copyright | The Creative Penn- Part 2

A Guide To Rights And How You Can Exploit Them As An Indie Author With Orna Ross

July 5, 2013 by Joanna Penn 31 Comments

Podcast: Download (Duration: 54:44 — 28.2MB)

Your book can be so much more than just a book!

The publishing industry has been ‘exploiting' (their word!) the rights of authors for many years, but as indies we can now start to exploit our own and make the most of our intellectual property. In today's interview, Orna Ross explains the different rights related to your work.

In the intro, I mention the launch of my new book, How To Market a Book.

Orna Ross is the bestselling author of literary fiction, as well as writing non-fiction books on creativity and author guides to the industry. Orna is also the Director and Founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors.

Why Orna knows so much about this stuff! She has worked on every side of publishing for nearly 20 years. She started as a journalist and then moved into book publishing with a small press non-fiction book. She had fiction traditionally published and then opened a writing school, which then led to represent authors as a literary agent. Then she started to self-publish and champion indie authors.

On copyright and piracy

Copyright belongs to the writer and is granted as a protection for writers. It remains with the producer of the work and it is in the expression, not the idea. You can't copyright an idea or a book title. What we license is the right to get some money for this work for a particular term (how long), and for a particular amount of return (how much). Copyright is yours on creation of the work, and you don't need to register the work or mail your manuscript to yourself. It is a passive right and the power lies in the fact it exists. It's unlikely you will take people to court over piracy, and in fact, we talk about authors like Neil Gaiman, Cory Doctorow and Paulo Coelho who have used piracy as a marketing mechanism, as well as Tim Ferriss launching on BitTorrent. Piracy is not the issue, obscurity is.

On exploiting rights yourself as the author

In traditional publishing, it is the publisher's job to get as many rights as possible, but they don't always exploit them. It's the agent's job to sell as many rights, and get them exploited, as this brings in more income for the author. Limiting the terms is also critical so you can get your rights back eventually. But now, in a fast-changing world, indie authors can sell rights themselves. The book is just a starting point.

Both Orna and I favour a hybrid model, where an author sells rights if appropriate and weighs up each decision per book. It's always important to put a time limit on it though. The reversion clause is critical with trade deals. Make sure you have your exit worked out, so that if it doesn't go so well, you can self-publish later. Many authors currently doing really well have a backlist of books they have the rights back to.

Short Story Rights

Short stories are magical. Serial rights can go to the publication e.g. magazine and you can even sell second serial rights. You can also sell anthology rights and also sell the story yourself as a short story collection. I've done this recently with a series of stories for Kobo based around Dante's Inferno. You can find ‘A Thousand Fiendish Angels' here. This is a very fair contract and shows how dedicated to authors Kobo is.

Audio rights

We can all do print and ebook publishing in our own languages. That's easy these days, but getting into audio is the next big step and it is starting to become accessible to authors. In the past, it has been very expensive but now ACX.com, Audible's Creation Exchange, makes it possible for authors to collaborate in audio projects with narrators and producers. Orna visited the ACX studios in Newark and saw first hand how Audible are creating audiobooks faster and for lower costs. [As of June 2013, ACX was still only for US authors but hopefully they will open up globally over time.]

I have recently signed with Gryphonwood, a small press to go through ACX using brilliant voice talent, Veronica Giguere. Pentecost is already available on Audible and Prophecy is under development now. Although I received no ‘advance', we all receive royalties over time, as joint venture partners in the project, and I haven't had to pay anything upfront or do anything to produce the work. It's a win:win as far as I am concerned. This entrepreneurial JV approach is most likely the best way for indies to get their rights exploited.

These rights last 70 years after the death of the creator, so these are long term rights and you have to think about long-term income. It is truly magical because you are creating assets that continue to earn money your whole life and after you die. AMAZING! So stop being obsessed with that short term sales spike and consider the long-term. “Short-term-ism is the death of the artist.” Focus on creating a body of work that you are proud of. I mention Iain Banks, who recently died young but left an amazing legacy.

