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Although many EU IP lawyers are currently concentrating on the trade mark reforms, the Commission is quietly getting on with its study of the design protection system in Europe. The remit of the study is wide-ranging, but perhaps the most surprising issue that has arisen is whether design law in the EU should protect things that you can’t see.
The Economist has recently popularised the notion that patents are bad for innovation. Is this right? In my view, this assessment results from too high an expectation of what should be achieved by patents or other intellectual property. Critics of intellectual property rights seem to think that they should be tested by whether they actually increase creativity.
Following a preliminary reference made in the context of Seattle Genetics Inc. v Österreichisches Patentamt, the Court of Justice of the European Union has put an end to the uncertainty faced by both the innovative and the generic pharmaceutical industries regarding the duration of the effective patent protection afforded to medicinal products.
The infrequency of two high-profile songsters or their representatives going all the way to trial over claims of copyright infringement means that such a case usually receives heightened public scrutiny. This is especially so when mere sampling of the plaintiff's song is not at issue. In recent years, few cases have drawn more public attention than the dispute between the Marvin Gaye estate and singer/songwriter Robin Thicke and song producer Pharrell Williams, over whether the song "Blurred Lines" infringed Marvin Gaye's 1977 hit, "Got to Give It Up."
Every year on 26 April, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) celebrates World Intellectual Property Day to promote discussion of the role of intellectual property in encouraging creativity and innovation. As the recent lawsuit between the Marvin Gaye estate and Pharrell Williams showed, intellectual property law is just as relevant as ever.
Copyright these days is very high up on the agenda of politicians and the public at large. Some see copyright as a stumbling stone for the development of digital services and think it is outdated. They want to make consumers believe that copyright protection is to be blamed, when music or other ‘content’ is not available online, preferably for free. From Brussels we hear that ‘national copyright silos’ should be broken up, that the EU Internal Market is fragmented when it comes to copyright.
When “The Case of the Black Macaque” scooped media headlines this summer, copyright was suddenly big news. Here was photographer David Slater fighting Wikipedia over the right to disseminate online a portrait photo of a monkey which had, contrary to all expectations and the law of averages, managed within just a few jabs of a curious finger, to take a plausible, indeed publishable “selfie”. Did Slater have the right to control the image since it was his camera on which it was recorded, or was it free for the world to use on the basis that he was not its author, the true creator being the crested black macaque who, for all her charm and dexterity, was neither a real nor legal person and therefore disentitled to any legal rights?
Disputes like this make great headlines, but cause even greater headaches for the intellectual property (“IP”) community. Most have little legal substance to them and are interesting only because of their facts, but that’s what drives journalists’ involvement and readers’ interest, making it easier for the media to attract paying advertisers. By the time they pass through the media machine these tales are frequently mangled to the point at which IP lawyers can scarcely recognise them. In one recent case involving a well-known chocolate brand, a company was said to have patented its copyright in England in order to sue a business in Switzerland for trade mark infringement. To the layman this may sound fine, but it’s about as sensible to the expert as telling the doctor that you’ve got a tummy ache in your little finger because your cat ate the goldfish last night. We IP-ers try to explain the real story, but monkeys and selfies are far more fun than the intricacies of copyright law and, by the time we’ve tried to put the record straight, the next exciting story has already broken.
“By the time they pass through the media machine, these tales are frequently mangled to the point at which IP lawyers can scarcely recognise them”
The next selfie episode to hit the headlines, far from featuring a portrait, was quite the opposite end of the anatomical spectrum. Model Kim Kardashian objected that Jen Selter’s selfies constituted copyright infringements of photos which had been taken of Kim Kardashian’s bottom (occasionally colloquially described as her “trademark” bottom, but not yet registered in conventional legal fashion). Here the only questions IP lawyers address are (i) are the pictures of Kim Kardashian’s backside copyright-protected works and (ii) does the taking by Jen Selter of selfies of her own posterior constitute an infringement? For press and public, however, the issue morphs into the much more entertaining, if legally irrelevant, one of whether a person has copyright in their own bottom.
Self-portrait by the depicted Macaca nigra female. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
There are many IP rights apart from copyright and they all have their macaque moments. Trade mark law is full of episodes of evil corporations stealing words from the English language and stopping anyone else using them. Patent law (in which the legal protection of body parts very much smaller than bottoms, such as sequences of DNA, does have some relevance) is garnished with tales of greed and intrigue as people seek to steal one another’s ideas and avariciously monopolise them. Confidentiality and the right to publicity have their own rip-roaring encounters in court as amorous footballers who are “playing away” seek to hush up their extramarital (that’s one word, not two) exploits. Meanwhile, the women with whom they shared moments of illicit intimacy seek to cash in on their news value by selling them to the highest bidder. For IP lawyers the legal issues are serious and, when cases come to court, they achieve precedential status that governs how future episodes of the same nature might be handled. For press and public, the issues are different: who is the footballer, who is the woman — and are there any pictures (ideally selfies)?
