You Do Not Own Your Published Book; The Creator and Designer Do

Whether you use a traditional printer or a self-publishing service, whoever turned the manuscript into a published form owns the copyright.

If there is a substantive edit of the original manuscript, the editor actually has rights to the finished works. 

Unless there is a signed release indicating that 100 percent of ALL rights are waived and turned over, the author does not have permission to republish that book in the same form.

There may be implied permission for the author to use the published materials for marketing purposes, but that permission is likely waived as soon as the author picks a fight with the publisher or creator.

Ideas are not copyrighted but images are, so if there are illustrations, a unique cover design plus interior layout, these are copyright materials.

The Canadian Copyright Act has been reformed and these are some of the key points for creators and copyright owners: 

Creators and copyright owners will have new rights and protections that respond to the realities of the digital environment. For example:

• Copyright owners will have stronger legal tools to pursue online pirate sites that facilitate copyright infringement.
• Copyright owners will have new making-available rights to allow them to control how their works are made available online.
• Copyright owners will also be given distribution rights, which will enable a copyright holder to control the first sale of every copy of their work;
• Performers will be given moral rights, which will ensure that their performance is not altered in a way that harms the artist's reputation.
• Photographers will be given the same rights as other creators. They will be the first owner of copyright in their photographs and will receive the same benefits as other creators.
• If copyright owners decide to use digital locks to better protect their works, they will have the support of the law to do so.
• Copyright owners will also benefit from legal protection for rights management information, which connects the creator's identity and other key information to the work.

For the most part, there is not usually a problem on a contract for service basis, but if there is a legal battle, note that, as the author, you may be surprised who actually owns the copyright to your book.

Teamwork Wins Championships--In Everything

Because it is game day for the Super Bowl, to start this piece using sports as an analogy for success seemed like the right thing to do. 

That said, as I watched the credits roll for a movie earlier this morning, it made me think about the recent Screen Actors Guild  Awards and People's Choice Awards. It takes more than good acting to make a movie. You could have the most talented producer or director in the business, but if the acting isn't just right, if the editing is done a certain way, if the music score is out of sync...the product will soon be forgotten. It takes a village and a leader to orchestrate all of the elements for a product to sing off the screen or page.

In publishing, the most talented author to ever bless this planet can pen the greatest book of all time but if it just sits in his computer, nobody will know about it. If nobody knows who this writer is, it will take great packaging to get the public's attention. Packaging isn't singular, it takes teamwork. The work needs editing...not just a once-over read and using Spell Check. You need a skilled graphic designer to create bug-free electronic files. You need someone who knows what they are doing to convert the files to an ebook format. You need to know how to tell people about the book without turning them off.

It is all an orchestrated dance to create a winning product, a winning business plan, a winning team. 

With all the elements in place, you may still miss out on the trophy, but if all the elements are there, and you keep doing all the things right, your chances of getting noticed and perhaps nominated are greater than if you use the "that's good enough" scenario.

Whatever the outcome of the Super Bowl, the losing team used the same amount of effort to get there. Things had to click in the right way. The same for the actors and directors who were nominated but not chosen for the awards. Being there meant they did something remarkable. 

Being remarkable may begin with showing up and assembling a team, but so much more goes into it. 

The World Is A Big Fat Melting Pot

There are some North American readers, and authors, who might be surprised that two of the most forward-thinking and progressive book fairs are the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair and the Frankfurt Book Fair. These events have been preaching the digital phase long before Kindle or iPad.

But there is another story here. Abu Dhabi is in the United Arab Emirates and Frankfurt is in Germany. Many North American book publishers are getting their titles printed in China and India.

Publishing is a global industry, but how many books are translated to reflect that?

A while back, a fellow from Portugal approached me about his multi-book series that focused on the published and unpublished material of a renowned writer from that country, which was only available in his native language. He was to translate these stories into English for the North American market, where this famous writer had a bit of a following.

Years ago, a fellow sports media friend told me that although Canada is a bilingual country, many books were not available in French.

Granted, it is expensive to translate. Besides hiring a translator with strong literary skills, it requires a new layout because translated words don't fit the same page flow as the English words.

Think of the books North Americans are missing out on because they haven't been translated into our language.

It begs consideration when one is assessing who their audience is and whether to consider a different language. Your book in Spanish or Russian might even outsell an English book.

Food for thought.

We Are the Media. We Are the Publisher.

Nobody wants to wait even five hours to learn more about an incident in their neighborhood. As we wait for mainstream media to catch up with the story, or at least post it online, frustrated, we turn to our friends in Facebook and ask the question in our status update, “Does anyone know what happened?” Or more likely we go to Twitter and use the keyword finder to hunt down tweets from the people who were there at the scene as it happened. They WILL tweet about it in play-by-play. That is real time news, on the scene, as it happens. It may not be entirely accurate or verifiable, but one gets the sense of the situation long before the media assigns a reporter.

Because of cameras in our cell phones, we can take onsite video and post it to YouTube or CNN iReport in minutes.

We are the media now.

So it’s no surprise that the book publishing industry needs to evolve, but so far, it’s the last one out of the gate. It didn’t heed the precedent of the independent music industry, even after Apple invented the iPad tablet and Amazon launched the Kindle.

There will always be those who like the brick and mortar publication. I’m one of them. However, it’s way easier to carry books inside a Kindle.

I am also damned excited about the future.

As an independent publisher, a writer, and a business, the opportunities, the creative options, and the ability to connect one-on-one with my audience is where it’s at. I don’t have to rely entirely on mainstream media to push out my message via paid and unpaid advertising. I AM the media and I AM the publisher and I’m connected to my audience directly. I have created a community of not just like-minded people, but people who are interesting, who have an interest, who help me spread my message, and who engage me with interesting content, advice, and entertainment.

This is an excerpt from my next book: Surfing the Digital Wave of Publishing and Marketing. For the rest of the introduction, go here:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bz7GbM-AsvgwenBMYzRlaDRjdjg