITING: Freelance editor Maryanne Miller talks about how to make your writing stronger during a rewrite.

http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2009/04/line-editing-part-two.html

The First Sale Doctrine and Ebooks

This is a very general overview for readers and authors, not an exhaustive legal discussion on the subject. If you want an exhaustive overview complete with all the legalese and laws, I suggest the articles I have links to at the bottom.



The First Sale Doctrine Defined:

“First Sale Doctrine refers to the right of a buyer of a material object in which a copyrighted work is embodied to resell or transfer the object itself. Ownership of copyright is distinct from ownership of the material object. Section 109 of the Copyright Act permits the owner of a particular copy or phonorecord lawfully made under the Copyright Law to sell or otherwise dispose of possession of that copy or phonorecord without the authority of the copyright owner.

Commonly referred to as the "first sale doctrine," this provision permits such activities as the sale of used books. The first sale doctrine is subject to limitations that permit a copyright owner to prevent the unauthorized commercial rental of computer programs and sound recordings.” US Government Publication 04-8copyright.

http://www.cendi.gov/publications/04-8copyright.html


One of the ongoing discussions about copyrighted ebooks is whether the “first sale doctrine” can be applied to a digital book. Can a person sell a used copyrighted ebook?

Right now, the US Government as well as most other governments say no. (see iTunes White Paper link below)

Look at the US Government definition above to see one of the reasons why. First sale doctrine only applies to a “material object” like a paper book. A copyrighted digital book isn’t an object, it’s content, and content can’t be copied and, therefore, can’t be resold.

Also, copyrighted digital content like music, computer software, and ebooks aren’t technically sold, they are leased according to the licensing terms a person agrees to when they put their money down for the song, etc.

At ebook distributor sites like Fictionwise.com, the terminology “sell” and “buy” are used, but in their FAQs, they say you are only leasing an ebook, not buying the content, so you can’t resell it, etc.

The difference between “lease” and “buy” is also used as a justification of why an ebook can’t be resold.

All those who say that “first sale doctrine” applies to copyrighted ebooks are wrong from a legal perspective.

Only lawsuits, the courts, or Congress can change this, but most of the money is on the side of the copyright leasers -- the publishers, music and movie companies, etc., so I doubt “first sale doctrine” will ever apply to copyrighted ebooks.




RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader Locked Up: Why Your Books Are No Longer Yours, Columbia Science and Technology Law Review.

http://www.stlr.org/2008/03/amazon-kindle-and-sony-reader-locked-up-why-your-books-are-no-longer-yours/

Explores the various issues of sale versus license, first sale doctrine, etc.

iTunes White Paper

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/media/uploads/81/iTunesWhitePaper0604.pdf

The last sections explain various governments’ stances on first sale doctrine issues.

US Government Publication 04-8copyright.

http://www.cendi.gov/publications/04-8copyright.html

Copyright, as well as “first sale” and “fair use,” defined and explained.

{NOTE: A blog entry is copyrighted material, but for this blog entry, I give you my permission to copy it, pass it around, post it on your blog, or whatever. I’d appreciate a link back, but that isn’t necessary. You are also free to remove my name.

If you change any of the content, you must remove my name.}

Links of Interest

CRAFT: The Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do) Excellent list of things to remove from your writing to make it stronger.

http://www.holtuncensored.com/hu/the-ten-mistakes/

MARKET: Fantasy short story anthology. Marion Zimmer Bradley’s SWORD AND SORCERESS is now open for submissions for the the next volume. This is a very specialized type of short story so be sure to check the guidelines and read some recent past issues.

http://mzbworks.home.att.net/s24.htm

ROYALTY STATEMENT: Lynn Viehl talks about the facts and figures for one of her books which reached the top 20 on the New York Times bestseller list, and she shows her royalty statement. This is a must-see.

http://www.genreality.net/the-reality-of-a-times-bestseller

MARKET NEWS: Agent Kristin Nelson blogs on what UK children’s editors are looking for.

http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2009/04/what-uk-childrens-editors-want.html

CRAFT: The importance of dramatic “punch lines” in writing fiction.

http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2009/04/dramatic-punch-lines.html

CRAFT: How to use setting as a character.

http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2009/04/dramatic-punch-lines.html

BUSINESS OF PUBLISHING: Lou Aronica--publisher, author, and editor, blogs on his new small publishing company, The Story Plant, about the difficulties of building new authors’ careers and the Catch-22’s inherent in the publishing business.

http://www.ninc.com/blog/index.php/archives/meet-publisher-lou-aronica

BUSINESS OF PUBLISHING: The Rejecter blogs on why a publishing contract can be cancelled.

http://rejecter.blogspot.com/2009/04/death-of-contract.html

The Death of Copyright

In my recent blog “A Reader’s Guide to Copyright,” one commenter suggested that we should get rid of copyright completely. This comment started my writer “what if” train of thought so here are my thoughts on what would happen if copyright were abolished.


