Keep Books in Your Car! By Mel Menzies
When I’m not writing, my husband Paul and I job-share: he does all the work and I take half the salary. But please don’t tell the taxman! (Only joking). As a bonus, I also get to enjoy the perks…
Author! Author!!
We’ve had quite a busy week on the road! On Wednesday and Thursday, the RV was in for repairs at LazyDays in Seffner, Florida. LazyDays provides RVers with just about everything they need while their rig is being repaired, including a large waiting area that features Starbucks coffee, toys for the children, a special area for pet owners, and free breakfast and lunch.
As soon as we checked in for repairs, an RV salesman magically appeared, asking if we’d like to look at new RVs…
BookLocker Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Amazon.com By Angela Hoy
This article appeared in Monday’s Special Edition of WritersWeekly.com. You may reprint this article or quote from it at your discretion. You can read/post comments here: https://antitrust.booklocker.com
BookLocker.com has filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon.com in response to Amazon’s recent attempts to force all publishers using Print on Demand (POD) technology to pay Amazon to print their books.
Invasion of Privacy vs. Libel
Hi Angela:
Just off the cuff, I think there’s more to this issue.
I believe privacy laws vary from state to state, and in any case there may be defenses against these sorts of action. With libel, I know, if statements are accurate that is a legal defense.
Newspapers and TV news would be out of business if these sort of privacy claims were valid. Admittedly they have bigger legal funds than the average author.
Still, it would undermine the intent and credibility of memoirs if personal information of the kind you mention had to be changed in a radical way. I’m all for being sensitive to people’s feelings, and perhaps changing or omitting names in exceptional circumstances (having alerted the reader to that alteration). But for a father to delete references to children and grandchildren seems to go too far.
As I say, these are spontaneous thoughts, offered without benefit of research.
Andrew Means
How to Cash in on Crafts By Ruth Schiffmann
Down time, we all have it, whether it’s a lull between major projects or the quiet before a creative storm. The next time that eerie silence stalls your productivity, turn your energies in a new direction and get ready for the winds of creativity to start blowing. While selling your original craft ideas won’t land you in a monetary windfall, with a small investment of time you can punch out a project with the potential for a nifty little return.
Can You Copyright a Recipe?
First I want to thank you for all the work you do helping us budding writers. Thank you for including me on your mailing list.
I have a question. My family has been after me to write a family cookbook with all their many favorite recipes. Through the years I have clipped recipes here and there. Some are my mother’s or grandmother’s. I have no idea where they originated from. Of course, I would write it mainly for family, but what if it became a New York Times best seller? (Just kidding.) But, friends or others might want to buy it. How could I ever trace down the original recipe for permission? Some of the recipes I have changed a little. (I thought I made it better.) I have bought cookbooks from local fundraisers and I can’t find disclaimers.
Could you help me?
Thank you so much!
Joan
We get this question quite a bit so I try to run a ditty on it at least once a year. 🙂
There is actually a special page on the Library of Congress website concerning the copyrighting of recipes. See:
https://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.html
Shark!
We got up at the crack of dawn, kissed Richard and Mason goodbye (that type of boating is not good for toddlers), and drove to the dock…
Don’t Invite a Lawsuit with Your Memoir By Angela Hoy
We recently received an angry email from a woman who claimed her father’s book, which we published, constituted a violation of her privacy…
Another Brave POD Publisher Tells Amazon How It’s Going Be!
I am a self-published author and owner of GungHo Pages, LLC, who recently signed on with Lightning Source POD services. I have been following the Amazon/BookSurge dilemma for a few months now, continually checking to see if my Buy Buttons are still intact. They are. So I am doing my best to keep myself up-to-date and carving out alternative avenues for distributing my books. I will stay with Amazon until they remove my Buy Button. But if and when they do, I will simply take my business elsewhere where it is more respected and appreciated…and perhaps post a few articles on the web about my not-so-positive experiences with the companies in question!
Signing out, ABCrane, author of The Tao of Mao: How Capitalist America and Communist China Paved the Way to Each Other
Want to Write a Travel Guidebook? By Barbara Hudgins
So you’ve decided to write a travel guidebook! Perhaps you are a travel writer with a sheaf of articles about your trip to Australia and you feel you have a good enough angle to support a full book. Perhaps you’re a travel editor who is fed up with the books coming across your desk since you feel none of them have really brought the reality of the place home. Or you could be an outdoor editor who notices there are more and more inquiries about mountain biking in your area but there is no guidebook on the subject. Of course you may not be a writer at all…