Jeff on Writing and Publishing

One of the most frustrating aspects of being a working writer is having your work stolen, misappropriated, or otherwise pilfered. With the proliferation of the Internet, the sickness of copyright infringement has become as widespread as the common cold. I thought we all learned about the basics of copyright in middle school and high school (and hopefully we learned stealing is wrong by pre-school), but, sadly, it seems as though many adults who should know better simply don’t. Important disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer. This isn’t legal advice. But to quote Jay-Z’s song “99 Problems,” “I ain’t passed the bar, but I know a little bit…” These are guidelines to help you better understand an overview of copyright. I’ve seen my own work appear on Web sites, in books, and referenced in lectures, sometimes without giving me credit, and sometimes giving me credit, but permission was never asked. Bottom line: it’s illegal, it’s unethical, and it’s sloppy on the part of the person doing the stealing, or the publisher producing the work. Here’s the easiest rule of copyright that I can come up with: if you didn’t write it, draw it, paint it, compose it, sculpt it, take the photo yourself, or commission any of the above with the understanding that you would own the work, then it doesn’t belong to you. There is such a thing as fair use and citation when it comes to others’ work, and I’ll get to those shortly. In fact, I’ll get to them right now… Public Domain When a work is in the public domain, it means that you are free to use it, and no reproduction permission is required. However, you still need to cite the source and give credit where it is due no matter how long ago the author/artist who created the work died. If something was published before January 1, 1923, then there’s an extremely high chance that the work is in the public domain. There are exceptions on both sides of that date, so you’ll need to do your research on whatever work you want to include and/or reference. For a good article on public domain, check out Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain Fair Use “Fair Use” is a legal term meaning you don’t need permission from the work’s author and/or publisher, but you do need to cite your source. There are limitations, of course. For example, you can’t take the latest copy of Harry Potter, write your own one-paragraph introduction, and slap quotes around the whole book and call it fair use. In a book-length work, you can quote up to 300 words of text as long as you give full credit to the author, source, and publisher. There are varying styles on how to do this, but give credit to all three and you’ll be okay. Example: In Jeff Belanger’s book, The World’s Most Haunted Places (New Page Books, 2004), he writes, “…up to 300-word quote here.” With magazine, newspaper, and online articles, you’re limited to 150 words, and you still need to cite the author, source, and publisher. Here’s a good article to check out on copyright and fair use from the Houghton Mifflin company: http://college.hmco.com/instructors/ins_custompub_prepare_script_permission.html People Just Don’t Get It “You should be honored I used your work.” “Putting your work on my Web page helps get you exposure.” “I don’t see what the big deal is.” All arguments I’ve personally heard from people who have infringed on my copyright. These arguments come from people who generally don’t make money at writing, don’t understand the value of good content, and are new to the realm of research and writing. The goal of publishing anything, be it movies, a Web site, a magazine, a book, music, or any other media, is to provide unique content that people can’t get anywhere else. If you’re good at publishing, you build a big audience, you can sell advertising, you can sell subscriptions, and everyone in the food chain makes money from the publisher on down to the author. If you’re bad at publishing, you go out of business quickly. So if I put an article on my Web site, the value of my Web site goes up, because there’s nowhere else on earth that a reader can go to see that content but right here on my site. If someone copies the article and pastes it into their Web site or message board, now people can go elsewhere for that same content and the value is diluted. It’s unfair to the publisher who paid for the unique content, and unfair to the author who agreed to do the work knowing it would only appear in a specific publication. It’s also against the law. How Do You Know Something is Copyrighted? If someone gets completely drunk at a bar and jots a poem down on a paper napkin using pink lipstick to write with, it’s copyright protected. Now, if the person didn’t sign their work, and you found it on the ground while cleaning up, it’s impossible to know who the copyright belongs to. But it’s still not your work. If you wanted to reproduce that drunken poem somewhere, ethically, you should still cite the source: i.e., I found a napkin on the floor of TK’s bar in New Haven, Connecticut on March 8, 2007, it read: “Blah, blah, blah…” When it comes to litigation, the person whose work was infringed upon simply needs to prove that they created their work before you did. If their work appears in a book, magazine, newspaper, or other dated material, it’s pretty easy to prove, and you will lose the lawsuit if you took their work without asking. Even if an article doesn’t have the little “c” with a circle around it (©), the work is still copyright protected. What About Linking to Articles on the Web? You never need permission to link your Web site to an article on another Web site. In fact, one wildly popular Web site, www.drudgereport.com, has made a name for

