MSI Press Blog

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic is what happens when an author dies.  I just returned from my best friend's funeral. I know that dying is a reality. (Lost my husband last year, two grandchildren the previous two years; definitely, a sad reality.) Really, though, what happens when an author dies from the legal and technical points of view? Well, there are a number of issues that have to be managed. Some things are automatic; others are required by law; yet others depend upon surviving partnerships of various sorts (including marriage, children, and the like). We have had several authors die, alas, and we always post an " in mem

  It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.  This week's conversation looks at copyright again. (It can be a complex topic.) This time, the discussion focuses on what be copyrighted. It is a topic that is often misunderstood. Book Titles You might be surprised to learn that book titles cannot be copyrighted. That is why you will see several books sometimes with the same title. (Note: using a title already in existence can complicate matters and reduce sales both for you and for the person who first used the title.) Ideas and General Content You can trademark an idea that results in a product, but, no, you cannot copyright your ideas. We had one author who had a very frustrating exp

  It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.  This week's conversation continues to look at copyright issues. Last week, the conversation was about what can and cannot be copyrighted . This week looks at the next, sad, step -- what if someone steals your work, anyway. Can you do anything about it? Yes, you can. Here are some ways to deal with this, from inexpensive to expensive. The Author of the Stolen Work If your words appear verbatim, without citation in the work of someone else, then that person is in violation of copyright law. Are more than 100 words or lines cited, even with credit, then perhaps you or your publisher should be receiving payment? Graphics, too, must be credit

  (photo by Frank Perez) It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic is about an important understanding that many new authors do not have and that can make a huge difference in the long-term value of their book to them. What is the difference between copyright and rights? Sell the wrong thing, and you lose control over your book. Here is the difference and the importance and implications: - Copyright is what protects your book as being your work and your legal property. Selling the copyright (never do that--if a publisher asks to purchase copyright, run in the other direction) takes your work away from your permanently. While you may have written i

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic addresses contracts -- what is a good one, what is a bad one, and what do the specialized terms actually mean? I will answer these questions in a series of posts, using, to start, our contracts, and will go through them paragraph by paragraph. Then, I will look at some other publishers' contracts for differing content. Last week we looked at the introductory paragraphs, mostly general information, including who is the author, what is the title, what rights are being offered. Paragraph 1 states what rights you are offering -- specifically and in detail. The next three sections spell out related under

Here is some news shred from Science Fiction Writers of America that should be of concern especially to writers but also to readers. When books are stolen, writers lose income, and that makes it less possible for them to continue writing -- and THAT should be of concern to readers. Readers can help: Do not read purloined books. Find the publisher and acquire a legitimate copy.   HOW TO USE A PANDEMIC TO LEGITIMIZE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY THEFT The Internet Archive's Open Library Project--a huge repository of scanned print books available for borrowing in various formats--justifies its existence with a novel (and disputed) legal theory called Controlled Digital Lending, which it claims allows it to create new digital editions of in-copyright books without seeking owners' permission.  In March, as the coronavirus pandemic was taking off across the world, the IA abandoned one of the key provisions of CDL to create the National Emergency Library--basically, the Open Library with rest

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic addresses what happens to a book after an author dies. We have certainly had a number of authors, alas, die over the years. Each death has special circumstances, and generally each case needs a lawyer's involvement. The following examples of situations we have dealt with are simple examples of real life (and death) in action and do not set us up as having any kind of legal expertise; rather, we seek that expertise when needed. The one thing that all authors who die have in common is that copyright continues after death; it does not die with them. The question then falls to heirs and publishers as to

  (photo by Frank Perez) It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic is about contracts--bad ones. We will state upfront that contracts are filled with legal terms that are often difficult for authors to understand. That legal information is important, critical, required. Also important, critical, required is that authors understand what they sign, reading the proposed contract as carefully as they would read any other document. AND RUN IT PAST AN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS LAWYER. OK, let's take a look at one can go wrong with a contract. Rights and copyrights (see our previous blog POST on this topic for more information): Never sign a contr