****

Insert the depressing numbers of your choice into this paragraph: Of the wannabe authors who start a novel, only one out of a gazillion will finish. Of those who finish a novel, one out of a thrillion will find a publisher. Maybe one out of a bobillion will get a second contract, and of those, a mere snarkful will make more than thruppence per hogshead of sweated blood.

Another depressing fact: In order to write a novel, an author must sweat many hogsheads of blood. So why would any rational person ever voluntarily write a book?

Here’s the socially acceptable answer: “The pleasure of writing is compensation enough, and publishing is just be an added bonus! I write for the sheer joy of it.”

Um. Sometimes writing is a joy for me. But sometimes I despise it, and so I harbor dark suspicions whenever anyone claims writing is nothing but kittens and cheery yellow daffodils. I don’t write just for pleasure; if I did, I would have stopped after the first month. Sometimes I enjoy it, but when the going gets tough, writing is torment. Why would any rational person ever write a book?

I can’t answer that question. I write because I am not a rational person.

In fact, I suspect rational people rarely write novels. Deciding to write fiction is like looking at a mountain and saying, “See Kilimanjaro? I’m going to climb it.”

A brief pause for rational analysis: In the “pro” column for Kilimanjaro-scaling, we have “dubious bragging rights.” In the “con” column, we have “tremendous expense,” “guaranteed fatigue,” “weeks of discomfort,” and “potential loss of life.”

The irrational person lifts her chin to Kilimanjaro, glances over the cons with a crazy glint in her eye, and thinks: I could die. Awesome. Bring it on.

You have to be irrational to write, not just because the possibility of reward is miniscule, but because good stories are about a character’s inability to accept that what they must have is impossible. Easy journeys over obscure hills, chosen to maximize the healthful benefits of exercise and minimize the possibility of death, make boring books. Irrationality is the stuff of stories.

It’s also the stuff of determination. I would not write if it were not hard. I look at those impossible, irrational numbers and think, I could struggle for the rest of my life in obscurity, and nobody will ever care how many hogsheads of blood I sweat.

Bring it on.

—–
Courtney Milan
http://www.courtneymilan.com
“This Wicked Gift,” in THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS, HQN, available now
PROOF BY SEDUCTION, HQN, January 2010
- Show quoted text -

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I learned to read when I was 4, just as my 4-year-old best friend Danny became sick (he was dying of leukemia) and I was starting to be sexually abused by a next-door neighbor. I quickly discovered that when you open a book you could jump into a new world and escape the world that you are forced to live in.

Danny was the one who first made me realize the power of books. No matter how crappy he felt if you read him Put Me in the Zoo he would giggle and glow with enjoyment. I read him that book hundreds of times before he died when we were 6 and it never failed to make him feel better.

By the time I was 6 and raped for the first time by that neighbor, I was reading at a 6th grade level and the books I devoured were the likes of Nancy Drew, the Hardy Brothers, Trixie Belden, the Box Car Kids, Little Women and The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

How did I read? In my mind, every book was read out loud in my head — the narrator starting out with the voice of Cary Grant, Charleton Heston, Jimmy Stewart or Julie Andrews — until I had enough of a description of a character to assign him/her the voice of some other actor/actress. I’d create the book’s world in my head and have the characters act out the story; tweaking the scenery and my images of the characters as the story developed. Reading helped me to escape the hell of my life and when the rapes were occurring I frequently distanced myself from what was happening to my body by having my mind replay books in my head.

By the 3rd grade I had literally read every book in our school’s library (including encyclopedias) and all the “children’s” books in our public library. One day, the reference librarian recommended the book Mrs. Mike to me. That turned out to really be a gift as it offered me a heroine that was based on a real-life woman who was able to rise above loss and tragedy (house burns down, her 2 children die, etc.) through her strength of spirit. While not truly a romance, it started me on my love of the HEA and strong kick-ass heroine in the books I choose to read.

I easily read 30 books a week for many years as the trauma from the sexual abuse left me unable to sleep more than 2 hours a night and I needed a way to keep my mind off of abuse flashbacks. Romances, suspense, sci-fi, mysteries – didn’t matter what type of book as long as I could jump into the world the author created and there was a some type of a happy ending.