If you’re reading this, you probably fall into one of three categories: 1. You’re my mom, who reads all my blogs. 2. You’re one of my six loyal readers who check in and skim every few months. 3. You’ve been sent a link directly to this page because you emailed me with questions about writing and/or publishing. Please don’t take the link to this page as a dismissive slight. I’ve addressed questions about writing and publishing in many emails, so I figured having one place with all of my thoughts on the subject would help everyone. First of all, I’m going to assume you’re way past the “Where do I get ideas on what to write about?” stage. If you’re at that point in the journey, I can’t really help you. All I can suggest is to live life and pay attention. On any given day there are dozens of stories floating around you. You have to pick one that resonates with you and dive in. Second, I’m going to assume that you want to take writing seriously enough that you wish to be paid for it. This is a job, it’s work, I believe it has value, and those who do the work should be paid for their time, expertise, and effort, just like in any other occupation. Don’t get me wrong, I love the job (most of the time), but I think of this as a job because it keeps me serious and focused when I have to make deadlines (and mortgage payments). I’m going to speak mostly from the perspective of a non-fiction writer because that’s where most of my experience comes from, but you fiction writers will find plenty in here that relates to that part of the publishing world as well. If you’re ready to get serious, there are three books that I recommend every writer own: 1. How to Write a Book Proposal by Michael Larsen ($10.87 on Amazon) 2. The Elements of Style by Strunk and White ($3.90 on Amazon) 3. Stephen King On Writing ($7.99 on Amazon) With non-fiction, you don’t usually write the book before selling it — even if this is your first book. I know that may sound crazy, but bear with me. Let’s say you want to write a book called The History of the Fender Stratocaster Guitar. You’ll need to formulate a one-page pitch letter that offers a sexy introduction that will get an editor or agent excited about your idea, a paragraph that includes your writing and subject matter expertise, and a closing asking if the editor or agent would like to see a proposal for your book. Next comes the proposal which includes competition analysis, sample chapters, your full bio, an outline, and a few other items that are necessary for a publisher to decide whether they’re willing to invest thousands of dollars in time and money into your book. I could go into great detail on the proposal here, but instead I’m going to direct you to Michael Larsen’s book, How to Write a Book Proposal. It’s all in there. Formatting, type face, order, plus a lot of insight on the business. Just do what it says. Don’t deviate. If you format your query and proposal the way Larsen suggests, you’ll easily be in the top 40% of submissions most publishers receive. There’s a certain style and format that pros use, Larsen will explain it to you. Here’s an analogy I like to use regarding the pitch and proposal: You may be the most qualified financial analyst in the world, and if you write your resume out in crayon, it is possible that you still might get the high-paying job you’re going for, but you’ve already stacked the chips against you by not following proper protocol. Same in publishing. If you go to Kinkos and get your book bound, if you format it to look like a book, and get your spouse to help you design a cover, it’s the same as submitting your resume in crayon. You’re showing off how much you don’t know. Read Larsen’s book. Do what it says. That’s how I got my first book deal. Beware of publishers that don’t want first-time authors to go through this process. Remember, if a potential deal is too good to be true, it is. If the publisher doesn’t want a proposal, it may be a self-publishing bait-and-switch scam, or maybe they aren’t willing to pay you anything and they’re hoping you’ll fall for it. The proposal process is a good one for everyone involved. It forces you to think your book through. The other reason to propose a book before writing it is because the publisher may mostly like your idea, but they may want you to include other subjects, or maybe they’d be more interested in your book if you went in a slightly different direction. If you write the book first, the publisher is sometimes forced to take it or leave it as-is. Remember the golden rule here: He who has the gold makes the rules. The publisher has put out more books than you ever will. They know their markets, they know what works. Trust them. Or at the very least be accommodating to those who “have the gold.” At this point you’ve read Larsen’s book, you have your idea down, you’re working at your writing, and now you need to go after the market. Get yourself to a big bookstore. Preferably one with a coffee shop. Bring a little notebook and a pen. First, go find my books and face them out so browsers can see the covers. If they’re on low shelves, place them higher up. Thanks! Now… back to you. Find other books like the one you’re going to write. In our The History of the Fender Stratocaster Guitar example, you would be browsing the music section. Or the instruments section. Grab every guitar book and flip it open to the first few pages. First,

I’m a writing geek. I write for a living, and while I don’t pretend to be perfect at following all the rules, there are many that I do know. Some of those style rules I figured were inherent, but apparently not. There is a habit I’m seeing in a lot of writing lately — including writing that has been vetted by an editor before making it into book format — that includes the overuse of exclamation points. Art always imitates life and writing is no different. We’re an extreme culture. We don’t want anything little or subtle, we want the biggest, best, most scrumdidliumtious things out there. So when some people start writing, they want to let you know what they have to say is important, so they add exclamation points everywhere! Seriously! And those are just the subpoints! When they want to make even bigger points, there’s only one direction to go!! That’s right, more exclamation points!!! Because now I’m really getting to the important stuff!!!! Those exclamation points I used before where just to get your attention, now I want to hit you with the stuff you really must pay attention too!!!!! Like profanity, when used sparingly, an exclamation point can be effective in writing. When either is overused, we become desensitized to the power of the words and phrases. The fear, of course, is that INTERNET CULTURE WILL FURTHER SPILL INTO WRITING AND IN ADDITION TO COPIOUS EXCLAMATION POINTS, PEOPLE WILL START ALL-CAPPING (the equivalent to yelling in an online chat context) AND THE PRINTED WORD WILL GET EVEN UGLIER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Often the loudest person in the room has the least to say and we start to tune him out. But when the normally quiet person in the room raises her voice, everyone stops to listen because she must have quite a profound point to make. Thanks for reading!!!!!!!!