Writers in the Storm

Susan Spann

Happy Thanksgiving! (A little early…but turkey and good cheer are always in season.)

Last month, my #PubLaw guest post here at Writers in the Storm looked at grants of rights in anthology contracts. Today, we continue the autumn series on writing for anthologies with a look at how copyright functions in the anthology setting.

Anthology writing differs from other forms of publication, and though the contracts look similar, authors must be aware of some critical differences between anthology contracts and standard traditional contracts for book or novella-length works for a single author.

Anthology contracts should contain at least two clear statements of copyright:

1. A declaration that copyright in the author's work remains the sole property of the contributing author; and

A declaration that the copyright in the anthology "as a collective work" belongs to the anthology publisher.

 

Let's look at them in more detail:

1. The Author's Retention of Copyright.

The anthology contract should contain the following statement (or its equivalent): "Author is the sole copyright owner of the Work, and retains all rights to the Work except for those expressly granted to [Anthology Publisher] in this Agreement."

(Note: The “Work” should be defined as the author’s own contribution, not the anthology as a whole.)

This ensures that the author continues to be the sole owner of his or her story, even after its publication in the anthology. The contract should also mention any limitations on the author's right to publish the story elsewhere (the topic of next month’s post).

2. Anthology Copyright in the Publisher.

The anthology contract will probably also contain a statement similar to:

"To the extent a separate copyright attaches to the Anthology as a collective work, [Anthology Publisher] is the copyright owner of any such copyright on the Anthology as a collective work."

The reason for this second clause is to ensure that no one else can infringe the publisher's copyright by reproducing or publishing "pirated" (i.e., infringing) copies of the anthology without permission. A statement of the publisher's ownership in the collective work gives the publisher the sole right to produce that collective work. The copyright in the work as a collective work is not the same thing as the copyright on the individual stories, however, and you should never give the anthology publisher ownership of the copyright in your work or contribution.

To repeat: The publisher doesn't need to own the copyright in your work in order to publish the work as part of an anthology or other collection.

You may ask the publisher to add this language, too:

"provided that no collective work copyright will limit or prevent Author's rights to exploit, publish, and profit from the Work separately from or in addition to the Anthology except to the limited extent provided in this Agreement."

That language isn't absolutely required, but it's something you could request if the contract seems ambiguous about copyrights, or if you don't know the publisher well.

A Word About Copyright Registration

Publishers often want to register copyright on an anthology as a collective work. That's OK, as long as the registration is clear that you, the author, own the copyright in your contribution. Make sure the contract is clear about the manner in which copyright may (and may not) be registered, and states that:

(a)      The publisher will include an appropriate notice on the verso page (commonly known as the "copyright page") of the anthology, properly identifying the contributors as the owners of the copyrighted material contained in the work; and

(b)      If the publisher registers copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office, that registration will cover the collective work only, and will acknowledge the author(s) as the copyright owner(s) of the contributed works.

 

A little attention to detail can help protect your copyrights and ensure a more successful anthology experience.

 

Have you published in anthologies? How did you handle your copyrights?

 

Susan Spann writes the Shinobi Mysteries, featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori and his Portuguese Jesuit sidekick, Father Mateo. Her debut novel, CLAWS OF THE CAT (Minotaur Books, 2013), was a Library Journal Mystery Debut of the Month and a finalist for the Silver Falchion Award for Best First Novel. The fourth Shinobi Mystery will release from Seventh Street Books in July 2016. Susan is the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ 2015 Writer of the Year, and also a transactional attorney whose practice focuses on publishing law and business. When not writing or practicing law, she raises seahorses and rare corals in her marine aquarium. Find her online at http://www.SusanSpann.com, on Twitter (@SusanSpann), and on Facebook (SusanSpannAuthor).

 

Once upon a time, there was a girl who wanted to write. She wasn’t thinking about getting published or becoming rich and famous (okay, maybe a little), she just wanted to write. She took writing classes, joined writer’s groups, and let the words pour forth. With a finished manuscript in hand, a writer friend suggested she should try to get published. Huh, why not?