I am alive today because of books. Over 5 years ago, my abuse flashbacks were coming to a head and I was getting maybe 30 minutes of sleep each night after I’d wake up screaming from what I call the “five rape marathon flashback”. Nora Roberts/JD Robb’s “In Death” series saved my life. I had started counseling the same year Naked in Death was published and tried to read the book when it came out based on the recommendation of a friend. But as soon as I realized that Eve had been abused as a child, I put the book down and didn’t pick it up again until 3 years later (now, If I knew that the great Nora had written the book at the time I might have given it a shot, but at the time the fact that Nora was JD Robb was not known.) Once I was able to read the “In Death” books, it became a lifeline for me as Nora has really nailed what it is like for a survivor of childhood sexual abuse in the character of Eve – if Eve could find a way to grow and move on with her life so could I. Rereading my “In Death” books saved me from ending my life as I clung to the hope Nora offered through Eve. One night, I finally was at the point where it was either end my life or end the nightmare – and I chose to live as I mentally killed my sexual abuser during one of the rape flashbacks (chose one of the methods Roarke used in Revenge in Death by the way.)

February marked the 2-year anniversary of the last time I had a flashback of my sexual abuse. While my life is so much better I can’t really believe it, it has had an impact on how I read and how many books I read each week. When I killed my abuser, it somehow impacted the ability I had to act out the books in my head – a famous person no longer narrates the books anymore. My counselor said that it was because I no longer needed to have someone else’s voice in my head to escape my life. Whatever the reason, I find that it takes me much longer to read a book because I’m still waiting for Sean Connery (Roarke and many other characters) to take me away into the wonderful world of whatever book I’m reading. So I now only read about 5 books a week.

The impact of books on a person’s life should never be taken for granted. Nora Roberts definitely did save my life with the “In Death” books. Recently, Jill Shalvis, a guest reviewer at Dear Author, recommended Deadline by Chris Crutcher and it helped me to come to terms with my father’s impending death and the way he has chosen to deal with it better than any non-fiction book or counselor. I’m also a great fan of children’s books to lift your spirits when you’re down – I defy anyone to read Help Me, Mr. Mutt by Janet Stevens without laughing out loud and feeling a thousand times better than before you started the book.

Any authors out there should pat themselves on the back because they never know how their stories will impact someone’s life – providing a needed escape or a great belly laugh or the strength to chose life when you’re wallowing in a pit of shame/hurt/pain.

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This is a long article. Grab a cup of coffee and settle in.  I wrote this article and sent it to the RWR but it wasn’t suited for publication so I thought I would share it with you.  The right to sever a copyright grant after 35 years came to my attention when Evan Schnittman mentioned it briefly at the end of one of his articles.  I went off to research the issue because I found it fascinating.  This is what I learned.

A new author enters a publishing contract with very little negotiating power. She is presented with a contract with stock terms and an offer of an advance in exchange for an assignment of her intellectual property rights to the publisher. Often she is in the position of either taking the contract with little changes or not publishing. The Supreme Court noted that “authors are congenitally irresponsible, [and] that frequently they are so sorely pressed for funds that they are willing to sell their work for a mere pittance.” Fisher Music Co. v. Witmark, 318 U.S. 643, 656 (1943).

Congress, who is responsible for setting the parameters of the copyright law in the United States, recognizes the economic imbalance between authors and publishers and has tried to include provisions to correct the imbalance. One of those provisions under the current copyright law is the right of termination of a previously granted copyright.

Historical Background

Initially, the 1909 Copyright Law allowed for renewal terms. The 1909 Copyright Law was based, in part, on the Statute of Anne, the very first law that provided protection for the creative works of authors. The Statute of Anne granted authors 14 years of protection and the 1909 Copyright Law doubled it. The creator of a work registered for a copyright and was granted protection for 28 years. At the end of 28 years, the creator could renew the copyright for another 28 years. The need for renewal allowed the creator to renegotiate the original grant of copyright, usually for better terms. As the end of the two year renewal terms loomed near, Congress began debating extension of the copyright.

Congress passed the Copyright Act of 1976 and added 19 years to the copyrights which were created under the 1909 Act giving those works 75 years of protection. New works were granted protection for the life of the author plus fifty years (which was the international standard at the time). In the Copyright Renewal Act of 1992, Congress did away with renewals added an additional 47 years of protection. This essentially made copyright protection for all works published under the 1909 Act to have a copyright term of 75 years.

Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (known as CTEA) added an additional 20 years of protection to all copyrighted works. Works produced on and after January 1, 1978 were granted life of the author plus seventy years. Works created prior to January 1, 1978, and either in the first or second term of renewal, were granted an additional 20 years of protection.

