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Interesting Copyright and Workshop Fun!
Copyright Notice… Kris and I went to see Wicked (part one) tonight. Great movie and I am a fan of L. Frank Baum’s work in all manner. I have read all 14 of the original OZ books, some numbers of time, and most of his short stories. At one point before my house fire, I even had 12 of the original hardback with dust editions with the fantastic (Denslow and Neill) art. So I am sitting watching the credits tonight and made note of the credit given to the author of the derivative novel, Gregory Maguire. But unless I missed it, not one credit to the original Baum source material…
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The Power of a Streak…
I Get Reminded of Streak Power At Times… Especially on a Friday night, after a stupidly difficult week. Why? Because I have a streak of blogging every night. And wow does this streak have power. No chance on the planet would I be at this computer tonight without this streak. But tonight is day 3,920 WITHOUT MISSING A DAY… That is flat nuts, But here I am. And sometime in March if my math is correct, if the streak does not get broken, I will pass 4,000 days without missing. Internet outage before hot spots, dozens and dozens of power outages, crashed computers, me in the hospital twice. Never missed.…
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A BUNCH OF STUFF…
Trying Something Old/New Tomorrow, if the schedule allows, I am headed with a friend to hit a few golf balls. Now understand, way back in time I used to be a PGA professional and I could play pretty well for the time. But for the last number of years, I have not hit a golf ball and am not sure if I can. Why? Lost a lot of my vision two years back. Last year I smashed up my shoulder and it is now titanium. Plus with the injury I gained about twenty pounds around my middle that I have not been able to shed yet. Plus I am 74.…
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FOCUSING FORWARD…
Watching the Old Magnum Television Series… It was filmed in the eighties. We are watching it not to study anything, but to shut down and enjoy the entertainment, even though sometimes dated. Still fun. The one we watched tonight was about the internment camps of Japanese Americans on the islands. It happened 40 years before the show was aired and they kept talking about those 40 years. The show aired 40 years ago now. So interesting to think about the 80 years. 40 years ago Kris and I had not met yet (a couple of years from meeting, actually). We were both writing like crazy, but both of us were…
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HISTORY BROUGHT FORWARD…
Back in the Day… And I do mean “back in the day” when Kris and I were going to a lot of science fiction conventions (1990-1998 or so), we got asked to do a live talk on publishing. Sounded fine, even though were were two new writers, we decided to talk about what we knew about the publishing business (which was a ton because I was the publisher of Pulphouse Publishing and she was not only the senior editor, but also the editor of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.) We were also selling novels like crazy and were in and out of of New York publishing offices all…
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A Few Great Questions Today…
First A Question on Priorities… The question boiled down to this… “What is more important? Writing, Learning, Reading, Publishing?” Great question, and I honestly had to stop and stare at it for a moment because in the publishing world of 2024, all of those are important. There needs to be a balance of feeding them all regularly. But writers tend to get into trouble over time when they drop one or two. “I don’t have time to study another author’s book or to take a class or worse yet, I don’t need it right now.” So learning gets left out and the writer goes stale and dull in time. “I…
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Judging, Gifts, and Golf…
Yes, I Am a Judge… Of the Writers of the Future writing contest. How it works for us professionals is that the editor of the book Jody Lyn Nye and a host of first readers wade through all the submissions every quarter and they send us professional-writer-judges 8 stories. I tend to judge two quarters a year is all. There are no names on the stories, but if I recognized a student’s style or story, I would disqualify myself. So total blind judging on our parts. Now here is what is interesting that most writers don’t know. Many, many writers were published out of the contest, which means they had…
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Why So Many??
Got That Question the Other Day… Why have I done so many Kickstarters? Done 44 of them, working right now on building #45. My honest answer. I like to get my books and Kris’s books and our projects to readers. That simple. And here in 2024, that is the first step in telling readers what is available. Just as with any kind of promotion, Kickstarters take time to build up followers, but first question I always ask someone who is complaining about book sales is have they done a Kickstarter? Answer is almost always no. Fear. Too busy. Too much work. All the reasons for the answer “no.” And when…
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Bite-Sized Branding and Trademark
EVERY MONDAY MORNING FOR 2025 Last few years we have done Motivational Mondays (twice), Creative Survival, and Bite-Sized Copyright with the structure of four videos every Monday morning for the entire year. So for 2025, we are going ahead and really doing a challenge with BITE-SIZED BRANDING AND TRADEMARK. Four videos every Monday morning for the entire year to make branding and trademark for writers easy and painless to learn. Of all the classes we teach, this might make you the most money in both the short run and long term. This will not be legal advice on trademark in any way, but will be advice from one writer to…
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Accidental Branding…
Happens to Most Writers… Pretty simple how it happens. You end up with a logo or a certain look or on a series of books. You are doing it because it looks cool and to tie your books together, which is a basic form of branding for sales. All fun and if you let it slip or change it down the road, the brand is gone. But what most writers don’t know or seldom think about is the increased value of their copyright, their trademark, their brand caused by doing something that simple. Granted, most writers worry bout how many sales they are making month-to-month and nothing about creating value…