Foreign language rights

Unless you're bi-lingual, you're unlikely to be creating books in languages other than your own. You can sell your foreign rights but you can also work directly with translators. I've been obsessed with getting my ARKANE books into German, as that is a big market (81 million) who also love thrillers like the ones I write. In the last week, I have started a process of working with a German translator to take that forward.

A collaborative partnership is what you want, with something in writing, but the contract should only be wielded when things go wrong. It should be simple and explain exactly who is loading the book, where the money goes first, how it is split and how it all works practically. I'm very keen to work in 50/50 joint ventures with translators and am actively looking for partners to work with. [Please do contact me if you are a translator, especially for Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin or Hindi!]

On language vs physical territories e.g. Spanish translation can be for Spain, South American countries and Spanish in all other languages. The general aim is to keep rights as small as possible so contain it by language and territory. You should also try NOT to sell World English, and aim to sell per territory e.g. North America or North America print English. These rights can break down into smaller and smaller chunks.

When is it worth using an agent for these rights?

Many agents won't work on just these sub-rights. It has to be worth their while. Orna mentions PubMatch, the Publisher's Weekly translation rights service. The Alliance has used an agent for foreign rights but most deals haven't been big enough to be worth negotiation. But basically, you can get these deals without the traditional agent situation. Yes, it can help, but you can also do this as an indie, and it is happening more and more often. Because the deals we can make are more worthwhile at this smaller scale.

You probably still need an agent for film rights, since this world is quite different, especially if you are going bigger than a local company. But everything else is becoming more and more possible. It's an exciting time!

Orna talks about the Alliance of Independent Authors, which educates and advocates for indie authors. I am a very happy member and particularly enjoy the Facebook group where we share what works and help each other with questions. Orna talks about how excited she is about the self-publishing revolution and how it is transforming the industry. She wants to be in the centre of the revolution! It's a great way to network with other authors, find friends and hear about successes as well as learning from each other. I mention how isolated I felt at the beginning of my own author journey and how this is a great network to start with.

Orna talks about how she balances her time between creativity and creation and also the social/email/business side. She needs the entrepreneurial side (as do I!) She does have some books coming out on creativity later this year, including one on free writing and also meditation and developing your creative intelligence.

You can find Orna at OrnaRoss.com and her books at all online bookstores. Her creative blog is HowToGoCreative.com. Her latest novel is ‘Blue Mercy‘, brilliant literary fiction, and she is also on twitter @OrnaRoss.

You can find the Alliance blog at SelfPublishingAdvice.org

Please do leave any questions or comments below, as this is a hugely important topic for authors.

Intellectual Property Considerations for Writers

September 7, 2012 by Creative Guest 28 Comments

OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn

One of the most common questions I get asked when speaking on digital publishing is how to prevent piracy. I still think piracy is less important than obscurity, but it is still important to protect your work. In this guest post, Jennifer Motian discusses how to protect your writing from copyright infringement.

Intellectual property (IP) considerations for writers are becoming more complex as the publishing landscape evolves. Managing your IP as an author has become more difficult than relying on your agent to negotiate a contract with the Big Six. Much of the IP protection work is falling to writers themselves, and some areas (such as e-publishing) are opening up increased opportunities for piracy.

Authors need to consider clauses in contracts when they publish traditionally, know the specifics of issues that can arise when self-publishing, and understand the subtleties of issues connected with publishing in unique formats such as anthologies and literary journals.

The basics of copyright

The primary form of IP protection for authors is copyright. Copyright protects the work of authors, artists, and others by giving them exclusive rights over original works they create to reproduce a piece and collect income derived from it.

After a fixed amount of time, the copyright on a specific work expires and it slips into the public domain. Until that time, if someone wants to use something that's copyright protected, they need the (ideally written) permission of the author and may be required to pay to do so.

How do I copyright something?

Unlike more complex forms of IP protection like trademarks or patents that require extensive legal filings, the process of obtaining a copyright on something you've written is fairly straightforward. Copyright arises when something original has been written. Technically, you do not have to apply for copyright. However, you do need to be able to document or substantiate your copyright in some way if you ever need to defend that copyright in a legal context. Several options for this exist.

These include:

Use a copyright registry that will retain documentation and copies of works should you need a legal witness in the case of copyright infringement.