The longer term both helps and hurts authors. It helps authors in that they and their heirs are entitled to more revenue from their creative works, but it hurts because there is no time in which an author can renegotiate her rights if that is not a provision in the original grant language.

Essentially the renewal period in the 1909 Act allowed for a natural reversion of rights. Renewal was complicated for an author. Many missed the renewal deadline, failed to follow the procedure accurately, and signed away their expectancy in the first time instead of waiting. Congress, when it eliminated renewals and extended the period of protection, included a reversion of rights through a termination procedure.

Section 203:

In the case of any work other than a work made for hire, the exclusive or nonexclusive grant of a transfer or license of copyright or of any right under a copyright, executed by the author on or after January 1, 1978, otherwise than by will, is subject to termination…

Upon the effective date of termination, all rights under this title that were covered by the terminated grants revert to the author, authors, and other persons owning termination interests…

17 U.S.C.A. § 203 (a) (2009).

The purpose of Section 203 is to provide authors a natural reversion of rights so that they get a second bite at the bargaining apple. It allows any author, or a person assigned by the author, to terminate the original grant during a five year period beginning 35 years after the publication was made or 40 years after the grant of rights, whichever comes first.

The key difference between Section 203 and section 304 is who has the right to terminate the grant of copyright. Section 203 applies only to contracts signed by authors and only the author and the author’s assignee via a will or other document would have the right to exercise the termination provision.

Ostensibly, Section 203 limits the duration of a grant or a maximum period of time in which a grant can be effective. After that maximum period of time has expired, the author recaptures her rights and has the ability to put them on the marketplace once again. Contractually, an author and her publisher can grant a shorter period of time. For example, a standard author contract has an “out of print” provision which requires a publisher to keep the work in print for a period of time. If the publisher allows the work to go out of print for a period of six months or more, the author may request by written notice that the work be placed back into print. If the publisher fails to do so within a proscribed period of time, then the grant is terminated and the rights revert back to the author.

Each contract must be examined for reversion of rights language and how reversion of rights is to be effectuated. “In print” is defined by the contract and standard terms may include language such as “in print if it is in stock or available for sale in any edition of the Publisher or any of its licensees”. The timing or occurrence of reversion of rights can differ for print v. digital rights, or territorial rights. Digital rights will often revert if, during a period of time, royalties do not exceed a specified floor.

If the publisher is keeping the work in print, however, rights would never revert back and, therefore, an author is entitled to reclaim those rights through the exercise of Section 203 termination.

What Can You Terminate Under Section 203?

In the case of any work other than a work made for hire, the exclusive or nonexclusive grant of a transfer or license of copyright or of any right under a copyright, executed by the author on or after January 1, 1978, otherwise than by will, is subject to termination

An author can terminate almost any transfer of her copyright if the grant was executed on or after January 1, 1978. The grant must fulfill the following qualifications:

a) Not be a work for hire
b) Executed by the author and no one else
c) Not a grant made via a will

Problems arise if the original grant was open ended. The Rano v. Sipa, 987 F.2d 580 (9th Cir. 1992) case suggests that an open ended contractual grant cannot be terminated except for that 5 year period defined in Section 203. Walthal v. Rusk, 172 F.3d 481 (7th Cir. 1999), determined that a contract for an indefinite period of time can be terminated by the request of either party to the contract. Thus in some states, unless the original grant is for longer than 35 years, the contract will not be terminable until the conditions of Section 203 are satisfied.

Further, derivative works that were made pursuant to the grant cannot be terminated.

Who Can Terminate?

Basically, the author and the author’s heirs are the only ones entitled to terminate a grant made after January 1, 1978. In the case of an anthology, or joint work, a majority of the authors must execute the notice for termination.

This becomes more complicated if the author has died, in the case of either a solo or joint work. For example, for the heirs to terminate a grant, they must hold more than 50 percent interest in the work. If the author has a spouse, the spouse is entitled to the entire interest, but if the author has children, the spouse is entitled to only 50 percent and the remaining 50 percent is split between children and grandchildren (obviously this is an issue ripe for a book!). In Larry Spier, Inc. v. Bourne Co., 953 F.2d 774, 777 (2d. Cir. 1992), the author included his mistress as a beneficiary in his will, but the court found that the mistress was not entitled to a termination right because the statute applied only to spouses and children.

When Can You Terminate?

