Madeleine Robins January 15th, 2007
It’s not like I don’t have a lot of books on my “to be read” pile. But sometimes I find myself reading out of sequence, or reading books I’ve read before, and when it goes on for long enoughI figure there’s a purpose to it that my brain (inconsiderate object) has not communicated to my conscious mind. There are always books I re-read on some sort of repeating loop: Jane Eyre and Jane Austen, Wild Seed and Red Sky at Morning and Dorothy Sayers and, recently, Laurie R. King’s Holmes/Russell books, in all of which I find new stuff and old comforts. But sometimes I go on a bender that seems to have a purpose to it.
Right now I’m plowing through the collected ouevre of Dick Francis, the British jockey-turned-columnist-turned mystery writer. Francis writes clean, entertaining, well thought out mysteries, often set on or around the British racing world (it says something that while I’ve never had any inclination to go to the race track in the US, I’d love to go to the races in England some day. Francis has well over two dozen novels to his credit, and in the last week I’ve read five of them. I don’t generally ask why when I take down a book from the shelf–sometimes it’s just because I want something familiar, or (if I’m going to take the dog to the dog park or the kids somewhere where I know I will be interrupted off and on) I want sometime that won’t require that fierce involvement of a first-time read. But if I read a string of five books in a week that I’ve already read before, I know there’s a reason.
In this case? I’ve gone back to Sarah Tolerance Book 3, which has something wrong with it–a mechanical part of the mystery plot. I’m not one for brainstorming with other people, since usually trying to explain a plot which makes sense to me as I build it has me feeling, once I’ve stopped talking, like I’m stupid and the plot is useless. So when I have a technical problem, I often find that I’m reading to find an answer.
What’s the answer? Not sure yet. I’m not even certain what the question is. But my mind, that pesky creature, seems to feel that guidance will be found in the pages of Decider and Banker and Proof and Nerve. And my mind has a way of being right about these things in the long run.
Anyone else find they do this?
Constance Ash January 11th, 2007
[ ... today the dispute reached breaking point, with Mr Shaye telling the Sci-Fi Wire: "He's got a quarter of a billion dollars paid to him so far, justifiably, according to contract, completely right."And this guy... turns around without wanting to have a discussion with us and sues us and refused to discuss it unless we just give in to his plan.
"I don't want to work with that guy any more. Why would I? So the answer is he will never make any movie with New Line Cinema again while I'm still working at the company." ]
Love, C.
David Louis Edelman November 27th, 2006
Note: I really do try not to duplicate my posts between this blog and my personal blog, but every once in a while I write something that I think is pertinent to both places. Feel free to comment either here or on my personal blog entry.
It’s now been about five months since Pyr published my first novel Infoquake. It seems as good a time as any to sit back and take stock of my promotional efforts. What worked, what didn’t work, what should I have done more of, what should I have done less of?
When I started to make a list of all the promotional efforts I’ve made in the past year, I started to feel — well, a little embarrassed. To an outsider, it must look like I do nothing all day but come up with ways to move copies of Infoquake. The “Infoquakes Cereal” pic here is meant to be a joke, but honestly, sometimes it feels like I’ve tried everything but a sugary cereal for kids.
(Quick aside: Have you ever noticed that when companies say their cereal is “part of this nutritious breakfast,” the cereal box is always sitting next to… a complete nutritious breakfast?)
Here, then, are the promotional efforts I did that I think were well worth doing:
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Madeleine Robins November 22nd, 2006
Long time ago I started to talk about contracts and what they mean. I figure it’s time I took up the gauntlet (as opposed to the gantlet) again. Last time it was Grant of Rights; the next paragraph in my contract covers Copyright.
The copyright in the Work will belong to the author. The Publisher is hereby authorized to register the copyright in the United States copyright in the name of the Author. The Publisher agrees the imprint the copyright notice authorized by the United States copyright laws in each copy of the Work distributed by the Publisher. The Author agrees with respect to any rights reserved to the Author hereunder to take all steps necessary to protect the copyright in the Work.
At the end of the graph my Lovely Agent (hereafter LA) has inserted an important sentence: “The publisher will require all sublicensees to imprint the copyright notice.” Why is that important? While you (technically) own copyright from the moment you write something, your hold on the copyright depends, to a certain extent, on vigorous defense thereof (which is why there’s that sentence about the Author agreeing “to take all steps necessary to protect the copyright in the work”). So if you and the Publisher make a deluxe subrights sale to AudioBooks Am Us, the publisher is required to make AudioBooks Am Us include the copyright notice (and make them include it correctly–no slugging in someone else’s name instead of yours).
In the days when I worked at Tor, I was the person responsible for filing the TX forms (the forms registering copyright in a text). My understanding of the law is that you do own copyright from the moment you’ve written your Work–but filing the form cements your copyright in the finished work as it appears.
