Top 10 Blogs For Freelance Writers

When it comes to freelance writing, there are a multitude of blogs on the Internet that deal with the subject matter of being a writer. Some are good, some are bad, but a select few are great. Below is my list of the Top 10 Blogs For Freelance Writers.

Please keep in mind that though I have sought to be objective, in reality lists like this are very subjective as their inclusion is based on the mindset of the person listing them. In other words, how the chosen blogs speak to the wants and needs of the reader. You may agree or disagree based on YOUR mindset, but I believe that in any case you will find excellent advice, wisdom, guidance and resources from these Top 10 Blogs For Freelance Writers.


10. Quips and Tips for Successful Writers - Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen is a freelance writer whose blog is full of great advice married with quotes that tie in with each post. She also has some extensive sections dealing with Articles and Query Writing, Newspapers and Magazines that I've found extremely helpful.

9. Procrastinating Writers - Jennifer Blanchard is a Writing and Creative Coach who launched Procrastinating Writers in 2008 to help her overcome her own writing procrastination, Her ultimate goal in the community that has developed through her site? To get writing done. As a lifelong procrastinator, I find her blog very relevant and helpful.

8. Writing From My Mountain - Kathryn Magendie's site is one of those rare gems you stumble across by kismet. I freely admit that the only reason I first started reading this blog is because the author is a writer who lives on a mountain in Maggie Valley, NC, where I just moved last June. But it wasn't long before I came to enjoy her sense of humor about life in general and writing in particular. Oh, and her photos. My goal, like the title of her blog, is to be writing from my mountain some day.

7. WordCount: Freelancing in the Digital Age - Michelle Rafter's blog about writing and the business of being a freelance writer. Has a great advice column with realistic questions and sensible answers.

6. Write To Done - Leo Babauta, a journalist and publisher, writes this blog centering on the craft and art of writing.

5. Dollars and Deadlines - Kelly James-Enger is a regular contributor to The Writer magazine (one of my favorites) and a freelance writer who has written articles for more than 55 magazines and blogs here about freelancers and money. I've enjoyed and learned a great deal from her book, "Six-Figure Freelancing" and she always offers common-sense advice in her blog posts that is based on her 14 years of writing experience.

4. Writer Unboxed - Therese Walsh and Kathleen Bolton write this blog which specializes in helping genre-fiction writers by discussing the writing craft and interviewing writers who, as they say, "Have done it with style." They have also conducted and posted interviews with a number of authors, including some of my favorites such as J.C. Hutchins, Joe Abercrombie and Audrey Niffenegger.

3. The Renegade Writer - Linda Formichelli and Diana Burrell are published magazine writers who offer great advice and tips. There is a fantastic resource of 10 Free Query Letters (I downloaded these long ago) that were written by  professional writers who landed freelance assignments with the included query letters. Linda also offers teleclasses for writers.

2. The Urban Muse - Susan Johnston covers a wide range of excellent topics that all writers will enjoy. An eclectic mix of pertinent subject matter that is real and down to earth, written by Ms. Johnston and guest bloggers. After discovering her site 2 1/2 years ago, I quickly added both the blog feed to my reader and the monthly e-mail newsletter to my mailbox, as well as purchasing her excellent e-book "Guide to Online Writing Markets" late last year. Great stuff here!

1. Make A Living Writing - Carol Tice and her blog have become my "go-to" place these past few months for guidance in mapping out my freelance writing career hopes. Real-world advice from a writer who has been there and still is, offering information that will aid you in the pursuit of your dream. Her e-book, "Make a Living Writing: The 21st Century Guide" is full of excellent, usable material (I've read it 3 times since purchasing it late last year) and on this blog she regularly gives out free advice about how to improve your own blog and web presence. In addition, Ms. Tice has begun conducting webinars for freelance writers on subjects such as "How to Break In and Earn Big as a Freelance Writer" and "40 Ways to Market Your Writing."


Those are my current Top 10 Blogs For Freelance Writers. As I mentioned above, your mileage may vary but I believe everyone will learn or gain something from reading these blogs.

And I'm always searching for more good blogs on being a freelance writer, so if you have a freelance writing blog of your own or read one that you think is always helpful to you as a writer, please leave a link in the comments so we can all enjoy the goodness.