PUBLISHING

When copyright is abolished, publishers will use even stricter security measures to protect their ebooks, but the books are soon available for free, courtesy of hackers. Paper books are scanned and put online as fast as they come out. With almost no profit, publishers go out of business.

Unable to earn a living, professional writers stop writing.

There is now no hope of another book by Stephen King, Nora Roberts, Stephanie Meyer, or J.K. Rowling.

Amateurs fill in some of the gap for new material, but they have little incentive to improve their craft, and most fiction is so horrible that readers long for the days of mediocre fan fiction.

Some new writers put famous authors’ names on their works to encourage reading.

People with maturity problems or a political, religious, or social agenda change others’ works so that the books available online often no longer resemble the original work. Scientific and historical works are particularly hard hit as are the works of popular genre writers.

Serious readers will be forced to find paper versions of these books. Unfortunately, in the first years of no copyright and an abundance of good electronic readers, many readers scanned then destroyed their paper books, many public libraries have closed, and paperback books have disintegrated with age.

Some lovers of good books will offer clean, correct copies of various classics at their sites, but most popular fiction will no longer be true to its original content.

Text books will no longer be published so school systems and teachers will have to cobble together information on their own.


MUSIC

The only way singers and musicians can make money is live performances. Song writers can’t make money unless they perform their own songs quite well. Most are unable to make a living because the “name” performers grab their best songs so they stop writing.


TV

The moment a TV show is seen, it is in public domain, and the characters and series are up for grabs to anyone who wants to make their own version. Series like CSI disappear in favor of reality shows and one-shot dramas. Cheap production is absolutely necessary since the production companies can’t make money by syndicating reruns so profit is only made on the first run of the show.

MOVIES

Since a movie will go into the public domain the moment it is released in any digital format, new movies are only available in theaters. Theaters have strict policies to prevent movies from being taped from the audience. Even with precautions, movies end up in public domain too often to warrant vast sums spent on productions.

Big budget movies and multimillion-dollar movie stars disappear in favor of small intimate films with low budgets.

LIVE THEATER

Broadway and live theater are the least hurt by the loss of copyright although rival versions of the same play in the same town is a constant hazard. Over the years, though, the vitality of live theater is lost because no new plays have been written in years, and everything is a remake.

COMPUTER SOFTWARE

New professionally-written computer software, with the exception of software hard-wired into specific computers and digital equipment, will all but disappear. Some computer communities will fill some of the gap, but even their software is plagued by viruses. No companies now write or upgrade virus detection software because their work becomes pubic domain the instant they offer it.

OVERVIEW

The loss of copyright would cost millions of jobs and billions of dollars, just in the US, but more importantly, it would hamper creative expression, innovation, scholarship, and the pleasure of those who enjoy a good book. That makes the “what if?” of the loss of copyright a horror story.

Writing a Psychic Character, CRAFT

NOTE: A&E has just started showing reruns of PSYCHIC KIDS: CHILDREN OF THE PARANORMAL (2 PM Eastern Time, Saturday) so I thought I'd rerun this article. The BIO channel also runs these programs.

Are you psychic? Do you see ghosts?

Me neither. But I write these characters.

One of the ways I try to get into the head of characters like this is research.

Right now, I'm watching a nonfiction series on A&E called PSYCHIC KIDS. Real life kids with psychic abilities are brought together with an adult psychic and a child psychologist who specializes in psychic kids, and they are helped to come to terms with their gifts.

The parents are also helped.

Most of the kids are terrified by spirits who have harassed them for years, and they are afraid to sleep. Some are physically ill from anxiety and stress. Yet they have nowhere to turn except for parents. They are afraid to talk to friends because they will be ostracized, and parents warn them not to talk to other adults. They tend to be loners.

The parents are terrified, as well. They are unable to protect their kids from the ghosts, and the normal routes to help -- doctors, teachers, and ministers -- are closed to them because they fear their children will be labeled as mentally ill and medicated into zombies. They fear that their children could be taken from them by social services who won't believe the child's true problem.