To return to that vigorous defense business: this is where things like fan fiction can cause trouble for a copyright holder. If Mona Ffysh-Ripple, author of Love’s Avocado Dip, sues Deirdre Deebleknight for infringement of copyright, and Deirdre can prove that there are dozens, maybe hundreds of fan fic stories on the internet using her characters, plot and situations, Deirdre can argue that Mona has failed to “vigorously defend” copyright in her work, leaving the door open for her to borrow stuff too. This is a vexed subject: a lot of publishers/production companies know that there’s a marketing benefit to having people so immersed in your world that they want to continue that experience; still, you don’t want to lose copyright and its economic benefits.
And really, that’s what it comes down to: yes, copyright protects you from somone who might steal your work and say it is hers. But in the final analysis it’s copyright that protects your right to make money from your work (and the publisher’s right to make money from your work, and you’d better believe they care about that–publishers have mortgages and food bills too).
Madeleine Robins October 31st, 2006
No, not Shakespeare or Prince William.
Neil Gaiman points out, with useful illustrations, why anyone with literary property (is that you?) should have a will. Like, right now.
Years ago, my friend Steve Popkes and I agreed to be each others’ literary executors. It sounds a little pretentious–like talking about my presidential library. But the fact is that I’ve published ten novels and bunches of short fiction and other stuff, and when I die (because sadly, there’s no if about it) my beloveds would have no clue what to do with it. But Steve would.
If you have kids, you probably have a will (if you don’t, get on it, unless you want the State, or your dotty Aunt Grizelda, raising the sprats after your demise). You can add a codicil regarding literary executorship. If you haven’t got a will, get on it. Even if you don’t care what happens to your spoon collection or your second best waffle-iron after you die, I suspect that you do care whether your literary output is sold for quitclaim rights to Engulf and Devour’s Videogame Department.
Get on it.
Constance Ash October 26th, 2006
Today’s New York Times carries a sympathetic overview of the latest Battlestar Galactica series.
Included was this bit of trivia:
“Audience sympathies are generally with Laura, a middle-aged woman and a seeming softie who may be a stand-in for the new sci-fi viewers, who are increasingly women …”
This declaration by the NY Times television critic is of particular interest since the received wisdom about Science Fiction, particularly television SF, is that the audience is predominantly that O-So-Worshipped-Demographic of Young Males.
What do you all think?
Love, C.
Kate Elliott October 16th, 2006
I am on a short book tour, west coast only, with fantasy writer Melanie Rawn. As all writers know, book signings can be wonderful or horrible - that is, depending if people show up enthusiastic about your books, or if no one shows up.
I can’t be the only writer who has frequently been asked by customers at book signings “Where are the cookbooks?” because they think I am a staff member.
If you live in California, Phoenix AZ, Albuquerque or Santa Fe NM, or Austin TX, please check the link to see if there is an event close to you, and come say hello! I have macademia nuts with me, free to interested parties. And books, of course.
http://kateandmelanie.typepad.com/tour_date/
Usually we do a reading and then answer questions. Borderlands Books in San Francisco, a terrifically well run establishment, has a routine they use: the author reads a short excerpt, then one of the bookstore staff (in our case the inestimable Jude) asks a few questions to break the ice, so that the people in the audience who might otherwise feel reluctant to ask the first question but who do have questions to ask get over that awkward transition.
And speaking of Borderlands and the book business, here is a good article about the success of niche bookstores in these days of the chain behemoths:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061009/ap_en_bu/genre_bookstores
And as a later update:
Alternative Reality Web Zine is conducting an online and ongoing interview with me this week, and you can reach the forum here .
Constance Ash October 11th, 2006
Ms. Novik has just sold the film rights to all three of her books to Peter Jackson, the director of such blockbusters as “King Kong� and “The Lord of the Rings� trilogy.
Photos of author and her Manhattan office included in article.
Love, C.
Constance Ash October 8th, 2006
From the U.K. Guardian; the author of this review article that examines a Very Big Literary Writer’s crime fiction published under a pseudonym, makes this concluding comment:
” …. Crime writers have been moaning for years that their stuff never gets considered for the big literary awards; the possibility of competition from the other direction has been less discussed. If there’s any justice, Banville should be able to add the CWA Gold Dagger to his heap of trophies, but I hope this doesn’t start a trend. Life is hard enough for those of us who labour away down in the potboiler room without the toffs from the penthouse suites showing up and acting like they own the place.”
Love, C.
Carol Berg September 23rd, 2006
Emerging briefly from under the deadline rock…
A couple of weeks ago, I participated in the Colorado Gold Writers Conference in Denver. I gave a workshop on designing and writing vivid fictional worlds. I did a question-and-answer session addressing all sort of topics, as well as some individual writing issues. I spent a lot of time “fraternizing.â€? Had a great autographing session. The hardest part was the ten-minute “writer-of-the-yearâ€? speech I had to give on opening night…which led me to think about the place of writers’ conferences (aka writers’ workshops).
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