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Where To Find The Word of Jeff Work Online

Thank you to all of you who have "Liked" The Word of Jeff Facebook Page.  I just thought I'd take this opportunity to welcome those who have connected recently and provide a list of where else you can find my work online.


The Word of Jeff blog - My writing blog (those posts, like this one, are automatically posted to the Facebook Page)

The Verbal Vagabond - My travel blog

Postcards From Maggie Valley - My Maggie Valley, NC photography blog

The Masked Blogger - My comic book industry blog

My articles on Suite101 - I'm formerly a feature writer and currently a contributing writer to Suite101


If you haven't already, I invite you to visit these other sites and again, thank you for liking The Word of Jeff Facebook Page.

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The Writer's Knowledge Base

When it comes to search engines, Google is pretty much the king for most people. They are, after all, the 800 pound gorilla of online searching.

But for specialized search results, say for writers, Google does not always provide useful, relevant or meaningful results. That's where the Writer's Knowledge Base steps in.

The Writer's Knowledge Base is the brainchild of mystery writer Elizabeth Spann Craig and software engineer Mike Fleming. Elizabeth had begun collecting a massive amount of writing tips, writing articles, writing blogs and anything else she could locate on the Internet that addressed subjects that were pertinent to writers. She would share these links in her own blog and in her Tweets, but she worried that the information was not readily available unless a reader, like her, amassed a huge amount of bookmarks for later perusal.

Elizabeth wondered aloud on her blog if there wasn't some better way to make this writer specific information available and that's where Mike Fleming entered the picture. Mike created a searchable collection of Elizabeth's ever-growing writing links and thus The Writer's Knowledge Base was born. WKB, as Mike states on his own blog, is especially helpful in being writer-centric because...

"The search is done instantly over thousands of writing-related articles ranging from character development to author promotion on social media. Unlike Google, all of the results are relevant to you as a writer. They may not all interest you, of course, but at least searching for "plot" will bring back articles on how to plot your story and not news articles on terrorist plots."

I did a few cursory searches for myself and found the links and information to be extremely relevant, informative and helpful. I'm excited that Elizabeth and Mike have put this resource out there for writers to make use of in our daily writing work and I've placed a box link to WKB on my sidebar to make it easier for visitors here to access.

Give it a look and see what you think.

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Memories of the Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion

There are certain dates in our history and in our lives that we never forget. Like most people in my age range, I remember where I was when I heard that President Kennedy had been assassinated, what I was doing when I saw the second plane crash into the Twin Towers on 9/11 and where I was and what I was doing 25 years ago today when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, in front of my own eyes in the sky above me.

I was working as the head of an advertising agency whose office was on Lee Road in Orlando, which is about 45-50 miles west of the Kennedy Space Center. It had become habit for many in Central Florida to stop what they were doing (even motorists driving on roads and expressways would pull over, stop their cars and exit their vehicles to stand and gaze skyward), step outside and watch the launches that produced bright, white trails of exhaust as the mighty rockets propelled NASA's various space shuttles into the air and into orbit around Earth.

That January morning was cold and the air was dry. I sat listening in my office to the radio on my desk as I worked, with the volume turned down low, to coverage of launch preparation and the countdown to liftoff. At approximately 11:38am, after a two hour delay from the originally schedule launch time, Challenger roared skyward from the launch pad and I left my office to walk outside to the parking lot so I could watch the ascent of the shuttle with my own eyes.

Standing in the parking lot I looked eastward and up. There were some trees that blocked the view of the lower portion of the sky, but within a few seconds the white and light gray rocket exhaust trail appeared, cutting a swath across the clear blue sky of that crisp, cold morning and I silently cheered as the shuttle lifted higher. From the distance I was viewing, the shuttle itself could not be seen and only the trail of exhaust that it's booster rockets left behind it gave evidence of its existence.

Suddenly, there was a larger puff and a smaller exhaust trail that appeared, shooting out almost perpendicular to the larger plume, and for a second I thought to myself, "I've never seen that happen before." That thought was barely finished when the gently arcing exhaust trail grew larger at it's source, as if someone had put their finger on the plume's end and smudged it across the azure sky. The exhaust trail immediately stopped its normally easy rising curve and began to uncontrollably wriggle, presenting a view that was not unlike a child scribbling white against a blue piece of paper.

