The author’s right to control distribution of his or her book is based on federal copyright law. Under copyright law you as the author have the exclusive right to make and distribute copies of your book for your lifetime plus 70 years.

You are free to sell or license the copyright rights in your work. Most authors enter into a book contract to license their work to publishers. Copyright rights are infinitely divisible. You can license the hardcover rights to one party, and the movie rights to another, etc. In most book contracts, the copyright rights are divided into many pieces, and then most if not all of the pieces are licensed to the publisher.

If you have never licensed or sold the copyright rights in your book to anyone, then you retain the copyright rights, and you have the right to E-Publish your book. If you have licensed your book to a publisher, then the book contract controls who owns the E-Publishing rights. If the contract is fairly recent, then it will probably say who owns the E-Publishing rights. But if the contract is not recent, it probably does not specifically cover E-Publishing rights. Since at least the early 1980’s, most publishers included a catch-all clause in their contacts that granted them all electronic rights. Here is an example of an older electronic rights clause:

Author grants Publisher the exclusive right to license publication of electronic versions of the Work using technology now existing or developed in the future. Electric version include but are not limited to computer software programs, CD-ROM applications, and on-line database services. Even though the publisher probably did not envision e-Books when this clause was written, the clause is written broadly enough that it covers E-Books. If you have an older contract, you probably have a similar electronic rights clause. If you do, then that probably means that the publisher has the exclusive right to E-Publish your book.

You may be able to convince your publisher to E-Publish your book. If they do not want to do so, then they may be willing to let you E-Publish the book, especially if it has been out of print for a long time, although they may want a portion of the royalties. If your contract does not specifically cover electronic rights, then the question is whether you gave the publisher all of the rights in your book, or you reserved all unspecified rights to you. It really comes down to, what does the book contract say?

This article is meant as a general guide only. Each situation is different. If you want to know the answer for a particular book, you should consult an attorney who practices this area of law.
—
Gary K. Marshall is a Seattle-area attorney representing small businesses, individual entrepreneurs and artists, in the areas of Computer/Internet Law & Litigation, Intellectual Property (copyright, trademark, trade secret & licensing), Art & Entertainment Law, Corporate/Business Law, and Complex Business Litigation.

Gary also publishes a blog on law, business, the Internet, society, and social responsibility — Gary Marshall’s Technology Law Blog (www.marshall2law.com) .  Gary can also be contacted through his website, another valuable source of information, at www.marshallcomputer.com .  Additional articles for writers by Gary Marshall can be found  at http://www.marshallcomputer.com/resources.html .  

I’ve always intended to do the screenplay for my first novel, so when I heard about Script Frenzy, a    NaNoWriMo offshoot, I bit like a big bass. After all, the goal — one hundred pages of script during April — meant 20,000 words, a fraction of the 50,000 I produced during National Novel Writing Month (pronounced NAN-no WRY-Mo) in November. (Holy frappe — that’s only a month away, again!)

I’d heard about special formatting and line spacing for screenplays, so my first question at the Script Frenzy meeting was about software. The near-unanimous answer was “Get Celtx,” and once I figured out how to spell it, I did.

“World’s First” is Free

Celtx is a full-featured scripting program that’s also for internet collaboration — from writing through actual film production. I’m using it standalone for a screenplay, others in Script Frenzy are creating comic books, novels and plays with it. My basic program is free. The Canadian creators of Celtx make their money by selling the ability to collaborate, charging monthly fees to centralize Celtx projects so that hundreds of people can share a single project and manage their workflows.

They say a million people use it already, and call Celtx “the world’s first complete, end-to-end solution for media production and collaboration.” Celtx runs on Mac, Unix and Windows systems. Its hardware requirements are minimal — I’m running it on an obsolete G3 iBook with just 384 MB RAM — and it’s still quick.

A $10 mobile version for screenplays, audio plays and comic books is available for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad at the Apple App Store. Much more information about Celtx is at Celtx.com. But let’s try it out!

Hands On Walkthrough

Let’s look at my Script Frenzy project. The first screen in Celtx has you choose your project type. Choices are film, audio-visual, theater, audio play, storyboard, comic book, and novel.

The right side of the window lists recent projects. You may also choose “Open from Studio,” which is the online collaborative edition. I click on Film. The next screen puts the cursor in the middle of three columns, with the title “Scene Heading.” I start typing “Ext Sailboat – night.”

Celtx automatically puts EXT in capital letters, and adds a suggested period, by showing the choice “EXT.” in a drop-down menu just below my typing box. All I have to do is hit <Return> to add the period automatically. This is wonderful, and such suggestions and replacements are huge time savers.

I type in the rest of my scene heading and hit <Return>. In a pull-down menu two lines above where I just typed, the words “Scene Heading” have now changed to “Action.” What I now type is not capitalized and is single-spaced — as is proper for this part of the script.