Termination of the grant may be effected at any time during a period of five years beginning at the end of thirty-five years from the date of execution of the grant; or, if the grant covers the right of publication of the work, the period begins at the end of thirty-five years from the date of publication of the work under the grant or at the end of forty years from the date of execution of the grant, whichever term ends earlier.

17 U.S.C.A. § 203(a)(3) (2009).

An author is entitled to terminate the grant 35 years after the execution or 40 years after the first date of publication, whichever comes first. In order for termination to occur and rights to revert, notice must be timely given. According to Section 203, notice must be within 10 years, but no less than two years before the effective date of termination provided in the notice.

Equation:

Date of Execution of Grant + 40 = X
Date of Publication + 35 = Y

Compare X and Y.  Which is the earliest date?
Earliest date – 10 = first date you can send in your termination notice

Earliest date  - 2 = last date you can send in your termination notice

Example 1:

Book rights are sold to a publisher in 1980 and the book is published in 1982

1980 = date of execution of the grant
1982 = date of publication

1980 + 40 = 2020
1982+35 = 2017

2017 v. 2020 = 2017 being the earlier date
2017 – 10 = 2007 is the first date upon which to terminate a grant
2017-2 = 2015 is the last date upon which to terminate a grant.

How Do I Terminate?

The termination shall be effected by serving an advance notice in writing, signed by the number and proportion of owners of termination interests … or by their duly authorized agents, upon the grantee or the grantee’s successor in title.

17 U.S.C.A. § 203(a)(3) (2009).

The Code of Federal Regulation §210.10(b)(2) lays out in detail the contents of the termination notice. It does not provide a form. A termination notice should include the following for each work (other provisions apply if it is the heirs who are terminating the grant):

• Name and address of the author or authors heirs
• Date of the execution of the grant (often this will be the date of the signed contract) and the date of the first publication of the work.
• Title of the work and the author. If it is a joint work such as anthology, the notice should list all the authors who are requesting the termination.
• Original copyright number, if possible.
• A statement describing the original grant.
• The effective date of the termination.
• Signature of the author or authors or duly authorized agent.

Each termination notice must be recorded with the Copyright Office with the correct information and during the correct time frame. Failure to properly record a termination may result in the termination being invalid. In other words, this is not something you should try at home, but rather contact an entertainment lawyer or your agent to effectuate the termination. Once those rights are reverted back, the content creator has another opportunity to sell their valuable works.

Only Terminate Once

While Congress wanted to protect authors, it is determined that the authors are only entitled to one chance at renegotiating their contracts. In Penguin Group (USA) v. Steinbeck, 537 F.3d 193, 204 (2nd Cir. 2008), the court noted that the termination provision could only be used once by authors and their heirs:

It should be noted that under our view, authors or their statutory heirs holding termination rights are still left with an opportunity to threaten (or to make good on a threat) to exercise termination rights and extract more favorable terms from early grants of an author’s copyright. But nothing in the statute suggests that an author or an author’s statutory heirs are entitled to more than one opportunity, between them, to use termination rights to enhance their bargaining power or to exercise them. See 17 U.S.C. § 304(d) (permitting exercise of termination right only “where the author or owner of the termination right has not previously exercised such termination right”).

Conclusion

It is increasingly important to obtain one’s rights in this changing publishing period. The second chance to negotiate one’s work can result in a higher royalty rate, new advances, and other economic opportunities.

Disclaimer: A short article can never address all the legalities of termination and the following is only intended to provide an overview. Those that have questions about a specific grant should seek legal counsel as soon as possible. The works that are subject to a pre January 1, 1978, grant must follow the termination clause provision in Section 304. Those works that were subject to a grant post January 1, 1978, must follow the termination clause in Section 203. This article addresses only Section 203 provisions.

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***

I love to read. No, I looooove to read. And I read fast. I read about 300 books a year (counting re-reads). So when I saw the Ja(y)nes offer to post essays on reading, writing and the love thereof, I got to thinking—WHY do I love reading and writing so much.

It’s the stories. My cousin Diane taught me to read when I was just four, and from that moment, I’ve been caught up in the worlds opened up to me by books. But I think my addiction to story must go earlier than that, because my mother likes to talk about taking me to see Bambi with my multitude of cousins when I was three. (Mama is the youngest of four sisters, each of whom had four kids, except for Aunt Bettye, who had six…The family Thanksgiving is massive.) For weeks afterward, my invisible friend Bambi went everywhere with me. Hey, at least Bambi was a deer and didn’t require his own plate at the dinner table, like the fella’s invisible friend Mister. (Mister got on a plane one day and flew to Chicago, never to be seen again.)