My mind was screaming the obvious in my head, "Something's wrong! That's not right!" and I raced back into my office to the radio and turned it up to hear some word of what had happened and if the astronauts were safe.

Today, we know that they were not. At 73 seconds and 48,000 feet into the liftoff, just as mission control gave Challenger the "throttle up" command that would push the shuttle out of earth's gravitational pull and Commander Scobee responded with, "Roger, go with throttle up", "O rings" that sealed the fuel tanks failed  and the huge tanks exploded, sending 7 brave astronauts to their deaths. It would later be determined that, due to the cold temperatures before liftoff, the "O rings" had failed to perform.

This morning, at 11:39, I'll spend a few moments in silence, honoring Commander, Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, its pilot, Michael J. Smith, and its crew, Christa McAuliffe (the first 'Teacher in Space'), Mission Specialists Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnick and Ronald E. McNair, along with Payload Specialist Gregory B. Jarvis. And I'll never forget where I was and what I was doing when they made the ultimate sacrifice in our quest to explore the unknown.

Rest In Peace...

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Portland, OR Bookstore Will Take Your Kindle as Trade

The Microcosm zine and book store in Portland Oregon is offering to take unwanted Kindles in exchange for books.

Their offer is simple; if you received or bought a Kindle and have a real preference for books over the eReader, bring it in and they will trade you the value of the Kindle for like value in paper books and magazines. Consider bringing a friend to help haul your exchanges out because, as they state, "...most of the store's books are priced in the $2-$6 range so with a $139-$189 trade-in (note: going retail for the Kindle at Amazon's site) you might be carrying your books out in a fleet of wheelbarrows!"

As I explained to two of my friends on Facebook the other day, I read both "real" books, newspapers and magazines as well as eReader versions. I don't believe anyone could accuse me of not loving "real" books. If you come to my cabin you will find that my library overflows out of my office and onto bookshelves throughout the home. Hallways, stair landings, and bedrooms show ample evidence of my love for books made of paper.

On the other hand, the convenience of an eReader is hard to beat in a couple of categories. I can take multiple books with me when I travel, which works out well for someone who is typically reading at least 2 books (sometimes 3 or 4) and various magazines and newspapers at the same time. If there is a book I want to read and I am not near a bookstore, I can download an eBook version immediately and start reading; instant gratification (or information availability).

Last night I wanted to read the next book in a series I have been enjoying, but the paper version was not available. I found a .pdf version, converted it to my eReader format and now am enjoying the continuation of the series without interruption. I might have waited months for a paper version but can now enjoy the rest of the author's storyline immediately.

But if you, for whatever reasons, don't want your Kindle, then Microcosm zine and book store is waiting to give you a real deal and get you back into "real" books.

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2011 Writer's Market Deluxe Edition

Whooo Hoooo! The mailman delivered my copy of the 2011 Writer's Market Deluxe Edition today!!

This is the version that includes access to an online database of more than 7,000 listings that is updated daily. And, in addition to the market listings of more than 3,000 book, newspaper and magazine publishers, literary agents, greeting card companies and production companies found within the pages of this edition, there are also interviews and articles by successful writers, such as Charlaine Harris, as well as a completely updated "How Much Should I Charge?" rate chart for freelancers. But that's not all! There are also new articles on topics such as how to use social media and online freelance writing.

But, for most freelancer writers, the reason to own this book is the market listings and I'm looking forward to seeing just how much use I can get out of it during the next few months.

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The Only 12 1/2 Writing Rules You'll Ever Need

  

Poster available at AllPosters.com

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About.Me

I recently posted all of my contact information (email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr), a short bio and where my writing appears, on About.Me, a personal profile page that points users to my content around the web.

I'd be grateful if you would take a look at it and let me know your thoughts. If you think this might be useful for your personal or professional web presence and decide to create your own About.Me page, please let me know so I can take a look at yours.

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New York Times Best Sellers the Week You Were Born

Here's a fun little site that will show you the Fiction and Non-Fiction books on the New York Times Best Sellers list for the week of the year you were born or, if you were born before 1950, it will show the best sellers for that year.

