Archive for category The business of writing

Copyrights, collective works, and misunderstandings

Jul 12

Posted by Tony Burton in Publishing, The business of writing | 1 Comment

If you have investigated the Wolfmont website, you know that I have published quite a few anthologies.  It’s because I like the short story form, and believe it is a real challenge to write a short, succinct story that engages and entertains the listener–perhaps more challenging even than writing a decent novel.

The first anthology I ever published (2006) was titled Seven By Seven, and was an anthology of 49 flash fiction stories by seven different authors, all focused on the seven deadly sins as described by the Church. It was a success, earned a fair amount of money for all the authors, and in fact is still in print.

As I say, this was in 2006, and since I was new to the publishing business, I was not thinking of ebooks at the time, so there was no specific mention of this in the contract.  Along came the Kindle, and the publishing world started to change.  Early this year, I decided to put the book into Kindle and ePub format, primarily because people had been asking me if my company’s books were available in ebook format.  It was a lot of trouble, since I didn’t have the original word processing files for Seven By Seven, but ultimately I got it done.

The book didn’t do as well in ebook format–selling only three copies for a total of $5.25 in revenue.  But recently two of the authors from the original cadre of Seven By Seven contributors took issue with my conversion into ebook format, and began to make a public spectacle of it.

Now, I’ll admit right now that I was mistaken about copyright law in this, but it is an innocent mistake.  Before I did the ebook conversion, I had read what I thought were the relevant sections of law in the United States Copyright rules, as they apply to collective works. The book is copyrighted to my company, and my understanding was that the copyright applies to the entire work, in any format, although the copyright to the individual stories still remained with the original authors. So, I had proceeded with the conversion.  (Believe me, if I had not thought I was right, I would not have gone to the trouble of converting and restoring the word processing files!)

After the two authors contacted me, I called the US Copyright Office, and when I spoke with someone at the USCO, I asked them if copyright meant the entire work was copyrighted to me in any form, and the person I spoke with said yes, that it was.  They do say they will not offer legal advice, but they will answer basic questions about the rules.  I had also communicated with an intellectual property lawyer via the Internet, told him the problem, and he had agreed that my stance was correct. However, in order to try to stop the issue from escalating, I removed the Kindle version from Amazon and requested that Apple remove the ePub version from their iBookstore.

This morning, I called one more IP lawyer and spoke with him over the phone.  He was gracious enough to give me a few minutes of his time without payment, and I encourage anyone needing an IP lawyer to get in touch with Terry Williamson. Now, the truth is, what he told me didn’t make me happy, but at least it did clarify matters.

The world of publishing, especially digital publishing, is a rapidly changing one.  Ebooks present a new field of endeavor for lawyers and courts as they decide how to work with old assumptions about copyrights, print rights, and so forth. What it came down to, regardless of what the previous lawyer told me, and regardless of what the representative of the USCO may have said over the phone, copyright to a book in print form does not necessarily give the publisher the right to publish the book in any other format.  It appears that the publisher has this right, from the verbiage set down in the United States Code, but my guess is that this is an older rule and needs to be modified somehow to take newer ways of producing collective works into account.

In short, I was wrong.  It was an innocent mistake, but I was wrong.  The contract I had with those authors did not give me the right to publish the original book in any other form, no matter what I thought and no matter what the other IP lawyer had told me.

In my defense, I had researched the problem and thought I was in the right. I asked a lawyer, and I asked the source of the rules, the United States Copyright Office. Even before I spoke with the attorney today, I took the offending work off the Kindle platform, and as soon as Apple complies with my request, it should be off the Apple iBookstore platform as well (it has never sold a copy there, anyway.) And if they want it, I’ll be happy to send each of the seven authors seventy-five cents via PayPal, which is one-seventh of the total $5.25 I made from selling the ebook form.

Now, the truth is, I daresay that if I asked ten different IP lawyers about this issue, I’d get at least three different opinions, simply because this is such a new area of endeavor. But in the end, in this case at least, it is simpler to let it go.  After all, from a purely financial standpoint, I’ve already spent almost six times as much as I made on the ebook, simply to get an erroneous legal opinion from someone!