When I’m finished typing the action, I hit <Return> again. Hmm, it just takes me to a new line. OK, I read the Help, and Celtx does that because you might have a second paragraph of action. To get from “Action” to “Dialog,” I need to hit <Tab>, which changes the “Action” in the pull-down menu to “Character,” so I can name the person who will be talking.

I type Allison, and Celtx automatically capitalizes her name — puts it in ALL capital letters — and centers it properly in the middle of the page. I hit <Return> again, and Celtx starts a new line, with the proper margins for “Dialog.” The pull-down menu now shows “Dialog” automatically.  This is much easier to do and to understand than I ever thought it would be.

I type the dialog and hit <Return>. Celtx changes to “Character,” ready to start a conversation with another character’s response to what my first character said. I type in another character name, hit <Return>, type in that character’s dialog, and hit <Return>, which takes me back to “Character” again. I start typing in Allison, but I get no farther than the “a,” when Celtx presents me with a suggestion — Allison’s name in caps.

Oh boy. This thing is a real help. I just have to hit <Return> to accept the highlighted suggestion. If I had multiple characters with names beginning with “a,” I could just arrow down to the correct one and then hit <Return>.

Clearly, Celtx is an extremely effective program. An official Celtx user guide, “Mastering Celtx,” by Terry Borst, is $17 at Amazon. You may also like the free manual at Celtx wiki < wiki.celtx.com > or the Celtx forums < forums.celtx.com >.

–

Mark W. Hennon is an editor also writing a science-fiction quartet. He fixes Mac & Windows computers, with special rates for writers. Write or call at macfixers@gmail.com, 206-567-3877, or 425-825-9244.

I know that sometimes I procrastinate about my writing. I realize that over the past few weeks, I have had columns, reviews and proposals to write, and speeches to give and prepare. Now and then, I am doing this right up to the last minute and other times I am doing it ahead of time. Some days, I can get right down to it and other days, it takes a bit. Am I procrastinator by nature? I don’t think so. I like what I am doing and I like to work. Still, I am aware of moments when it sure seems like I am delaying the work that I know I have to get done. This column, for instance, is two days past deadline. What does procrastination look like for me? I have developed some ways to check in with myself to see where I am in my creative process. Here are some of the questions I ask myself:

What gets in the way for my creative endeavors?

• Friends who don’t respect my creative life and work and ask me why am I working so hard
• Guilt about taking time to create when I should exercise
• Self-doubt—will I like what I have written
• Discouragement and criticism—the writing did not turn out the way I wanted it to
• Checking E-mail
• Visiting with friends or family via phone or email when I know I have deadline
• Playing games online to give myself a break
• Watching TV as my favorite show is on

What do I do to deal with the things that get in my way?

• Go to SFL’s monthly meeting as an acknowledgement of myself as a writer
• Say “no” instead of “yes” so my time is my own to write
• Take action with a to do list and deadlines so I can plan and mark off my to do list—that way I begin to feel I am accomplishing my work
• Recognize that I am postponing my work
• Tape the TV show to watch later as a reward to myself for making a deadline

 What stops me from writing?

• Difficulty getting started
• Fear of not getting the words right
• Time constraints
• Lack of focus on what I want to write
• Not sure what I want to say
• Not respecting my time

 How do I avoid these obstacles?

• I begin writing notes to friends or family
• I change my environment—I take a walk or I go to Third Place Books and start writing, or I just sit and write an outline or make notes to myself on a project
• I review other pieces I have written so I can see how I approached the material
• I may take a drive —I’ve found that opens my mind up to what it is I really want write
• I write early in the morning for 15 minutes
• I have also discovered that there are things I do that help me to prepare to write, like doing the laundry or listening to music.

What gets you ready to write? Is there a ritual task that helps you find your creative mood? Is there a time of day when you are most productive? Do you like to have the TV on in the background, or must the room be quiet? Try making your own list. Even though I did not get this column done on time, my taxes are finished, last year is being filed away. I feel accomplished again. I thought of the blue heron that was standing in my yard near the creek that is part of the habitat of the yard. The bird was quietly approaching the creek carefully looking at the brook rushing past. It waited for quite some time before it found a small fish. I could see its beak moving into the creek and the gulp that followed. There was rhythm and pattern to the bird’s movements. I realized that understanding my own creative rhythm is also important. It gives me strength in knowing how I work, when I work and that I can work. Sometimes it just takes a bit longer than I wished.

See you at the next SFL meeting. Don’t wait to sign up for the evening.

February 5 -

Developing and Publishing Your Graphic Novel

and in March, there is the BizArt Conference!

(BizArt: The Business of Being an Artist -An annual conference for written, visual, performing and media artists presented by Edmonds Community College’s ArtsNOW program.)