Take a full copy of the document that you're copyrighting, with the words “copyright + your name and the date” and seal it into an envelope. Send yourself a copy via registered US mail and do not open it. You've effectively made the United States postal service a witness to your copyright.

Register with the US Copyright Office (www.copyright.gov). If the book is published in the United States, two copies need to be submitted, along with the necessary forms and a payment. Registration with the US Copyright Office is the best option in the case of a copyright challenge that needs to be legally resolved. You will receive a certificate of copyright certification and related documentation.

Traditional Publishing

Novels and stories that are traditionally published will be governed by a contract with the publisher. Publishers typically register copyright on behalf of the author, if it has not already been done. The author will retain the copyright, but grant specific rights to a publisher regarding the production, distribution, and sale of a specified work.

Each contract is different, but there are several elements to pay attention to. What percentage royalties are you getting on the piece, and is this in line with industry standard? Are you giving the publisher exclusive or non-exclusive rights (meaning you could publish the story elsewhere)? Do your rights cover specific formats (e.g. print, audio, or electronic) or specific geographies (the United States, all of North America, or global)? It's important to have a lawyer or experienced agent review any contract for details.

Self-Publishing & Indie Publishing

Books that are indie or self-published also fall under the author's copyright. Since no publisher is involved, authors retain all rights to the book. Typically, if the author participates in distribution platforms such as Amazon's Kindle or Barnes & Noble's Nook, it's important to review the terms of service.

For example, authors publishing an e-book with Amazon and on other platforms simultaneously currently grant Amazon the right to adjust the price equal to the lowest price offered on the book by any other vendor. In the case of a self-published book, it's especially important to consider taking some step to register your copyright. E-books are at special risk of piracy, particularly when they are published on platforms that do not employ digital rights management technology.

Anthologies & Literary Journals

When contributing chapters to an anthology or submitting a short story to a literary journal, authors also retain copyright. Typically, a contract will be signed that grants the publisher or journal certain rights.

Short contributions can be registered with the US Copyright office, if desired. “If the work is a contribution to a collective work, and published after January 1, 1978, one complete copy or phonorecord of the best edition of the collective work or a photocopy of the contribution itself as it was published in the collective work.”

What about Creative Commons licensing?

A Creative Commons license allows for the distribution of original, copyrighted works as long as certain conditions are met. Typical conditions include that the work is not altered in any way and that proper attribution is made to the author. Conditions may also include that the item is not distributed for monetary gain. Creative Commons licenses most typically apply to self-published, independently published, and pieces distributed via the web. In order for a Creative Commons license to take effect, a document must explicitly be noted as being under that specific license.

What can I do about piracy?

When you, as an author, encounter any of your copyright protected books that have been pirated, what can you do? Here are a few steps.

Submit a take-down request to the site illegally posting the book or the vendor selling it. A sample Digital Millennium Copyright Act compliant take-down request can be found at: www.ckpaynter.com/Piracy_Handout2011.pdf

If your book was published via a publisher, notify your publisher as well. They may have specific tools or resources at their disposal to help you.

Notify other authors or publishers whose work you note on piracy sites or in pirating stores. Multiple individuals applying pressure may be most effective to get a site or vendor to take action.

If necessary, consider legal action against a specific pirate or entity. This can be a frustrating and expensive process. If you want to go the legal route, begin by contacting an attorney.

Do you have any questions about intellectual property? Please do leave a comment below.

About the Author

Jennifer Motian writes for Red Chalk Group. She's interested in intellectual property issues as they relate to start-up companies and individual artists.

Creative Commons: What Is It and How Can It Benefit You?

September 13, 2009 by Joanna Penn 7 Comments

I went to a fantastic workshop this weekend at the Brisbane Writers Festival on Creative Commons. It was presented by Elliott Bledsoe, who is Project Officer at Creative Industries and Innovation in Australia and a wealth of information in this area. (You can find him on Twitter @elliotbledsoe). All the detailed information is at: http://creativecommons.org/

This is such important information for authors online so please read and share!

What is Creative Commons?

