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Trademark for Fiction Writers…
INTRODUCTION… For years and years, when asked about trademarks by fiction writers, I flat told them to not worry about it. The reason I said that is simple: Fiction writers can’t seem to understand copyright. Trademark is another level of protection for different reasons completely. And far, far, far more complex then copyright. Fiction writers have this wonderful way of being sincere about learning copyright and then never finding the time. They write stories and novels for years and years and never once understand where the money comes from or what they have created. And by doing that, of course, they leave more money than they make on the table,…
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Rethinking the Writing Business
Kris’s Blog Is A Must Read… At least for indie writers. (Traditionally book published writers don’t bother to read it because it won’t help you. You have already screwed yourself.) Indie writers, this first post in a series by Kris is amazing and very clear. She talks about our adventure at the Licensing Expo, some of which I have also talked about in the Learn Along Licensing thing I did on Teachable. And she talks about the main conclusion we came to, and that is simply “We are doing this wrong.” So head there and read it and comment if you want. Or come back here and comment if you…
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Lifetime Workshop Subscription
Just Added Writing Westerns Into It… And I happened to notice that the total value of all the workshops in there was well over $16,000. Wow, shows what happens when you just sort of keep going year after year after year. This year we have put in four Futures Workshops, an Emotion workshop, Writing Time Travel workshop and Writing Westerns starting in July. It does not include the Pop-Ups, the lectures, Study Alongs, or odd things like the Licensing. But still, $16,000 plus of workshops for $3,000. And who knows how many more workshops we will keep adding over the years. Many more, from the looks of it. Seven in…
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Licensing Learn Along
Three New Videos Tonight… That brings the total now to 48 videos in the Licensing sections and another 40 plus videos in the Magic Bakery Classic Workshop that is included. So almost 90 videos and pictures on Licensing. Takes some time to go through, that’s for sure. All for $200. And I will be closing it for new sign-ups in a week, around the first of the month. All of you signed up, no worries, all the videos will remain. And I will be adding some more new videos this next week or so. So still a week to sign up at Teachable. In October, Kris and I and Loren…
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Writing Got Me Behind
And That Felt Great… First time in a while, so sorry if I owed you a letter today or Sunday evening, but Ring Game: A Cold Poker Gang Novel I am working on sort of grabbed me and woudn’t let go. I did three sessions today and two yesterday on the novel. Maybe 10,000 words total. What fun. And just as twisted a book as any of the others. I will be caught up on letters I owe people tomorrow and reading more challenge stories as well. But felt good to have the writing back solidly as it used to be before the move, so I just let it go. Also tonight…
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Saturday Night Copyright
Because No One Stops Here On Saturday… So I thought I would pass on a web site with a series of copyright lectures. This was suggested to me by A.B. Alvarez. They are a series of long lectures, like over forty of them, by Professor William Fisher and are offered under the Creative Commons License. Now copyright is a tough, dry area of the law for most people and Professor Fisher does not help that much. But he has some amazing charts and connections that work fantastically. So file this for next time you have a copyright question. http://copyx.org/lectures I spent some time watching a couple of them, including one…
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July Workshops Available
Including Both Writing Time Travel and Writing Westerns… A great list in July, but they start early this year, the 2nd and 3rd. So keep that in mind. You can still do the first week after the big US holiday, but the workshops start before the holiday. Lifetime subscribers, I will get the Writing Western workshop over into the subscription this next week. Interesting how many new workshops we have done this year. Four different Futures workshops, Emotion, Time Travel, and now Writing Westerns. Seven new workshops and the year is just half done. And four older workshops moved to Classic. So at $300 a workshop, just this spring came…
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Day Four of Ramp Up
Finally Hit All Parts… I managed a bunch of words this morning, made 12,000 steps for the second day in a row, and am down five pounds this week (clearly a lot of that was surface weight.) The weight loss will level at 2 pounds a week going forward. Plus today I actually ran a mile. (In parts, 1/8th of a mile at a time) but a mile anyway. Basically doing intervals, some fast, some medium. For an old fat guy, I still have amazing speed when I kick it on. Surprised me, actually. I am behind on my challenge reading, but should catch that up this weekend without a…
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I Did Another Podcast
A Second One When I Was At Writers of the Future... John Goodwin, the President of Galaxy Press did the interview. It was great fun. This one was about old pulp writers, rewriting, and clean first drafts, among other things. I think this is about 15 minutes, so worth the time to listen to me and John talk about the old writers. And I got a detail wrong in my old mind. Lester Dent was a real name who wrote 159 Doc Savage novels under the name Kenneth Robeson. Lester Dent was not a pen name. Max Brand was a pen name of Frederick Faust. Names, I am not allowed…
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How To Approach a Licensee?
Tough Question… And honestly, I don’t know the answer to that exactly because it will be different for every license you give. And different for every project you have. And different for every licensee. Some approach you, others you approach through meetings. So no right answer. For example, you might have a really nifty young adult series with teddy bears, so you would research and set up meetings with teddy bear companies. But you wouldn’t do that with your tech-filled sf series. (Unless it was a very strange series.) Robert Jeschonek wrote an amazing story about sentient underwear that was first published in Fiction River and then I bought it…