So she joined more writer’s groups, took more workshops, partnered up with a critique buddy, wrote a query letter, researched agents, rewrote the query letter, researched more agents, joined more writer’s groups (even helped found one ;-) ), wrote another manuscript, created a website, developed a platform, wrote another query letter … yeah, okay, you get it.

She devoured every bit of generous advice from her just agented, just published author friends. And she played out scenarios of what it would be like to get “The Call” and what life would be like after “The Call.”

Then one day, she got “The Call.” She knew she was ready. She’d been working for this moment for years. The call came and the girl stood in her living room waiting for everything to change, for the harps to play, the birds to sing, for the big-girl author panties to finally fit.

Guess what happened next.

Are you ready?

No harps, no birds (other than the one who pooped on the grill), and the big-girl author panties promptly gave me a wedgie.

Seriously? All those years imagining the perfect scenarios for revealing my big news, the way I’d feel, the changes that news would unveil … all wrong.

I thought I’d scream the news from the top of the house, squee on social media, change every bio I’ve ever written. I told my two closest writing friends and my family. Then spent the next couple of weeks texting Laura some variation of “ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod” (actually, the only variation was the punctuation at the end of those texts). And Laura would respond with some variation of “Get over yourself and announce it already” (Actually, the only variation was the level of expletives as time went on).

I was totally unprepared for how possessive I would feel about the news. After that many years, and so many near misses, I’d connected with someone who loved my writing and believed in my ability. I kept staring at my new agent’s website and my name under her client list, hitting refresh a gazillion times just to make sure. I updated my website with “represented by,” and I’d answer the “any news” questions with “actually, yes.” But the idea of broadcasting the news—that scenario I’d played out, written and edited in my head countless times—no longer appealed. This was my happy place that I’d been working so hard for and I wanted to savor it.

I thought I had all the pieces of my platform perfectly placed and ready to take me to the next level. I’d followed all the “should dos” you read about. I had a website, twitter account that I remembered to access every so often, I was active on Facebook, even had a Pinterest account although I’d never gotten around to setting up a board for the book that actually got me the agent and sold to an editor. The more I looked at everything I’d worked so hard to build, the more I realized how much more work I had ahead of me.

My to-do list went from revisions and start new project, to revisions, start new project, get author photo taken, redesign website, develop Pinterest boards, outline/research marking ideas, catch up on Goodreads reviews, go meet local bookshop owners, set up Facebook author page, and on and on and oh my god how did I ever think I was ready?!

The other side of “The Call” was suddenly looking way more stressful than I’d imagined.

I didn’t think it would change the way I felt about writing. In all the years I was querying, I never doubted my path to traditional publishing. I wanted to work with an agent who saw something in me and could help me build a career. I wanted an editor who believed in my writing and could help me polish those word rocks into diamonds. Having those people in my corner gave me a confidence boost. Suddenly the new story I’d been noodling for ages felt doable.

And yet the moment I sat down to begin writing on that new project, I got hit with a “holy poop can I do this again” panic. Now if I don’t deliver, it’s not just me I’m letting down.

For years I watched my friends sign with agents, get publishing contracts, release books into the world. I watched how they acted and reacted in public,  and I devoured their advice in private. I thought I knew exactly how I’d feel and how I would act when my time came. Not even close!

Maybe it’s because I’m not a public spectacle kinda of gal. Or maybe because I’ve embraced my inner troll. Or maybe it’s just that I’ve matured as a writer and what I thought would be the fireworks end of the journey is more of a comforting hug during the journey.

That journey, like the writing, is personal and often surprising. You may think you know where you’re headed, but things don’t always go as planned. I’ve had plenty of characters in my stories throw me plot curves. So I suppose it’s not that surprising that the well thought out scenarios for my writing career would meet with a couple of plot curves as well. The key … acknowledge and adjust.

What surprises have you found on your path to publication? Have you surprised yourself with your reaction or have you stayed the course with the mental picture you drew early on?