The exchange between that author and myself became particularly rancorous, primarily because the individual “went public” with the dispute, and made a lot of implications that I was trying to harm authors, that I was trying to steal from them, etc.  To me, this is something that should have been handled privately and without noising it about in a public forum.  That is tacky.

The dust has yet to settle, and whether or not this will be a lasting blow to Wolfmont’s reputation, I have no idea.  But I have learned from it, and in the end, that is a good thing.

Copyright 2010 Tony Burton

Literary Porn

May 17

Posted by Tony Burton in The business of writing, Writing ideas from life, Writing well | 19 Comments

No, NO!  It’s not what you think!  I’m not talking about Hemingway writing about a three-way, or Michener writing… well, never mind what Michener might write.  The mind boggles.

What I’m talking about is a topic that arose recently on the Dorothy-L listserv, the idea that some people write about particular topics with such passion and descriptive phrases that show a love… nay, a lust for a particular pastime or object.  We’re talking about things like car porn, gun porn, airplane porn, food porn, desert racing porn, tool porn and even debt porn.  (I have to admit that last one is beyond me….)

One Dorothy-L subscriber mentioned that an article in Washington Monthly said this about Tom Clancy: “Tom Clancy may not be able to write a good love scene between a man and a woman, but he can certainly write a good love scene between a man and a weapons system.”

But, I confess: when someone complained that a few people had labeled his choices of crime fiction as spy porn and he felt aggrieved about that, I was the one who suggested that the people who made that observation were not talking about sex in the traditional sense, but rather that the books he liked glorified the action and technique of spying, revelled in it, got into the depths of it and rolled around in the clandestine nature of it in fits of ecstasy.  (Well, maybe I didn’t say it quite that way, but that’s what I meant.)  The television show “24″ is a great example of spy porn.

So, in defense of those who may attach a label of “___________ porn” to any form of literature, I offered my own off-the-cuff version of a short passage of literary knife porn.  For your reading enjoyment, here it is.  (Oh, and unless you are in a strangely controlling work environment, it is Safe For Work.)

“Ronnie held the sleek Gerber Mark II in his hand, feeling the hilt warm to his touch. As he turned it, light from the street lamp outside the window glinted on the blade and seemed to travel along the polished, razor-sharp edge, at last flashing at the needle-like point like a star breaking through the firmament. He smiled and nodded.  This was the one.  He took up the sheath and slid the weapon into it, his lips slightly parted as the steel slipped home between the snugly caressing folds of leather. He pulled on his jacket, covering the sheath hanging beneath his arm and embraced it to him as a lover. No one else would know it was there… but he would. He could feel it.”

A few people wrote me off-list and told me they really liked it, and a couple said they felt strangely excited by reading it.  I made a mental note of those folks and decided not to ever turn my back on them when there were sharp objects lying around.  (I don’t have a Gerber Mark II, but I have held one before and they are very nice blades.  I have a few knives, though, and probably the scariest one is my latest acquisition, a SOG SEAL Team knife, once called the SOG SEAL Knife 2000.)

Here’s what I’d love: If you are a writer, pick some subject or object you are really passionate about, and write a short “porn” piece about it—maybe 50 to 75 words—and post it here as a comment.  Remember, this is NOT real porn, so descriptions of personal plumbing or reproductive/pleasuring are NOT what I’m interested in.  I want to see how you can turn your hand to writing a short scene that evokes a feeling of passion… focus… perhaps even an obsession about an object or activity.  See if you can make the readers here start to fan themselves.

If you are NOT a writer, I’ll bet you have read a piece somewhere that is a porn piece.  Maybe it’s someone waxing rhapsodic about a particular car, or drooling over a certain computer.  Show us that piece, either by typing it into the comment area, C&P’ing it in, or giving us a link to it.

Come on people, show us just how much verbal sensuality you can dredge up!  And I make this offer: I will send a copy of The Writer’s Journey Journal to one of those who submits a sample of his or her own personal literary porn, chosen by a random drawing from among the names of those who submit samples.  I will draw from among those names next week, and announce the winner here.

