Intellectual Property Mashup

The internet is a black hole for artists. It's a copyright Bermuda Triangle.

This is such a convoluted topic, I'm almost too wary (and weary) to tackle it. Don't take any of my opinions as legal advice. If you, as a creative person, fear someone "stealing" your work, then take advantage of all your legal avenues to prevent it.

Here's my take: Once I put something out there, it's out there. I hope no one uses my work for profit without my consent, but there's no way in hell I'm gonna know every infraction. I do know some. I have a Google Alert set up for my book title. More times this year than I care to remember (probably six?), an alert has popped into my email box informing me that my book is downloadable for free on a site that doesn't have permission to distribute it for free.

It used to irk me. Now, I figure, maybe a few people will read it and like it enough that they'll actually buy something else I've written (or will write).

My house sits on a large lot. At one corner, three neighbors, whom I've yet to meet, place their trash on the very edge of my property for pickup each week. At first, this irked me, just like the free downloads. Now I see that it doesn't really harm me much. I've even thought about building an aesthetically pleasing trash bin for them to use. It's just a matter of being neighborly, in a way.

Are those free download sites making a killing off my download? Selling ads as an aggregator? I doubt it, but I don't know. Frankly, it doesn't harm me much. Or at least, if it does, I don't feel it directly. I worry sometimes when I find things on the internet that I want to use but can't find a way to properly credit the creator. It's not easy to know who created what online.

But my creative work is my work. I put hours and worry into it. I'm not going to give it away outright. Far from it. I'd like to make more money from it, but doing so isn't easy. My advice: Do what you can and when you can to keep your work protected. Then, let it go. It's going to be out there whether you double-down on surveillance or not.

For an overview of copyright issues for writers, see this post by Writer's Digest.

Letter to the Reader

I'm trying to carve out space to work on revisions. I have about ten+ copies of the MS floating about in various hands. Some readers I've heard from, and I'm making notes on things I want to change. All good progress. I've started back to work (PT teaching a college course on journalism) and am looking for a full-time job. Crazy weather has hindered by child-free hands/head. Turning on lots of lights to keep away winter gray. Trudging on. The notes I've scribbled here and there about changes to the book make me happy. Saw a good word today above the wheel-well of a muscle truck: rumble. Working that in somewhere.

Library Privileges

BTW, my library is loaner friendly. Better a book gets read than sit on a shelf. But unlike a traditional library, my books can be taken on perpetual loan. In fact, it's yours once it passes hands. I won't keep track or bemoan its absence. Once I've read it (if I've read it), I'm done. I don't reread. Too many other books to discover.

A few I won't lend out. Right now, those pertain to the book I am writing. So they stay close. But I don't catalog, like some music collectors do, organizing by artist or album or alphabet. I cram them where I can. Unload when I can.

A neighbor wrote recently she moved four times in the last three months. The books and papers were the kicker.  To make her last move, she went paperless. She feels free. I'd feel naked.

PS--I won't mail a book either. I loan only in person.

Book Gifts

Books are a good perk of being a new fiction writer. I know right away when someone is a reader because the conversation about my latest adventure immediately turns to what they are reading, which I like. Then they lend or unload. My office is crammed.

I've accumulated more books in a year from friends and acquaintances than in my entire life. I bookmark about two at a time. I'm a comprehensive reader but not a quick one. I've also become picky. If I don't get into a book by halfway (yes, I give the author the benefit), then I put it aside and start another. I'm alternating between classics, popular commercial fiction and my genre. (BTW, my genre is, right now, romance, but I'll post about that later).

A famous writer recently blogged that she doesn't read nearly enough, but once she described why, I forgave her. When you "make it," writers are in production mode. She is a monk when writing the draft manuscript. Two to three hours of sleep, writing every day, never showering, etc. Sounds like fun.

But I want to read. It expands me. I'll never complain about a book handed over. It's like a secret, and I'll honor it.