How to Get Published

by Al Philipson

Rights

When you create a manuscript in any readable form, you automatically receive “copyrights” to that work. You can sue for actual damages is someone intrudes upon those rights. If you register you copyright, you can also sue for “punitive” damages.

What most people fail to realize is that, like property rights, copyrights are actually a “bundle” of rights.

A property “owner” may not “own” the subsurface rights to his property. Here in the Northwest, where Weyerhouser has owned so much of the property that it subsequently sold to developers, the original owner has retained the “subsurface” rights. That means that if oil is discovered on your property, you don’t own it; someone else does.

Now, how does this apply to copyrights? (more…)

by Michelle Gagnon

Yesterday, Joe discussed knowing where you’re headed before getting started. I received an email from a college friend this week who’s writing his first novel, and he asked me a few questions about my process. I thought I’d share some of what I said in reply. Of course, there is no one “right way” to write a book; everyone has to find his or her own path. But after hammering out four books, I’ve learned what works for me.

1) At what point do you seek formal feedback, rather than just cranking it out?

I don’t show my work to anyone until I’ve completed two drafts. And then I send it to my “Beta readers,” 5-7 people whose opinion I trust. What I’ve discovered, however, is that they’ll all like different aspects of the story, and they’ll all criticize different aspects. I always take that feedback with a grain of salt. If more than one person is saying the same thing, I know it’s time to go back and figure out where I went wrong. (more…)