As someone once said, “Let the bloodbath begin….”

Copyright 2010  Tony Burton

Writerly Resources Take 3

Apr 17

Posted by Tony Burton in The business of writing, Writing well | 11 Comments

As a writer, sometimes we need to have special resources that are OUTSIDE what we might think of as writing resources.  After all, whether we like it or not, each writer is also a businessperson.  We produce a product (composed words) to a standard (sometimes our own, sometimes our editors) and we attempt to get consumers (readers) to use our product.

So, here are a couple of business items that are free or very, very cheap, that could come in very handy to the author on a budget, along with what I think are great information resources for crime writers.

Free incoming fax lines.

Often I’m asked if I can take a fax, whether it’s a contract, a set of specifications, or whatever.  Yeah, I know, it’s the age of email, but there are lots of places where they have standard forms in hardcopy and they simply are not going to go to the trouble of retyping the document to send it to you as an email attachment.  Some people are afraid that you might manage somehow to change the original if it is a word processing document. For whatever reason, it’s nice to be able to say, “Sure, here’s my fax number!  Just send it along.”

Online fax services are very, very useful. The fax is sent to a number provided by the company, and when a fax arrives, you get an email. In the email, there is a link to view the fax and print it if you wish.  The faxes are archived there for a period of time, too.  You don’t require a second line or a fax machine… unless you’d like to send faxes as well.  Of course, these services also offer paid options where you can send faxes, especially useful if you already have a scanner attached to your computer. Here are a couple of online providers of incoming fax numbers, that don’t cost anything.

Accepting credit cards at book events.

Many (if not most) of the time at book signing events there is someone who handles much of the book sales, collects money, etc.  This is especially true if you are the type of author who does these events primarily at bookstores or organized conventions.  But many authors, myself included, have discovered that there are sales to be made at less bookseller-oriented events: craft fairs, smaller conventions or conferences, street fairs, etc.  At many of these locations, you don’t have a central purchase point.  Now, for a long time I gladly accepted only checks and cash.  But at the last three events where I sold and there was no bookseller present to handle sales, I lost quite a few sales because I was unable to take credit cards on the spot!  This is not only bad business, it disappoints potential readers.

My wife is one of those people who only carries cash when I browbeat her into doing so.  She pays for everything with a credit card, and we pay off the bill in toto each month.  (She also uses the collected card points to buy birthday gifts and anniversary gifts, to the point where she seldom actually spends money on anything like that!)  The reason I want her to carry cash is for those out-in-the-boonies places where you may need ten or twenty dollars, and nobody takes Discover.

I grew tired of losing sales, but it was frustrating to go to my bank and be told that I would be charged upwards of $400 per year to process credit cards, whether I needed to do so or not, and they would also take about 3.5% of each sale.  And, if I wanted to process them on the spot, I’d have to buy a special (translation: EXPENSIVE) device and pay an extra monthly fee.  Hey, I’m a poor author here!

Finally, though, I found a great place that offers a very affordable plan, and allows me to process my sales either when I get home (from my computer) or even from my cell phone, on the spot!  Their basic plan is $35 per YEAR, and allows processing of Visa and MasterCard payments from your computer, via the Internet.  The next step up is $60 per year, and allows you also to accept Discover and American Express, and to process payments on a phone (cellular or landline) without any special equipment.  That’s a heck of a big savings for me over $400 per year, plus the cost of the special wireless device and the extra wireless processing fees.  The service is called ProPay, and is located at https://epay.propay.com/ I know, it’s not FREE, but it’s quite a bit cheaper than any other service I have checked out, including PayPal and my own banks.

Gun and ammunition information.

It always amazes me how many crime writers (fiction and nonfiction alike) are absolutely clueless about the device most often used in the stories they write: The Gun.  I read where someone “clicks off the safety on his revolver” and I go into spasms.  I see where the perpetrator used a “12-gauge rifle” and shudder.  People, people, people!  You wouldn’t write a story about a race car driver and rhapsodize about how the driver “dropped the transmission into 4th gear and peeled off from the starting line,” so why be inaccurate in use of guns in your stories?  It is sloppy, it is unprofessional, and it really bothers those of us who are anal-retentive gun information freaks.  Here are some online sources of information that will help you to look really knowledgeable and keep you from kicking the in-the-know readers out of your story in dismay.  (And the information is FREE.)