Stories fire my imagination and, for a little while, let me live in That world, instead of this—often boring—one. In the world of story, ANYTHING can happen.

Which is why I write. I still have invisible friends. No, really. TIME magazine quoted researchers who discovered that fiction writers’ relationships with their characters is virtually identical with a child’s relationship with his invisible friends. We know they’re not real. Honest. We do know. But we still have no control over them. They go off and do stuff just because they want to, and we have no way to stop them.

Back to the topic. I don’t write just because I get to hang out with invisible friends. I write because I get to tell stories. And in those stories, ANYTHING can happen. Dragons are real. Soul mates can find their destiny. People can recover from tragedy. Even all of the above. And, despite the fact that characters can go their own way, I can still tell the story I want to tell. (The characters usually know better than I do.)

I started wanting to tell stories MY way back in—junior high, I think. That’s when I inherited a bunch of my dad’s old books. Copies of Robin Hood in archaic English. The originalTarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I literally read the cover off Tarzan. The only problem I saw was that Tarzan didn’t have a sister. Jane really didn’t cut it as a place-holder for the role I wanted to play in the book. I wanted to live in the jungle too. So I made up one.

I graduated from fan fiction sometime in college, eventually learned to finish a book, and here I am. I still love to read, and I still love to write (even though these days it sometimes can feel like work). Because it’s all about the story.

***

If you would like to contribute a guest essay on why you read, why you write or why you blog, please send an email to Jane at dearauthor.com with “Essay” in the subject line.

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***

Let’s see, why do I read. A little background is in order. First off, I come from a family of readers. I started reading in high school, way back in the 90’s and it more or less came out of curiosity. A friend of mine would come to school everyday with a book in her hand and one day she was crying her eyes out. I asked her what she was reading and she said, V.C. Andrews, the book was SEEDS OF YESTERDAY. I went to the school library the next day, located the first book, FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC and after that I was well on my way to reading. I read the entire series and understood my friend’s uncontrollable tears. Moving on.

I went to my mother next and asked her if she had any books around the house and she did. She gave me a paperback of Victoria Holt’s gothic romance, THE HOUSE OF A THOUSAND LANTERNS and I loved it. I went searching for that woman’s back list like a mad woman and read almost every Victoria Holt novel that was out there. My mother even asked her friend for rec’s for me and that friend introduced me to LaVyrle Spencer, nuff said. At that point I could call myself a ‘reader.’

Anyway, that’s how I got started reading but the essay asks: why do I read. I read to escape real life but more importantly, books offer the best way to travel to all the different parts of the world on the cheap. I love reading because there’s nothing better than a good book. I get a natural high going when I am reading a really good book. I mean admit it, when you’re reading a really good book, you tend to forget all the stresses in your life. I go to work happy knowing that I got a good book waiting for me at home. I also read to increase my knowledge base and vocabulary and more importantly, it’s a pleasure getting to know all the different characters, different personality types, seeing how other people live their life and to be completely lost in their world. But the best part of reading for me? is meeting other readers who love to read, too. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

***

If you would like to contribute a guest essay on why you read, why you write or why you blog, please send an email to Jane at dearauthor.com with “Essay” in the subject line.

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***

I don’t have a blog and I don’t write books, but I love to read and I love to talk about what I read.

I have been reading since I first learned how in school. My Dad used to take me to the library once a week and it was a magical place. All those books and I could only choose a few each time. In time, I had read all the books at my reading level and started on the next level.

Then we moved and we had a library nearby that I could walk to all by myself. What a treat. This wonderful library not only had more books than the previous library, but they had a marvelous doll’s house that I spent hours looking at.

Then we moved again and there was no library nearby. I was devastated and started stealing my mother’s paperbacks to read. Some were romances, but most were mysteries. My mother loved Perry Mason stories and I just never cared for them. She also liked the Agatha Christie mysteries which I loved. This started me on a life-long love of Ms. Christie (or Dame Agatha).

Our next two moves brought us to towns that had decent public libraries and I was in heaven again. The last town was finally where my parents settled and my sister still lives in their house.

As you can see, I have had a good grounding in the printed word that started a long journey to where I am today. I read because I can’t imagine a life without books. I can do without television and I could even do without my computer (gulp!), but I could never do without a book.

***

If you would like to contribute a guest essay on why you read, why you write or why you blog, please send an email to Jane at dearauthor.com with “Essay” in the subject line.

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