BizArt 2011:

6th Annual BizArt Conference – “The Alchemy of Adaptibility”
Fri, March 25 & Sat, March 26 2011
at Edmonds Community College
Keynote Gigi Rosenberg
“How to Enlist a Village to Help Create and Promote Your Work”
Discover how to utilize the power of teams to launch and promote your own artistic projects.

Conference sessions will be announced December 2010. Registration begins in January 2011.

The PR for People business networking group has partnered with SharedBusinessSpace .com to create the first Seattle Book Summit on Tuesday, February 1.

The book summit will focus on book promotion strategies for 2011 and beyond. Seattle Book Summit is an emerging think tank for authors and publishers who are serious about gaining traction for their books in the age of the iPads and ebooks…

To see the remainder of this article, click here:

Press 53 offers a contest where the winners are published in an anthology!  Click here to see the submission guidelines.

The following definition of Press 53 is taken from their website…

Press 53 is located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and publishes full-length books by established writers. In addition to finding and showcasing new writers in our Press 53 Open Awards Anthology and established writers in our short story and poetry collections, novels, and creative nonfiction books, we also have a fondness for bringing back great books that are out of print, which we re-issue under our Press 53 Classics imprint.

Book Publisher: The Key Publishing House Inc., publisher of academic and non-academic books, Toronto, Ontario

Submissions are being sought for an anthology about writing and publishing by women with experience in writing and publishing about family. Possible subjects: using life experience; networking; unique issues women must overcome; formal education; queries and proposals; conference participation; self-publishing; teaching tips. Tips on writing about family: creative nonfiction, poetry, short stories, nonfiction, novels.

Practical, concise, how-to articles with bullets/headings have proven the most helpful to readers. Please avoid writing too much about “me” and concentrate on what will help the reader. No previously published, co-written, or simultaneously submitted material.
Foreword by Supriya Bhatnagar, Director of Publications, Editor of The Writer’s Chronicle, Association of Writers & Writing Programs, George Mason University.  Author of the memoir: and then there were threeŠ (Serving House Books, 2010)

Afterword by Dr. Amy Hudock, co-editor of Literary Mama chosen by Writers Digest as one of the 101 Best Web Sites for Writers. She teaches creative writing and co-edited American Prose Writers (Seal Press, 2006)

Co-Editor Carol Smallwood appears in Who’s Who of American Women, Michigan Feminist Studies, The Writer’s Chronicle. She’s included in Best New Writing in Prose 2010. Her 23rd book is Writing and Publishing: The Librarian’s Handbook (American Library Association, 2010). A chapter of newly published Lily’s Odyssey was short listed for the Eric Hoffer Prose Award; please click the title here, if you’d like to see a book trailer of Contemporary American Women: Our Defining Passages.

Co-Editor Suzann Holland, 2010 Winner of Public Libraries Feature Award, secured the permission of the Laura Ingalls Wilder estate for the forthcoming: The Little House Literary Companion. Her masters degrees include history, library science:  she taught English composition, information literacy, at William Penn University, was a librarian at Milwaukee Public Library, a  consultant in Davenport, Iowa. Her anthology contributions appear in: Greenwood Press, Neal-Schuman, the American Library Association
Please send 2-3 possible topics you would like to contribute each described in a few sentences and a 65-75 word bio using the format like the bio’s above. Please send in a .doc Word file by December 30, 2010 using FAMILY/Your Name on the subject line to smallwood@tm.net. You’ll receive a Go-Ahead and guidelines if your topics haven’t been taken. Contributors will be asked to contribute a total of 1900-2100 words. Those included in the anthology will receive a complimentary copy as compensation.

Sleuth “Cozy Mystery” Short Story Contest

Co-sponsored by the Village Theatre and the Pacific Northwest Writers Association

Entries must be received by November 20, 2010 to be considered. The winning entry will be judged by New York Times bestselling mystery author Bob Dugoni, local literary agents and authors. The winning entry will be published in Village Theatre’s Sleuth playbill.  Three runners-up will have their stories published on the Village Theatre website and have the opportunity to read their stories at a Writers’ Cottage Event.

Submission guidelines:
Maximum length is 800 words (no entry fee).
Entries must be double-spaced, in 12point Times New Roman or Times (Mac).
Your name and title of your mystery must appear on each page.

This contest is free and open to all writers, both published and unpublished. Please send your entries to:

Pacific Northwest Writers Association Sleuth Contest
PMB 2717
1420 NW Gilman Blvd, Suite 2
Issaquah, WA  98027

Travel writer and instructor Amanda Castleman, journalist and author Candace Dempsey, and literary attorney Gary K. Marshall will discuss some of the legal and practical issues facing freelancers at the beginning of their careers. Learn how to kick-start your writing career, and how to maintain it in style!

For more information about the event and the presenters at this unique panel discussion - click HERE.