  • The Gun Zone  http://www.thegunzone.com/
  • Genitron  http://www.genitron.com/
  • About.com Guns and Shooting Forum  http://hunting.about.com/od/guns/Guns_and_Shooting.htm
  • Carry Concealed  http://www.carryconcealed.net/


    • Stay tuned–there are more Writerly Resources coming your way!

    And let me know if these have been helpful to you.  I love to read comments from my readers!

    News About My Problem With Examiner

    Mar 4

    Posted by Tony Burton in The business of writing | 3 Comments

    Well, it seems that I now have money from Examiner.  Unfortunately, it took over six months for them to decide to pay me!  (Oh, and it also took threatening to expose them through Angela Hoy’s site, Writer’s Weekly.)  I contacted Angela, who has made a practice out of calling deadbeat publishers to task, with all the details.  She contacted Examiner.com and gave them a chance to respond.  Within 48 hours I had a payment in my PayPal account, an email notification from Examiner, and a telephone voice mail from them, checking to make sure I had received the payment and that everything was now okay.

    You know, I’m glad they paid me, but it shouldn’t take the threat of being exposed to the world as a deadbeat for them to live up to their obligations.

    Thanks, Angela!

    Fish nor Foul? (pun intended)

    Feb 28

    Posted by Tony Burton in Humor, Publishing, The business of writing | 4 Comments

    Recently, I’ve had cause to examine my professional standing, and consider exactly where I fit in the writing/publishing/ bookselling hierarchy.  It’s a problem for me for a variety of reasons.

    You see, I’m an author.  I’ve been published in magazines, online, newspapers, in anthologies, and I self-published two novels.  (I mean real self-publishing, where you buy your own ISBNs, set up the relationship with the printer and distributors, do your own typesetting, etc.)  I teach creative writing online and at the local arts center.

    In the process, though, I also built a publishing company.  It now has a couple of imprints, and other than my own two books, I’ve published a number of anthologies, a couple of other folks’ novels, a couple of books of poetry, a book of plays, and a few non-fiction books.  I pay royalties, by the way, even though I mostly use Print-on-demand printing.

    At another point late last year, I got the idea to start a new endeavor, an online bookstore.  I sell print books and ebooks there from a number of publishers.

    At this point, I argue with myself a lot.  Think about it: for some reason, a default adversarial relationship has somehow been defined as the relationship between authors and publishers, as well as between booksellers and publishers.  For example:

    “Publishers are bloodsuckers!  They take all your hard work and make tons of money, and what do you get? Almost NOTHING!! And they want ME to promote my own book.  Heck, I wrote the thing—isn’t that enough?”  (Frustrated author)

    “Authors are lazy primadonnas who aren’t willing to work with the editor, who think their every word is precious and can’t be changed! And don’t they realize that, in this competitive marketplace and economy, I can’t afford to promote them as much as they would like?”  (Aggravated publisher)

    “Publishers aren’t willing to give me the discounts I need or accept returns for up to a year after the book goes out of print!  They’re taking bread out of the mouths of my children!”  (Despairing bookseller)

    “How am I supposed to pay royalties, the power bill, the phone bill, and promotional considerations, if the bookseller wants such a huge discount?  And why do they return books that look like they were used as puppy toys??”   (Furious publisher)

    “How dare a publisher even call itself a legitimate publisher if they don’t print at least 1,000 copies in the first run, and pay at least a $1,000 advance?”  (Elitist writer’s organization)

    “How can a writer’s organization ignore the economics of reality, that says in the long run it costs more and can put a small publisher out of business, if they only use old-fashioned printing methods that are ecologically unsound and wasteful of both money and resources?”  (Dumbfounded publishers AND authors)

    It’s strange, really.  I get into internal debates all the time!  And for that matter, which professional organization(s) should I join?  I am an author, but when I go to some professional writer organizations’ websites, it’s like there is this big “Them versus US!” mindset.  I wonder: would I be considered an US or a THEM? Would I be found out, and considered a fifth column publisher, secretly learning all the author secrets so I can go back and… do what??