Here's the list for the week I was born. Of these I have only read "A Man Called Peter" (number 3 on the non-fiction list) and as I recall it's because my mom had the book and it was lying around the house when I was 9 or 10.


NYT Best Sellers for Week Ending 03/07/1955

Category    Rank    Title    Author

Fiction 1 SOMETHING OF VALUE Robert Ruark  
Fiction 2 BONJOUR TRISTESSE Francoise Sagan  
Fiction 3 NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS Mac Hyman  
Fiction 4 SINCERELY WILLIS WAYDE, John Phillips Marquand  
Fiction 5 AUNTIE MAME Patrick Dennis  
Fiction 6 THE GOOD SHEPHERD C.S. Forester  
Fiction 7 THE DINNER PARTY Gretchen Finletter  
Fiction 8 RUN SILENT RUN DEEP, Edward L. Beach  
Fiction 9 THE BREAKING WAVE Nevil Shute  
Fiction 10 THE SCOTSWOMAN Inglis Clark Fletcher  
Fiction 11 THE VIEW FROM POMPEY'S HEAD Hamilton Basso  
Fiction 12 THE WINE OF YOUTH Robert Wilder  
Fiction 13 DUTCH Theodore Bonnet  
Fiction 14 NOT AS A STRANGER Morton Thompson  
Fiction 15 THE VIRGINIA EXILES Elizabeth Gray Vining  
Fiction 16 ADVENTURES IN THE SKIN TRADE Dylan Thomas  
Non-Fiction 1 GIFT FROM THE SEA Anne Morrow Lindbergh  
Non-Fiction 2 THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING Norman Vincent Peale  
Non-Fiction 3 A MAN CALLED PETER Catherine Marshall  
Non-Fiction 4 HOW TO LIVE 365 DAYS A YEAR John A. Schindler  
Non-Fiction 5 WHY JOHNNY CAN'T READ Rudolf Franz Flesch  
Non-Fiction 6 ONIONS IN THE STEW Betty MacDonald  
Non-Fiction 7 GERTRUDE LAWRENCE AS MRS. A. Richard Stoddard Aldrich  
Non-Fiction 8 BOSWELL ON THE GRAND TOUR Frank Brady and Frederick A. Pottle  
Non-Fiction 9 THE FAMILY OF MAN Edward Steichen  
Non-Fiction 10 MEMORIES Ethel Barrymore  
Non-Fiction 11 ESSAYS IN THE PUBLIC PHILOSOPHY Walter Lippmann  
Non-Fiction 12 FROM MY EXPERIENCE Louis Bromfield  
Non-Fiction 13 MY PHILADELPHIA FATHER Cordelia Drexel Biddle and Kyle Crichton  
Non-Fiction 14 TIGER OF THE SNOWS Tenzing of Everest and James Ramsey Ullman  
Non-Fiction 15 LAURETTE Marguerite Courtney  
Non-Fiction 16 BOTTOMS UP! Cornelia Otis Skinner  

I'd be interested in learning what the best sellers were the week (or year) you were born and whether or not you have read any of them in the comments below.

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Writing Goals For 2011

There is nothing quite like giving your hopes and aspirations some substance by writing them down in black and white.

Like most people, I can say, "I'm going to do this" or "I'm planning on doing that" and really mean it, yet never accomplish what I said I was going to do. Sometimes, as it is with ideas for articles or stories, I will actually forget what I said I was going to do. Sometimes, if it is something that is uncomfortable for me to do, I can easily ignore my unwritten intention.

But when you write it down, make a list, type it out and commit it to reality in this world, then those hopes and aspirations become goals; concrete, substantial goals that look back at you as you look at them, reminding you that you gave life to them and are responsible for them and to them.

I've never been one for making New Year's Resolutions as I consider them to, in reality, be short-term, wishful-thinking exercises that seldom, if ever, bear any lasting fruit. But I do endorse setting realistic, reachable goals that will result in long-term growth in your personal and professional life.

These are my writing goals for 2011:

1. Write at least one article for at least two different local print publications.  - There are a few, not a lot but a few print publications in the surrounding areas of where I live and, while I have lots of web writing samples, I need print clips to give some weight to my writing resume.

