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5.0 out of 5 stars
Indispensable, June 16, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: The Rights of Authors, Artists, and other Creative People, Second Edition: A Basic Guide to the Legal Rights of Authors and Artists (ACLU Handbook) (Paperback)
This is a wonderful summary of privacy, slander and related law. Even fiction writers should own it because it will keep you from being sued when you base a character in your novel on Aunt Maude. You'll know how to avoid an embarrassing (and suable) public relevation of private facts.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Writing is a Business, April 11, 2010
This review is from: The Rights of Authors, Artists, and other Creative People, Second Edition: A Basic Guide to the Legal Rights of Authors and Artists (ACLU Handbook) (Paperback)
This book is an excellent reference which should be on the shelf of every aspiring author.
Too often we become so embroiled in the struggle to write a decent book in the first place and finding a willing publisher in the second place that we can be inclined to simply accept any contract offered for our work.
The major lessons from this book are:
* Copyright protection is pretty clear
* The "Fair Use" clause of the Copyright Laws are pretty murky
* There is no such thing as a "standard" publisher's contract
* Everything about publishing is negotiable
* Any contract the author is offered from a publisher is likely to be slanted very heavily in favor of the publisher
* Unless you are an attorney specializing in publishing, the aspiring author should (at minimum) obtain representation by a good agent and a good attorney BEFORE they sign any publisher's contract
* Carefully consider every clause of the contract
Don't sign anything unless and until you completely understand and agree to the immediate and long term ramifications of every clause in the contract.
Lack of caution and due diligence in this arena can be your ruin as an author.
Signing a publishing contract can and will have long term ramifications not only for the particular work in question but ones whole career as a writer.
Buy this book, read it, and keep it handy. Writing is a business and any author who does not understand the rules of the game - will suffer the adverse effects of playing the publishing game.
Publishers are in business to protect themselves, while maximizing their profits - they are not in business to benefit or protect authors.
At best an author's relationship with a publisher should be approached as an adversarial business relationship. The author must use caution and due diligence to achieve a very clear understanding of the exact rights his is relinquishing before he signs any publishing contract. This book is a good place to start.
Highly recommended.
Richard A McCullough
How to write better, faster and sell more of your work
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