The psychic helps the kids come to terms with their gifts and teaches them to take away the fear, and the psychologist teaches the parents how to cope with their psychic children. The children also develop relationships with the other psychic kids so they no longer feel alone or like freaks.

How would I use this information? A child character is easy enough to create after watching these children. So would a parent of a psychic child.

Now let's extrapolate from this information and imagine an adult who had a childhood like this. Fear of discovery would often be a major influence on an adult. She wouldn't trust easily because most people who find out about her gift consider her a freak. Authority figures would automatically be distrusted. Trust and the need to be accepted for what she is would be the central emotional issues in a romantic relationship.

But what if the child grew up being totally open about her gift or if she "came out" as a psychic as an adult?

This character would be very comfortable in her own skin. She'd know herself very well. Her sense of being apart from others would manifest itself in a certain flamboyance -- a look at me I'm different and I don't care what you think attitude.

She would probably see her abilities as a gift rather than a curse, and she would use that gift to help others.

In a romance, she would have problems thinking of changing to help the relationship work because she's worked so hard to be who she is. "Me" has always been more important than "us."

This extrapolation isn't the only way to see adult psychic characters, but it does give you a start on writing a character different from yourself.

If you have no reality source for your character's background, you will have to find a real world analogy.

For example, a child who knows he's gay at an early age would be an analogy of a psychic character. Many in society view both with alarm, and secrecy is often the choice made. A writer would research the problems and emotional toll of being a gay child then use that information to understand a psychic child.

No matter how unusual or magical a character is, the author must use her knowledge of what makes a certain kind of person tick to make that character believable to the reader.

Links of Interest

THE GOOGLE SETTLEMENT: Yet another explanation of the Google settlement. It's simple enough for most writers to follow.

http://www.ninc.com/blog/index.php/archives/meet-the-google-settlement

THE RIGHT AGENT: Ten things to expect from your agent.
http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2009/04/10-things-to-expect-from-agent.html

AGENT AND PUBLISHING LAWYER Elaine English is interviewed about various legal issues facing authors as well as her own literary agency.
http://www.ninc.com/blog/index.php/archives/meet-attorney-and-literary-agent-elaine-english#more-2251

MARKET NEWS: Juno Books, an imprint of Pocket Books, has changed their guidelines. Generally, Juno is interested in urban fantasy with a strong female protagonist.
http://www.juno-books.com/guidelines.html

BOOK MARKETING: An editor looks at promotion for titles by publishers and what authors can do to improve it.
http://editorialass.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-dont-we-throw-some-money-at-it-like.html

WRITING TERMS: Judy Griffith Gill continus with her writing terms dictionary.
http://www.ninc.com/blog/index.php/archives/important-writing-terms-continued

WRITER BEWARE: Victoria Strauss, one of the founders of Writer Beware, THE source of information on writing scams, is interviewed. She talks about how to spot a scam and what to do if you are scammed.

http://www.ninc.com/blog/index.php/archives/meet-writer-beware-co-founder-victoria-strauss

The Woman as Warrior, CRAFT

Xena and her movie and TV sisters have a lot to answer for in action/adventure scenes. Some writers see these women as realistic female fighters, and they aren’t even remotely realistic either as women or human beings in fighting methods, stamina, and strength.

Maybe your warrior princess or action babe in leather and overpriced stilettos is as tough as any man, but she will have certain physical limitations. Use those limitations to be creative in fight scenes.

The strongest woman is rarely as strong as the strongest man, but she may be faster, smarter, or more supple, or she may be trained in combat when he isn’t. Use her realistic strengths rather than using unrealistic strengths.

Many women are pragmatists as well. The rule that both parties must use the same weapons for the fight to be “fair” has nothing to do reality, and pragmatists know this. If a huge man with a knife charges toward your action babe, she should shoot him and not feel bad about it later.

Years ago, I had a long chat with a world-class weapons and combat expert about fighting. I asked him who was the most dangerous opponent in a fight.

His answer-- “In a bar fight most men will keep fighting until they go down. Later, they’ll get up, and we might have a beer together. A small man doesn’t do that.

“To him, it’s not a fight, it’s survival. He’s fighting to kill because he knows he might not survive otherwise. If he goes down, he doesn’t stay down. He comes right back up and keeps fighting until he takes you down.

“He’ll use any weapon he can find to kill you, too.

“Never pick a fight with a small man.”

Think of that attitude when you write a woman fighter.

WORKSHOPS:

I?m teaching two writing workshops in July.