2. Write at least one article for at least one regional print publication.

3. Write at least three guest blog posts.  - As a way of getting your work out in front of the blogosphere, guest posts are a great way to spread your name and abilities. They also tend to help bring visitors back to your own website and blog, if they are interested in what you write and how you write it.

4. Write at least one article for at least three different online publications, apart from the guest blog posts.  - The web is full of online publishers that need content to fill their web pages and even though I write for 5 of my own pages or blogs, I'd love to extend myself even further to readers around the Internet.

5. Write at least one e-book to give away and one e-book to sell.  - In that order so that I can gain some personal experience in producing an e-book with some helpful and/or needed information before marketing a larger e-book with more substantial information and content that will make it worth a fair price. I've been working on some ideas and need to focus even more sharply on final subject matters for both of these projects.
  

2011 will be the year that I immerse myself even further in a freelance writing career designed to allow me to write on a variety of subjects while earning a comfortable living and expanding my own knowledge and experience.

Have you made any similar writing goals? Or have you already met those goals and are moving on to new writing peaks? If so, I'd love to hear of your current writing goals or how you met these goals in the past. Please feel free to leave a comment below.

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No Demand For Demand Media?

Today's article on the CNNMoney site explains that, while Demand Media's CEO Richard Rosenblatt believes his company has the ability to raise much needed capital through an IPO, Wall Street and the Securities Exchange Commission are not quite so sure. Both its business model and accounting practices are being called into question; chief among them, that Demand's Adsense ratings are completely dependent on the way they have gamed Google's algorithm (and that said algorithms can be altered by Google at any time to stop the high ratings), and the questionable quality of content Demand provides through its cheaply compensated content providers.

On Wall Street, at the very least, it appears there is no demand for Demand Media.

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Book Quote

"Books are becoming everything to me. If I had at this moment any choice of life, I would bury myself in one of those immense libraries and never pass a waking hour without a book." - Thomas B. Macaulay

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Angry Robot Open to Unsolicited Manuscripts for One Month Only!

If you have a science fiction or fantasy manuscript lying in your desk drawer, or an idea for such a story that is about to burst out of your mind and onto your computer screen, then British-based publisher Angry Robot has some good news for you.

For one month only, that month being March 2011, Angry Robot will accept unsolicited manuscripts for possible publication. Like most publishers, Angry Robot usually only accepts story proposals from literary agents, but for the entire month of March 2011 they will review any unsolicited story that is submitted.

Angry Robot’s Editor, Lee Harris, said, "We're delighted to be able to offer this opportunity to unpublished and unrepresented novelists. There are a lot of exciting authors out there, just waiting to be discovered, and we'd like to be able to help them kick-start their careers."

Further details can be found on their submissions page.

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Stephen King Names The Best Books He's Read in 2010

Stephen King is a regular columnist for Entertainment Weekly magazine and in the issue cover-dated December 17, 2010, Mr. King lists the 10 best books he's read this year, being careful to point out that this does NOT mean they were published this year. I'm feeling a bit culturally deprived because I have not read even one of these books, though a couple have been on my list of "want to read."

10. City of Thieves by David Benioff

9. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (the first one of these on my "want to read" list)

8. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

7. Blood's a Rover by James Ellroy

6. Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes

5. Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving

4. Savages by Don Winslow

3. I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

2. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (the second one of these on my "want to read" list)

1. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Have you read any of these books yet? If so, would you count them as a "best book read in 2010"?

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Is Your E-Book Watching You?

I have a Kindle, an iPhone and a laptop; all of which I read e-books on. I enjoy the convenience of being able to download books immediately and at my convenience. I enjoy getting popular books at a discount and being able to read quite a number of books that interest me for free.  I enjoy being able to move from one device to another device and picking up where I left off on the previous device.

Now, like the TV's in 1984 that watch the viewer, we find out that our e-books are watching us and the data they are compiling is astounding.

"They know how fast you read because you have to click to turn the page," says Cindy Cohn, legal director at the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation. "It knows if you skip to the end to read how it turns out."

And obviously where you purchase your e-reader or book from will have a database full of information on YOU.