Seriously, the rate at which not just eye-catching tales like those related above but also far less glamorous tales result in litigation, or even legislation, makes it hard-to-impossible for practitioners, academics, administrators and businessmen to keep abreast of the law, let alone understand its deeper significance for those affected by it: businesses, governments, consumers, indeed everyone. Publishers like OUP are increasingly raising the tempo of their own responses to the IP information challenge, utilising both formal and informal media, in print and online. Since legal publishing is largely reactive, we can narrow the gap between the time an exciting new event or legal decision hits the popular media and the point at which we can strip it down to its bare legal essentials. But it will take more than a little monkeying around before we can close that gap completely.
Featured image credit: Camera selfie, by Paul Rysz. CC-BY-2.0 via Flickr.
How does the law operate when intellectual property rights overlap? When a creative output, be it a photograph, a piece of music, or any artistic work, is protected by multiple intellectual property rights such as trademark and copyright, or a patent and data protection, it can be challenging to manoeuvre through the overlapping rights. Intellectual property law seeks to defend the rights of the artistic creator, and protects the expression of ideas, but when these rights overlap in both law and practice, how do they interact?
This is a question that Neil Wilkof, member of the Bressler Group, special IP counsel to Herzog, and Fox & Neeman, Israel, was faced with when a student asked him how overlapping trademarks and copyright might operate. Here, Wilkof discusses how this question might be tackled:
In practice, intellectual property rights very rarely occur independently; there is usually an overlap. Here, Wilkof explains how the disjuncture between written law and practice can be addressed by looking at intellectual property from a practical, rather than theoretical, perspective:
With the issues of overlapping intellectual property rights in mind, Wilkof goes on to discuss how this area of law might change and develop in the future:
Featured image credit: Lady Justice, at the Old Bailey, by Natural Philo. CC-BY-SA-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Thomas Jefferson is often quoted as remarking; “he who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.” His sentiments, while romantic, do not necessarily express a view that many companies, authors, and artists would agree with when it comes to protecting their intellectual property today. For businesses and individuals alike, it has become of increasing importance to defend expressions of creative ideas with trademarks, patents and copyrighting, especially in the digital age where sharing and reproducing images, music, text and art has become so easy and prevalent. Intellectual property law aims to protect artistic output and the expression of ideas, whilst maintaining an environment where creativity can still blossom. However, even some of the world’s biggest names in business have been caught up in intellectual property cases that have not only made world news, but have come to define how we view our intellectual property rights. Here is a run-down of some of the highest profile cases where companies and individuals have gone to court to protect their intellectual property:
A&M Record Inc v Napster Inc
In 2000, one of the most famous cases in intellectual property law was taken to the U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit, when a group of major record labels took on Napster, Inc. The music file-sharing company, set up by then 18-year old Northeastern University student Shawn Fanning and his partner Sean Parker, was a revolutionary piece of sharing software, which allowed users to share any number of music files online. At its peak the software had around 20 million users sharing files peer-to-peer. A&M Records, along with a list of 17 other companies and subsidiaries accused Napster of copyright infringement, for allowing users to search and download MP3 files from other users’ computers. Rock band, Metallica and hip hop star Dr Dre also filed separate cases against the sharing software company. These cases led to a federal judge in San Fransisco ordering Napster to close its free file-sharing capacities. After the judge’s decision, the company eventually declared bankruptcy before re-emerging as a paid online music service, while German Media Corporation Bertelsmann AG ended up paying $130 million in damages to the National Music Publisher Association, after propping Napster up during its financial decline. This case is remembered as a defining case of the 21st century, as it was one of the first to address the impact peer-to-peer file-sharing online could have on copyright.
Official Presidential portrait of Thomas Jefferson. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Baigent & Leigh v Random House Group Ltd
The enigmatic story of Jesus’ fathering of a child with Mary Magdalen, and in doing so creating a bloodline that exists to this day, is not just a fictional tale that exists in Dan Brown’s bestselling book, The Da Vinci Code. It has also been the subject of deep historical research carried out by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh who, along with author Henry Lincoln, wrote the non-fiction work The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail. Baigent and Leigh took issue with Brown’s novel, claiming that the storyline was borrowed from their historical research. After a lengthy court case against Random House Group (who also happen to have published the claimants’ book), the two authors lost their copyright infringement case. The judge ruled that while six chapters of The Da Vinci Code took much of their narrative from Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln’s research, Brown was not guilty of copyright infringement, since the ideas and historical facts were not protected by copyright. After a failed appeal in 2001, the two claimants had to pay legal bills of approximately £3 million.
Kellogg Co. v National Biscuit Co.
In a landmark 1938 case, world famous cereal brand Kellogg bested their rivals, the National Biscuit Company, over the manufacturing of a shredded wheat product which the National Biscuit Company claimed presented unfair competition to one of their products. The claimant objected to Kellogg’s use of the term “shredded wheat” to market their cereal, adding that there was too much of a similarity between Kellogg’s “pillow-shaped” cereal and their own shredded wheat product. Kellogg was allowed to continue their manufacturing of shredded wheat under this name and shape by Judge Brandeis, who rejected the National Biscuit Company’s argument under the premise that the shape was “functional”, while the name “Shredded Wheat” is simply descriptive, and therefore un-trademark-able. Judge Brandeis’ decision remains central to the U.S. statutory test for whether a name should remain un-trademarked because it is generic or descriptive.
