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Bite-Sized Copyright
Learn Copyright Every Week Painlessly… Yup, I know. You have been meaning to get to learning copyright, but it just doesn’t seem important enough yet. You are making great money “selling” your stories on Amazon and other places, and the entire licensing thing just seems pointless. Sadly, most writers feel that way right up to the moment something happens. Copyright is like learning craft in fiction writing. The more you know, the more you realize you need to know. And the more you know, interestingly enough, the more money you make overall. But learning it on your own is difficult at best. And for many writers, tedious, so it gets…
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Intellectual Property Valuation Basics
Some Basics Before Moving On… The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has laid out some basics when it comes to putting a value on IP. So I am just going to quote a few of those from their web site here for the purpose of education. First off, an IP must have exclusivity. WIPO says: “The value of an IP asset essentially comes from the right the owner of that asset has to exclude competitors from using it. For an IP asset to have a quantifiable value it should: generate a measurable amount of economic benefits to its owner/user; and enhance the value of other assets with which it is…
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Lots of Learning
Amazing Week of Conversations and Learning.. Pretty exhausted after four days of getting up very early. But wow was it worth it. Major areas I have learned stuff about… Kickstarter… I will be sharing a bunch of this over time as we test some of it out, and also sometime this winter I will be updating the free Kickstarter class with a bunch of new suggestions. I will alert you here and over that class when we get it done. AI in Publishing. So, so many ways AI change indie publishing and our lives over the next five years. Art, audio, and text. Just amazing. I will do updates regularly…
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Some More On Licensing Expo
Dates Are Set for 2023 Licensing Expo 2023 will be at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center from May 23rd through 26th. That is Tues-Wed-Thur. Now, as I have said, I tried my best in the smaller show this year to see everything in three days. I walked the floor right up until the last hour the last afternoon. I was looking for everything I could see, every idea, every type of branding and licensing, and I ended up with a number of preliminary meetings with some. But my goal was to see everything if I could. I thought I had done a pretty good job, to be honest. So this…
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Trademarks…
Something to Learn… At the Licensing Expo, you often hear about trademarks. And just about every writer I know has no real understanding about trademarks. Sadly, fiction writers know little to nothing about copyright, let alone a trademark. Trademark is something that you have been making money on. It is a business tool to protect something you have been making money on, such as a business name. So here are some really, really basic things a writer needs to understand without me writing a book trying to explain the details. (The TRADEMARK book by Fishman from LOLO Press will give you a basic, bare-bones start, which is all you need…
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Licensing Videos
New Videos Are Up… In both the Master Business Class and in the Licensing Transition class. Basically, in a nutshell, the videos that Kris and I came up with as early details from the Licensing Expo are this: — Future looking — Brand, not just branding of covers, but start thinking of your work and series in terms of a brand or brands. — Learn copyright (this one most of you will ignore and it will bite you later.) — You must attend the Expo at least once to understand this part of the business. — Everything is image focused, so you must start slowly controlling the art for your…
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The Path Into Licensing… A Second Post
Much To Learn… But not impossible amounts. First, you start by learning copyright and licensing. For example, I assume everyone reading this knows that when you create a work in a form, you give birth to a copyright on that work. Automatically. (There are reasons to register, but a topic for another time.) That copyright is called an IP (Intellectual Property). It is a property and it does have value. Some of you realize that when you put a book on Amazon to get out to readers electronically, you are licensing that story to Amazon, and in return, they license it to customers. The license agreement is the terms of…
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Licensing Expo First Notes
Better Than I Had Expected… The size of the Expo was down from 2019, which was no surprise. Takes the larger companies months to plan an exhibit, and months before this, such as last fall and January, we were still in uncertainty as to events coming off the pandemic. But yet a lot of them still made it, in one form or another, a lot of mid-range and smaller companies as well. So 250 booths this year, where in 2019 there were around 400. But still amazing. WMG Publishing had me, Kris, and Allyson at the show. We did not have a booth and now never will. We figured out…
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Licensing Expo Is Over…
Exhausted… Over the next few days here I will do some reports about what happened, once my mind slowly returns. And this coming week I will do videos for updates to not only the Master Business Class, but Licensing classes. I can say this right now, I learned a ton. Also helped the future of WMG Publishing a lot, talked with a large number of people, and had a lot of fun. I can not begin to tell you how amazing it was to be with eleven thousand others attending, plus the thousands in all the booths, who were all positive and looking toward the future and making deals for…
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Licensing Expo
Here in Vegas May 24th, 25th, 26th… I just put up a few more videos on the Master Business Class about the Expo. I will add in a full five to ten more videos on how to best use it this year, take your IP from your computer to a toy in a toy store, or a major game, or whatever license that would fit your IP. So those of you in the Master Business Class, watch the new videos and then stay tuned for more. Plus other topics as well coming, including how to handle money and how to deal with taxes. Yes, it is still possible to sign…