It is a version of copyright licensing, and it relates to your creative works. The basic Copyright law says that no one can copy or distribute your work, or use it, remix it or profit from it. This law becomes impractical in the digital environment where sharing, remixing, distribution and marketing are so important. Creative Commons licensing is a license you can put on your work to allow some of these things and make Copyright work for you and your creativity. Read this for the full lowdown on Creative Commons.

You can license your work for different purposes. The main aspects are Attribution (you let others use/distribute your work but you must be attributed as the creator), Share Alike (you can use my work but you must share your own work too), Noncommercial (you can use my work but you can't profit from it), No Derivative Works (you can use my work verbatim but you can't remix it or change it). For more on the different licenses, read this. People can approach you for options beyond the license e.g. you have a novel released under Creative Commons which is Noncommercial but someone approaches you with a movie idea based on it that will be sold. You can still allow them permission.

How can it benefit you as an author?

On Piracy vs Obscurity. You need to make your own decision as to whether you want your ideas to be out there and used (and potentially pirated), or whether you want to keep them in a drawer where no one will discover them. If you want to be a successful author who sells books, you need to be known and the internet is the place to build your global presence. The risk of piracy is nothing compared to being unknown. Cory Doctorow addresses this in “Giving it away”, a Forbes.com article where he describes giving the ebook versions of his books away for free under a Creative Commons license. His sales increased but his books were also translated by fans and his ideas spun into new creativity.

“Share your creative wealth and accomplish great things”. This is a quote from the video at the bottom of the page which explains Creative Commons in a great way. The internet has changed the way we produce and consume information. We all find ideas everywhere now. We put our thoughts and text online in the hope of building an author platform, or selling our books/products or finding an audience. Other people may get ideas from our work, and Creative Commons enables a legal way for them to re-use or remix it. This has started in mainstream books now with the success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a remix of Jane Austen. Is it fan-fic or a remix of a Public Domain book?

Collaboration and Creativity. Expanding the theme of fan-fic and remixes, licensing under Creative Commons gives people the ability to take your work and recreate it in different ways based on your ideas. This could spread your work much farther than you could do on your own and may lead to some extraordinary ideas you can take and reuse in your turn. Is your idea your own? or can you release it and see what happens to it out there in the big wild?

How can you license your work as Creative Commons?

You can use this simple questionnaire to generate a licence. It will give you some code you can put on your site (in WordPress, just add a Text Widget to your sidebar). The questionnaire includes a country option so you can use it overseas.

Advice from Elliott was: Have a really good think before you do license as Creative Commons. Are you really happy for people to use your work? Can they make money from it? Can they remix it? Only license once you are sure.

How do I find other authors and creatives using Creative Commons?

You can find works licensed under Creative Commons by including it as a Search term on sites like Google and Flickr. Many of the images I use on this site are Flickr Creative Commons and I add Attribution to each one. Use the Advanced Search option. You can also use http://search.creativecommons.org/

Google Books has listed books licensed under Creative Commons – check this post for more details.

You can also license your tweets at http://tweetcc.com/ . Read the full article on CC for Twitter here.

I have now licensed this site under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License, you can see this on the sidebar under my books. This license applies to the blog content and does not currently apply to my workbooks, Author 2.0 material and published books. This means that you can use my posts on your own websites, books and projects as long as you attribute me and this site as the original creator, share the work derived from it and don't make income on it. Start with this one and spread the word about Creative Commons! You can see all the international licenses here.

What is copyright and how does it apply to me?

March 6, 2009 by Joanna Penn 2 Comments

Copyright is legal protection of your work produced in certain forms, e.g. writing, music, visual images. The idea is not protected, only the work itself.

This is an automatic protection so you do not have to apply for it. You do not even need to put the word ‘Copyright’ on it in some countries. Your work is protected as soon as you have written it down or produced it in some way, as long as it is your own work.

It is important to know about as it relates to your own work and also to other peoples. It is a form of protection and a statement of ownership. Your work is your intellectual property and as such it needs protecting. With even out of print books now making revenue through print-on-demand, your book could go on earning money for years to come.

One of the requirements of many countries is that copies of books must be submitted to the National Library of the country it is written in. Check whether you are bound by this, but it is still good to send one anyway. This can be proof of your copyright in any legal proceedings.

There is lots more information in Wikipedia here.

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