Copyright - 2nd August 2010

Before I go much further with this blog I thought I should touch on the ticklish subject of copyright. This can cause so much confusion for a novice author that I thought a simple set of guidelines would be worth setting out.

I’m not just talking about the author’s copyright in their work, I’m also talking about the way an author can unwittingly use copyrighted material inside their manuscript. An author’s copyright is straight forward enough. If you wrote it, then the copyright is yours, and subsequently your estate’s until 50 years after your death. (I’m talking most countries here, there are variations around the world, but this is the normal accepted term).

A publishing contract will normally expect you to assign the publishing rights to the book to the publisher, for a set period of time, usually with a rolling period after this. By rolling period I mean after the initial period either party can terminate the contract on a rolling notice period. Usually the contract asks the author to assign publishing rights for the media being published, electronic, print etc, etc. Some publishers insist on all rights, including for example film, video, TV and radio rights. Personally I regard this as bad practice and would never recommend an author signs such a contract.

Your copyright, though, is something that you should cuddle to your chest and not let go of. If a contract assigns the publisher the copyright, even for a limited time – RUN A MILE IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION.

Don’t forget though, if you assign the publishing rights, especially the electronic ones, then you as the author have a duty too – don’t put the book up in total on your own web site for people to read for free, don’t put it on writing.com either – extracts are fine but check with your publisher how much they consider acceptable. You signed a CONTRACT remember.

The other side of copyright is the unwitting use of other people’s copyrighted material. For example, some authors put nice quotations at the top of each section or chapter, and many novices follow suit. You must attribute these quotations to the correct place. Quoting Shakespeare for example is fine because the author is clearly long deceased. Or even the bible – you would think.

Ah... Not so. In either case. Simply put, where did you get the quotation from? If it was a modern version of the book, it may be a new translation from the original (don’t forget Shakespeare didn’t write in modern English) and as a result your quotation might be subject to the copyright held by the translator or his/her assignees. The same can just as easily be held true for a version of the bible, and some are produced specifically for particular churches who then hold the copyright.

How about quoting song lyrics? Same holds true, only the copyright length is different here. You want to have your (modern) character singing along to a particular tune to set the mood or establish the period, and his/her taste in music and personality. Oops. Copyright. Suddenly you have an editor breathing down your neck telling you to change something you consider essential to your character development. How about a mystery thriller where the perpetrator is caught by his tendency to hum a particular song as he goes about his work? Similar. Oops.

Now, suppose I receive a well written story, that has say, 50 chapters, each with a different quotation, which is littered with song lyrics as it’s about a cover band. Then, on the coach between gigs, the lead guitarist is reading the latest Tracy Quan (strange reading tastes for a rock singer but hey, I didn’t say it was a he) and reads the juicer pieces out to the rest of the band.

May sound extreme, but I did receive a submission similar to this. It got rejected, on the basis of take out the copyright stuff, and rewrite around it, then resubmit.

As yet I’ve heard nothing back.....

You have been warned....