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Photo Credit: Content writer by Ritesh Nayak used under CC BY-SA 2.0

Imagine for a moment you have been working hard on your writing all morning.

You stomach is empty and your eyes are aching.

You step out for a break at the local coffee shop.

You have thirty five dollars in your wallet. You can almost taste the confections displayed in the glass case and you can smell the fresh coffee brewing on the bar.

Suddenly a threatening stranger demands that you turn the contents of your wallet over to him.

Would you quietly do as you are told only to go hungry and watch as he spends your money on a stack of tasty snacks?

Web content mills demand that freelance writers hand over their Intellectual Property, their copyrights, for free.

When a writer signs either electronically or on paper a “Writer’s Agreement” or similar so-called “contract” agreeing to submit work acting as an independent contractor or freelancer and that agreement includes a clause that requires that the writer upon submission release all copyright interests he has in his work regardless of subsequent approval and payment he falls prey to the content mill’s copyright high-jacking scam.

The copyright to a work submitted for approval and payment has significant value to a writer because Continue reading Stop Web Content Mills From High-Jacking Freelance Writer Copyrights

Photo Credit: IMG_0859 by Nathan Gunter Used Under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

It seems like every time you meet up with friends you are greeted with the news that one of them is releasing of some sort of book.

And it each time it happens your thoughts are pulled to that garret space about the garage where you have spent almost the last decade working on the next great American novel.

Lately you’ve been noticing that the neighbors keep checking up on you when they see the lights still on at three in the morning.

It’s probably to make sure you haven’t inadvertently left that old car running again with an oily rag or something stuffed in its exhaust pipe.

You’ve edited your creation again and again and then you edited it just once or maybe twice more in case you might have missed something somewhere.

You’ve researched every historical reference for accuracy, followed every story line to a resolution, assured story continuity with each character’s motivation leading to the achievement of a goal and allowed for a surprising and satisfying resolution of all of the conflicts including one or two of emotional epiphanies.

You figure your family will never recognize themselves in characters which they have inspired and even if they do you’ve prepared a response involving a convenient accusation that they are nursing some sort of narcissistic personality disorder.

You’ve never been more ready. You’re afraid of nothing and nobody. And then, a cold chill runs down your spine as you remember that you still have no literary agent and no publisher.

Your awareness switches focus to the coyotes howling under the summer moonlight and that bottomless pit in your stomach starts to churn and roll with horror as you recognize the fact that as of this moment you are just another unknown and unpublished genius.

Protecting an Unpublished Work

You comfort yourself with thoughts of how your literary hero, James Joyce, got countless rejection letters from publishers all over the world who couldn’t relate to the potential marketability of Ulysses.

The manuscript alone must have weighed three hundred pounds. Can you imagine the “synopsis letter” for that one?

And it is true that the first publishers of Ulysses were arrested and fined for their trouble. Mais avoir le courage, Aloysius, surely your work of art will inspire a far more warm and friendly reception. Right? It will, won’t it?

Step 1

Here is my advice Continue reading How Writers and Book Authors Can Avoid Common Copyright & IP Pitfalls in 4 Steps