    For a while I was a member of an organization that was supposed to be focused on independently-published authors.  What does that mean, exactly?  It’s sort of vague, right?  Does that mean the author’s publisher is an independent, not associated with one of the big publishing conglomerates that control three-quarters of the book sales revenue in the U.S.?  Does it mean that the book was vanity published or subsidy published?  Or does it mean that the author actually self-published the book, starting their own small press, buying their own ISBN(s), etc.?  While I was a member, once or twice I spoke up about some issues (I’m against paid reviews, for example, and I believe an author should have a professional editor work on the manuscript before it is published).  When I did I was snubbed and treated like a pariah dog.  You see, I am not only an author, but a commercial publisher, and sometimes I (ye gads!) reject a manuscript!  How dare I do that!

    And of course, publishing organizations are generally focused on a lot of issues that are not that germane to the kind of publishing I do.  There is one I belong to, which shall remain nameless, that in the last year or two has seemed to morph into an organization primarily for self-published authors.  While I understand and can respect a well-considered decision to self-publish, that’s not my main consideration.  Another publisher organization I have investigated focuses primarily on non-fiction and how-to books—which is not my company’s area.

    Because I have an online bookstore and live in Georgia, should I join the Southern Independent Booksellers Association (SIBA)?  Would it really help me, or would it be just one more organization that drains membership funds from me, that I could put to better use paying for promotional pieces or extra ARCs? According to their website, they are for “independent, privately held, brick & mortar, commercially zoned bookstores with a retail storefront, in our region.”  That lets me out.  But then again, I know some authors who are members of SIBA, and they don’t have any sort of bookstore!

    I dunno.  Maybe I need therapy.  Is it possible to have multiple-profession-disorder?

    Closely Examine Writing for Examiner!

    Feb 25

    Posted by Tony Burton in Day to day living, The business of writing | 9 Comments

    Many times we writers try to think of ways to “monetize” our writing, and that’s reasonable.  ”The laborer is worthy of his hire,” as a sacred text says.  I don’t say I won’t write for free—I have done so, and in fact, nobody pays me to write my blog entries!

    However, I heard about Examiner.com in 2008, and thought, “Hey, this would be cool!  I’d have this platform for readers, and that platform will be promoted, and not only that, they will pay me something for my readers.”  So, I signed up and was an Examiner for the Atlanta area.

    The amount of money being paid was not much, but hey, it was something.  Every time an article of my own was read, they credited my account with a few cents.

    But over time, my life got very busy and it got to the point where I just didn’t have the time to do it for the small amount of money that was being credited to me. So, in mid-August of 2009 I resigned as an Examiner and “cashed out.”  Rather, I should say that I TRIED to cash out.  Despite repeated communications back and forth between Examiner.com and myself, despite repeated assurances that I would be paid “soon,” I have yet to receive a dime.

    My last email from Examiner.com was sent on February 16, after I wrote them on February 15.  They assured me that I would be paid on or about February 20, “with the rest of the Examiners.”  Well, folks, it is now February 25, and the payment from Examiner.com has yet to show up in my PayPal account.

    They’re deadbeats.  They don’t pay.  They don’t care.  I’ve been communicating with them since August, and have been pushed aside, delayed, and lied to.  One email said, “I’ll get it taken care of. Once I deactivate your page you will be paid out in full on Oct. 20th. Let me know if you do not.”  I was not, and I let them know.  It did no good.

    Folks, if you are considering writing for Examiner.com, I advise you to examine your considerations carefully.  I don’t mind sometimes writing for free, but I despise writing for someone who promises to pay and who reneges on payment.  It’s dishonest, it’s wrong, and it’s unprofessional.

    It’s your choice, obviously, but I’d say it’s a bad idea to willingly work for someone who does not pay their workers as agreed.