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About Orly

After years of pushing the creativity boundary in corporate communications, Orly decided it was time for a new challenge. Three women’s fiction manuscripts later (plus a handful of picture books), it’s safe to say she’s found her creative outlet. When she’s not talking to her imaginary friends, she’s reading or at least trying to ignore everyone around her long enough to finish “just one more paragraph.” Orly is the founding president of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. She is rep’d by Marlene Stringer, Stringer Literary Agency LLC.

Orly's debut novel, The Memory of Hoofbeats, will be released by Forge in 2017.

You can find her on Twitter at @OrlyKonigLopez or on her website, www.orlykoniglopez.com.

Margie Lawson

Thank you for inviting me to be a guest blogger. I’m always honored to be a WITS guest!

 

Reading a book with flat-lined cadence is like watching a movie on mute.

 

Most writers know about the power of rhythm and cadence and beats. But most don’t use that power in every sentence.

 

A compelling cadence is more than varying sentence lengths. More than using ­­­­­stand alone words.

 

A compelling cadence carries power on the page. It propels readers through paragraphs and passages and pages.

 

Dean Koontz is one of the kings of cadence. Here’s what he shared with Brad Crawford in an interview. 

I like prose to have hidden rhythms; I like prose to have a music beneath the

surface. It's almost never recognized by the reader in a conscious way, but it is

recognized unconsciously. It's why readers feel the prose flow, why it speaks to

them.

A poet once reviewed one of my books and recognized that entire passages were

written in iambic pentameter. I didn't think anyone would ever notice that.

Different poetic meters affects us emotionally in different ways. It's not anything

anyone's going to see, but it's one of the great techniques to suck a reader right

into the heart of the story.

 

Read your work out loud, with feeling, and you’ll hear what beats work well, and what beats are missing.

 

Many rhetorical devices are cadence-driven. Knowing which rhetorical devices boost cadence, pick up pace, make the read imperative, and 747 more cool things, loads your writing toolbox with super-powered tools.

Check out these cadence-driven examples.

 

Hide, Lisa Gardner, A two paragraph excerpt from page 9.

It was raining. He held his coat over my head. And then, tucked inside his

cologne-scented jacket, he gave me my first kiss.

 

Arms wrapped around my waist. Dreamy smile upon my face.

 

The compelling cadence in Lisa Gardner’s second paragraph was powered by what I call an RD combo. Two rhetorical devices.  Parallelism and assonance.

 

I included the first paragraph so you could see—and hear—the cadence in the lead-in.

 

Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen, From the prologue: 

The concession stand in the center of the tent had been flattened, and in its

place was a roiling mass of spots and stripes—of haunches, heels, tails,

and claws, all of it roaring, screeching, bellowing, or whinnying. A polar bear

towered above it all, slashing blindly with skillet-sized paws. It made contact

with a llama and knocked it flat—BOOM!

 

Sara Gruen made that piece strong with alliteration and word play, as well as style and structure and strategy.

 

The Ones We Trust, Kimberly Belle, 4-time Immersion-Grad, 4 Examples

1. Gabe’s good looks are real and rugged and raw, and now that I’ve seen both brothers up close, I’d choose Gabe over Zach any day. 

RD Combo: Polysyndeton and Alliteration.

2. The silence that spins out lasts forever. It’s the kind of silence that wraps around you like a shroud, the kind that turns the air thick and solid, the kind that makes you want to hear the answer as much as you dread it.

Rhetorical Devices:  Amplification (silence) and anaphora

3. My heart races and my skin tingles and my blood pressure explodes like a grenade.

Rhetorical Devices:  Empowers visceral responses with polysyndeton and a simile.

4. “Gabe.” I wait until he falls quiet, and then I say, in my best calm-a-spooked-source voice, “She’ll call.”

Dialogue Cue freshened and empowered with a hyphenated-run-on for a cliché twist.

 

The Blessing of No, Megan Menard, 4-time Immersion-Grad, Three examples:

1. Luke had a machine-gun laugh that fired about every third word.

2. “That makes me feel so much better.” I hoped my sarcasm covered my lie.