"[The Kindle] is just one more string in their bow," says author Scott Turow, president of the Authors Guild. "They could tell you with precision the age, the zip codes, gender and other interests of the people who bought my books. Now you can throw on top of that the fact that a certain number of them quit reading at Page 45."

But more than that simple information is stored in their databases.

According to the NPR article, the day may not be far off when someone's alibi is called into question because their e-reader's built in GPS will show that they were not at their alibi location when they claimed to be, but rather were at the point of the crime.

Ultimately, the more networked we become the more personal information we give up to enjoy the benefits of that networking. All that convenience comes with a price and some, like best-selling author Stephen King, acknowledge the duality of the situation.

"Ultimately, this sort of thing scares the hell out of me," King says. "But it is the way that things are."

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Interview With Science Fiction Author Greg Bear

Lightspeed Magazine just posted a Feature Interview with Greg Bear, conducted by John Joseph Adams & David Barr Kirtley. Bear is the author of several Science Fiction novels, including his latest "Hull Zero Three" which I finished a couple of months ago after being given a pre-publication copy by the lovely Gina at Malaprop's Bookstore in Asheville, NC.

This is an interesting interview an encompasses more than just Mr. Bear's writing accomplishments. We get a peek into his thought processes when coming up with a story, as well as a bit of his history apart from writing.

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Google eBookstore Opens

Google's foray into the ebook business, which was supposed to happen earlier this year, was officially unveiled today with the launch of Google eBookstore.

I've already downloaded the iPhone app and a couple of free books so I could take it for a spin. I found the experience comparable to reading on my iPhone using Stanza and by that I mean enjoyable and easy. You can choose your preferred font, adjust font size, line spacing and choose day or night reading mode.

There are more than 3 million books available and enough free ones to last you the rest of your life. In perusing the list I noticed most bestsellers priced at $9.99 and some as low as $4.99. The books are readable using iPhone and Android apps, web-based reader software for your laptop or desktop and on most eReader devices...except the Kindle.

The books are kept "in the cloud" allowing you to access them from anywhere an Internet connection is available. You can bookmark a spot while reading on your laptop and pick up at the same point on your smartphone or eReader device. And you can buy your books through Google or any of several independent partners. No matter where you buy your eBooks, they all appear on your bookshelf which, by the way, has unlimited storage.

Do you read eBooks? And if so, is the Google eBookstore something you would try?

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New York Times' 100 Notable Books of 2010

Today's New York Times Sunday Book Review section carries their list of 100 Notable Books of 2010. I note with some dismay that I can find not one of their chosen tomes in my own list of books I have read this past year (see my "What I've Read In 2010" sidebar on my blog site), but I see several in their list that I intend to read in 2011. I'm particularly interested in "How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe", "American Subversive", "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" and "Life."

Almost as interesting as NYT's choices is their Books Blog post of November 24, 2010 explaining HOW the 100 are chosen. However, it's not the explanation of their methodology (which is, as they freely admit, rather subjective) that holds my interest; rather, it is the comments that contain the titles of books NOT included which piques my interest. That and the fact that only 18 people commented.

Have you read any of the New York Times' 100 Notable Books of 2010?

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Amazon Sells Books That Are Free On Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg, the subject of yesterday's post, offers the largest collection of copyright-free digitized books available for no charge. A PG volunteer points out that Amazon, the world's largest Internet book retailer, has been selling books that are free on PG.

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Project Gutenberg Comes Under Fire From Major Authors

Renowned science fiction author Greg Bear and Astrid Anderson Bear, his wife and daughter of another great science fiction author, Poul Anderson, have issued a statement claiming that Project Gutenberg may have infringed on the rights of some authors by improperly putting their protected works in the public domain after committing what they feel is a misreading of copyright law.

Here is their full public statement:

The online site Project Gutenberg (PG) is systematically declaring copyrights void in many literary works published in the 1940s, 1950s, and later, with a special focus on stories published in science fiction pulp magazines. Project Gutenberg then makes these works freely available on the internet though their website, where the scanned texts are further disseminated by manybooks.net and other online text outlets.