“Keeping the Reader Reading the First Chapter”

Drawing a reader into the first chapter of your novel is more than an exciting beginning, more than a “cute meet,” more than a sexy hero and a feisty heroine. Step by step, I?ll show you the craft needed to draw the reader into your novel and make her eager to keep reading.

To learn more and register, go here: http://www.writersonlineclasses.com/classes.html


“Magic, Monsters and Amour: Creating a Believable Paranormal World”

Are vampires, fairies, and space aliens real? If you create the right background for your novel, they will be to your reader.

Marilynn Byerly, lauded by reviewers for "building a world that combines both integrity and depth in an entertaining way," shows you how to develop a fantasy, science fiction, or paranormal world from scratch...how to invent creatures to populate it...and how to make your novel utterly believable. She'll teach you the ins and outs of research, fresh ways to use creatures like vampires, and the means to avoid various traps many authors have fallen into.

To learn more and register, go here: http://www.writeruniv.com/Registration.htm

WANT TO GET THIS BLOG VIA EMAIL?

Send a blank email to ByerlyWriting-subscribe@yahoogroups.com .

Love and Action Scenes, CRAFT

In a recent blog, I discussed how sexual attraction can detract from an action scene--a person facing an enemy is more likely to die if they are thinking about sex with their romantic and fighting partner so such thoughts in fiction makes the scene unrealistic, and the pace of the action scene is also ruined by the constant interruptions.

Long declarations and discussions of love or long introspective moments when a character is fighting are no more appropriate, but, surprisingly, the emotion of love isn’t such an interruption if used correctly as motivation. Love, particularly a love that makes the lover’s life more important than his own, will make a character do unexpected things in a fight.

She may be so busy keeping an eye on her lover that she isn’t protecting herself well enough. He may be so concerned about keeping her safe that he doesn’t trust her to fight as she is capable of doing and interferes disastrously in her fight.

Love as a motivation in battle can make the strong weaker, and the weak stronger. It can be the Achilles heel of a powerful fighter if the enemy recognizes it.

A life-threatening moment can also be a revelation for a character. He may not have realized the intensity of his feelings for the woman until her life stands in balance.

She may know how she feels, but never said anything until the fight is over, and they cling to each other after nearly dying, then she blurts out her feelings without meaning to.

Love is the most powerful motivation in the world, and using the characters’ feelings for each other can make an action scene even more powerful.

WORKSHOPS:

I’m teaching two writing workshops in July.


“Keeping the Reader Reading the First Chapter”

Drawing a reader into the first chapter of your novel is more than an exciting beginning, more than a “cute meet,” more than a sexy hero and a feisty heroine. Step by step, I’ll show you the craft needed to draw the reader into your novel and make her eager to keep reading.

To learn more and register, go here: http://www.writersonlineclasses.com/classes.html


“Magic, Monsters and Amour: Creating a Believable Paranormal World”
Are vampires, fairies, and space aliens real?  If you create the right background for your novel, they will be to your reader.  Marilynn Byerly, lauded by reviewers for "building a world that combines both integrity and depth in an entertaining way," shows you how to develop a fantasy, science fiction, or paranormal world from scratch...how to invent creatures to populate it...and how to make your novel utterly believable.  She'll teach you the ins and outs of research, fresh ways to use creatures like vampires, and the means to avoid various traps many authors have fallen into.

To learn more and register, go here: http://www.writeruniv.com/Registration.htm

Links of Interest

CONTRACTS: Author Jim Hines gives an overview of his book contract with DAW and discusses the different parts. A good general overview.

http://jimhines.livejournal.com/432454.html

AGENT CONTEST: Enter the Knight Agency’s Nutshell contest by describing your book in three sentences. The twenty finalists will be critiqued. For details, go here:

http://knightagency.blogspot.com/2009/03/enter-tkas-book-in-nutshell-competition.html#links

EDITOR INTERVIEWED: Leah Hultenschmidt, editor with Dorchester Publishing

http://www.ninc.com/blog/index.php/archives/meet-editor-leah-hultenschmidt#more-2151


FINDING YOUR VOICE http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/2009/03/22/ask-the-editor-8-tips-for-finding-your-voice/

PROMOTION: What can Authors Do to Sell Books. A blog by Jessica Faust of the Bookends Agency. http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/03/what-can-authors-do-to-sell-books.html

PUBLISHING NEWS Borders has gained another year on life support. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123845761182071577.html?ru=yahoo&mod=yahoo_hs