Upon
flipping through The Writer’s Legal
Guide: An Authors Guild Desk Reference: (4th edition), by Kay
Murray and Cad Crawford (Allworth Press), I realize just how many legal issues
are involved with being a writer. Just
look at some of the topics covered and you’ll quickly realize there are numerous
pitfalls to putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.
Here’s
a sampling of subjects covered by Crawford, the founder of Allworth Press and
an attorney, and Murray, former Authors Guild assistant director and the deputy
general counsel for the Open Society Foundation:
·
Tax
laws relating to book sales and income
·
Avoiding
or resolving legal disputes
·
Author
contractors and ghost-writing agreements
·
Electronic
rights and digital wrongs
·
How
to use open government laws for research
·
When
to avoid libel, defamation, or plagiarism
·
Copyright
protection and fair use
·
The
limits of free expression
·
Negotiating
rights deals for film, stage, foreign, audio, etc.
Publishers
Weekly said it is “an indispensable handbook for anyone who writes,” and that
may be an understatement. Today’s writer
must be armed with a well-rounded sense of what the law can do for and to him
or her.
So
who is the book for? It says:
“This
book is intended to be a legal reference for anyone who writes literary works
for publication in print and online: nonfiction writers, novelists,
journalists, freelance contributors to newspapers and magazines, poets,
children’s book writers and illustrators, and textbook and academic
authors. It is structured to cover the
legal issues a writer faces in roughly chronological order, from the time she
begins creating a written work for publication: understanding and securing
copyright, avoiding defamation and invasion of privacy, accessing government
information, negotiating various kinds of publishing contracts (including the
“deal point memos” that precede many negotiations), finding and retaining a
literary agent, taxes, and estate planning.
It will explain how to get the best possible deal for the various ways a
work of literature can be exploited suing new technologies, including those as
yet unknown. Even if you are writing for
purely personal and not financial reasons, or to promote yourself, or your
business, or a cause, you can still use the information here to protect your
work from piracy and distortion and to minimize your legal risks.”
That
said, the book warns you should still use a lawyer when it’s a big negotiation
or you feel confused or not fully informed.
The
book covers a lot of territory, making authors aware of what they either need
to know, do, or avoid. One key mistake
can screw up a writer’s career.
One
of the more interesting sections was on the history of the copyright laws and
how they came to be. It also had a good section about using the law to obtain
access to government records. I liked the section regarding the First Amendment.
The
book concludes with a list of useful resources, including these:
The Writer’s
Legal Guide: An Authors Guild Desk Reference: is a book you
never read all the way through but refer to many times over. It should be on
the bookshelf of every writer.
DON'T MISS THESE POSTS
Authors United Petitioning Justice Dept Over Amazon: Will You Join
Them?
Will Twitter be here to help authors in 2016?
This Social Media Legal Handbook Helps Authors Navigate Laws
Free newswires can help promote books and author brands
What Should Be Book
Publishing’s Slogan?
19 Digital Tools To
Assist Authors
What to do when book
marketing fails you
Book Marketing Advice
You Fin On A T-Shirt
Brian Feinblum’s views,
opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his
employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him
at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the
third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.