After conducting legal research on the LEXIS database of legal cases, decisions, and precedents, we have demonstrated conclusively that PG was making incorrect determinations regarding public domain status in many, many works that originally appeared in magazine form. The Poul Anderson estate has been able to get one work, "The Escape", that PG had firmly declared to be public domain, removed from their site. PG’s original reasoning was that since the magazine it appeared in had never actually filed for copyright, the work was unprotected. "The Escape", printed in 1953, was the first half of Anderson’s well-known novel BRAINWAVE, which was published and properly copyrighted the following year.

However, even if "The Escape" had not been published as a novel, it would have remained under copyright protection until 1981 (28 years) and been eligible for copyright renewal. Authors of that era, and Anderson in particular, were very aware of the need to renew copyrights, and typically meticulously kept their copyright protections up to date. Copyright law for works created more recently is much easier: life plus 70 years. (Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, 1998).

Why is a work that appeared in a magazine that did not file proper copyright paperwork protected by copyright law? The opinion in a major case in the US 2nd Circuit Court, Goodis v. United Artists Television, explains: ". . .We unanimously conclude that where a magazine has purchased the right of first publication under circumstances which show that the author has no intention to donate his work to the public, copyright notice in the magazine’s name is sufficient to obtain a valid copyright on behalf of the beneficial owner, the author or proprietor." The opinion goes on at length regarding the creation of copyright at the time of publication. The full text of Goodis is available here.

A second major case in copyright law, Abend v. MCA, Inc., Universal Film Exchange, James Stewart, estate of Alfred Hitchcock, et al, in the 9th Circuit, upholds this ruling and references Goodis lavishly. The full text of Abend is available here.

According to an email from Project Gutenberg’s CEO, Dr. Greg Newby, PG has changed their procedures for research of copyright non-renewal following the takedown of the Anderson work, although as of this writing (11/21/10) they have not posted these changes on their website. Dr. Newby says PG has also put a hold on public domain determinations for non-renewals. They do not seem to be reviewing the status of works already posted.

Authors and estates with works that are listed as public domain on PG’s site need to check out the true copyright status of those works, If they are posted on PG in error, PG needs to be notified via a DMCA notice. This is a powerful tool, created by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. A DMCA notice is a legal document that states the rights of the copyright holder and demands that illegally posted material be taken down. For a summary of the DMCA in general, go here. There are many online forms for the DMCA notices, such as this one.

DMCA notices also need to be filed with other sites such as manybooks.net, demanding removal of the texts from the sites. The DMCAs may not be honored until PG has pulled a title, as PG is considered the "gold standard" of copyright determination - all titles available there are thought (wrongly) to be free and clear for exploitation by anyone. Small, independent publishers are taking advantage of these treasures and making physical copies, usually with print-on-demand technology, and selling them through Amazon and other sites. Estates and authors should search out these publishers and make their rights known. Estates and authors can demand that publication stop immediately, and that all proceeds be turned over to them as the rightful copyright holder. It should be noted that these publishers don't feel they are pirates, they feel they are merely taking advantage of opportunities that are perfectly legal. They are wrong, and need to be put in the right of it.

In general, Project Gutenberg is doing a tremendous service by making available texts that have truly long since fallen out of copyright, but they are clearly overstepping their original mandate. They are not merely exploiting orphan works, but practicing a wholesale kidnapping of works that are under copyright protection. Authors and estates need to aggressively take back what belongs to them.

- Astrid Anderson Bear
Greg Bear

Project Gutenberg was founded in 1971 and is the first and oldest aggregator of digital publications that have fallen into the public domain because their copyright protections (under U.S. Copyright Laws) have lapsed. Project Gutenberg currently claims over 33,000 items in its collection, which are available in multiple digital formats and without charge. I've read several of their available texts through the Stanza application on my iPhone, Kindle and laptop and have appreciated the ability to do so.

It will be interesting to see how this situation shakes out. Some people feel that the Bears are "whining" (their critics' term, not mine) without cause while others feel that Project Gutenberg may be, intentionally or not, moving beyond their founding philosophy. This may be a simple case of a difference of legal interpretation or opinion that will be decided by the courts, or it may be more than that. I'm inclined to think that the Bears would not have issued a public statement such as the one above without having their concerns previously rebuffed by PG, but then I don't know the Bears by anything other than Mr. Bear's writing and Mrs. Bear's paternal ancestry, so my inclinations count for less than nothing.

What are your thoughts?

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