3. I picked up a French fry. It was a slender blonde, tall and weepy. I named the fry Tanya and chomped off its head.

All three examples carry interest and power and are perfectly cadenced. The third example uses parallelism. And it reveals a truth in a humor hit that could make us want to laugh or cry.

 

Test of Faith, Christa Allan, multi-Margie-Grad

 1. “If. Faith. Can. Come. Live. With Me?” I heaved every word out of my brain and into my mouth. I felt like someone regaining consciousness in an unfamiliar room or house or life.

Christa Allan stylized that dialogue by using a Period. Infused. Sentence. That’s what I named it.  Her dialogue cue is amplified, amplified, amplified stellar.

She used an RD combo in the last sentence: polysyndeton and zeugma.

2. That Logan could embrace his inner dork made him all the more likeable. If I’d idled at likeable and not throttled up to loveable, I wouldn’t have risked crashing into the wall. This dinner was the Indy 500 version of returning to the track after a pit stop, except that the finish line was Logan, and there was only one first place.

Ah… Metaphors and power words and hope all themed, propelled by a compelling cadence.

 

The Edge of Lost, Kristina McMorris, multi-Margie-Grad

1. Murphy swayed, as if riding the internal waves of his liquor.

Wow. A fresh take on a drunken swagger.

2. Mealtime together was like wading through a swamp: one wrong step could pull you under.

Smart writing. An amplified simile. Perfectly cadenced.

 

Risk, Skye Jordan, 3-time Immersion-Grad 

1. “Julia.” The use of her name was forceful and final, and oddly intimate.

Love the way Joan Swan, writing as Sky Jordan, used alliteration and boosted the cadence with the unexpected juxtaposition—oddly intimate.

2. Julia cocked her hip, crossed her arms, and gave Noah a clear, one-wrong-word-and-you’ll-regret-it stare.

Two hits of body language, parallelism, followed by a look amplified with a hyphenated-run-on. Fun and powerful.

 

Twice in a Blue Moon, Laura Drake, Immersion-Grad

1. “This business will stand on its own.” Her voice was as hard as the untilled dirt in the vineyard.

Themed dialogue cue. Amplified simile.

2. The remnants of adrenaline in her system congealed to a sticky wad of anger.

Powerful visceral response. Fresh. Backloaded.

Next example, two paragraphs:

3. “What do you mean, nothing? You’re looking at me like I’m a mouse turd on toast.”

In her hesitation, time bloated, looming and ugly. Something was wrong. His heart tried to hammer its way out of his chest. Bad wrong.

Stimulus: Fresh, accusatory dialogue.

Response: Expanded time. Amplified with negative connotations and a visceral response. Backloaded. Punched up cadence.

You have thousands of ways to capture your story on the page. Crafting a compelling cadence will capture your reader too. And you’ll take your writing from good to stellar.

BLOG GUESTS:  It’s your turn.

 Post a comment and you have TWO CHANCES to WIN!

 

1. Lecture Packet from Margie Lawson
2. An online course from Lawson Writer’s Academy – worth up to $75!

 

Check out the courses offered by Lawson Writer's Academy in January:

1. Getting Serious About Writing a Series
2. Doing Double Duty with Setting
3. Empowering Characters’ Emotions
4. Madness to Method: Using Acting Techniques to Make Each Moment Oscar Worthy

 

The drawings will be Tuesday, 8:00 PM Mountain Time.

See you on the blog!

All smiles................Margie

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About Margie

Margie Lawson—editor, international presenter—teaches writers how to use her psychologically-based editing systems and deep editing techniques to create page turners. Margie has presented over ninety full day master classes for writers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

To learn about Lawson Writer’s Academy, Margie’s 4-day Immersion Master Classes (in Denver, Washington, D.C., Phoenix, Canyon Lake, Dallas, San Jose, Melbourne, Australia, and more), her full day Master Class presentations, on-line courses, lecture packets, and newsletter, please visit www.MargieLawson.com.