Louis Vuitton Malletier S.A. v. Haute Diggity Dog
Fashion house Louis Vuitton had a dog day when they decided to sue a Nevada-based pet product company, Haute Diggity Dog in 2007. The handbag maker, known around the world for its signature-branded luggage, filed a case against Haute Diggity Dog for trademark, trade dress and copyright infringement over a line of parody products entitled “Chewy Vuitton”. The defendant also reportedly had lines of products that played on the names of other international fashion brands, including “Chewnel No. 5” and “Sniffany & Co.” In a surprising move by the U.S. Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit, it was ruled that the Haute Diggity Dog products consisted of a successful parody, meaning they had not infringed on Louis Vuitton copyrights or trademarks. The court considered that the products were distinctly differentiated from Louis Vuitton products, and sought to convey a message of entertainment and amusement. It was also considered whether or not the “Chewy Vuitton” products could be confused in any way for Louis Vuitton products; a suggestion that was rejected by the court.
In 2010, Aaron Swartz, a 26-year-old computer programmer and founder of Reddit, downloaded thousands of scholarly articles from the online journal archive JSTOR. He had legal access to the database through his research fellowship at Harvard University; he also, however, had a history of dramatic activism against pay-for-content online services, having previously downloaded and released roughly 100,000,000 documents from the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) database, which charges eight cents per page to access public files. Given his status as a prominent “hacktivist” and the sheer quantity of files involved, law enforcement agents concluded that Swartz planned to distribute the cache of articles and indicted him on multiple felony counts carrying a possible sentence of $1 million in fines and 35 years in prison.
Swartz was slated to go to trial this year but committed suicide in early January, prompting a public outcry against the prosecution in his case. Swartz was a prominent voice in the heated debate surrounding modern copyright law and public access and use (see his 2008 “Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto”). New York’s current issue contains a great feature from Wesley Yang discussing Swartz’s activism, his life, and the controversy in which he was embroiled.
In the ongoing debate over Swartz’s prosecution, we’ve pulled together a brief reading list on the issues surrounding American copyright in the digital age from OUP’s stable:
A Senior Copyright Counsel at Google takes a look at the changing economic realities of the globalizing, digitizing world and concludes that our government must “remake our copyright laws to fit our times.”
An overview of music piracy stretching back to the advent of recorded sound. The RIAA made headlines throughout the last decade by litigating against users who shared music online, but musicians, record companies, songwriters, and fans were navigating this territory for nearly a century before the Internet became a factor.
The story of one early 20th century musician who spent decades conducting high-profile lawsuits against the leading pop icons of the day. Though he never won a single case, Ira Arnstein managed to have a significant impact on the shape of music copyright through the decisions in his numerous cases.
Spoo homes in on the contested publication of Ulysses to reveal the impact on copyright of literary modernism (and vice versa). Characters such as Ezra Pound, the infamous publisher Samuel Roth, and of course James Joyce flesh out a revealing story about artists grappling with free speech and authorship.
Oxford University Press is committed to developing outstanding resources to support students, scholars, and practitioners in all areas of the law. Our practitioner programme continues to grow, with key texts in commercial law, arbitration and private international law, plus the innovative new ebook version of Blackstone’s Criminal Practice. We are also delighted to announce the new edition of the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, one of the most trusted reference resources in international law. In addition to the books you can find on this page, OUP publishes a wide range of law journals and online products.
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From the 1920s to the 1950s, Ira B. Arnstein was the unrivaled king of music copyright litigants. He spent the better part of those 30 years trying to prove that many of the biggest hits of the Golden Age of American Popular Song were plagiarized from his turn-of-the-century parlor piano pieces and Yiddish songs. “I suppose we have to take the bad with the good in our system which gives everyone their day in court,” Irving Berlin once said, but “Arnstein is stretching his day into a lifetime.”
Arnstein never won a case, but he left an enduring imprint on copyright law merely by getting his days in court and establishing precedents that later led to copyright infringement judgments against such notables as George Harrison and Michael Bolton. Though his claims often strained judicial credulity, Arnstein had a gift for posing conundrums that engaged some of the finest legal minds of his era, forcing them to refine and sharpen their doctrines.
Over the years, Arnstein laid claim to more than a hundred standards of the Great American Songbook. This playlist of 15 songs — from Irving Berlin’s “A Russian Lullaby” of 1927 to Cole Porter’s “I Love Paris” of 1952 — is representative, and we have selected recordings that illustrate performance styles from the 20s to today. “No one,” as one lawyer wrote and you will agree, “can accuse Arnstein of courting feeble opposition.”
Gary A. Rosen is the author of Unfair to Genius: The Strange and Litigious Career of Ira B. Arnstein. He has practiced intellectual property law for more than 25 years. Before entering private practice, he served as a law clerk to federal appellate judge and award-winning legal historian A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr.
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A group of independent font designers have teamed up to create a service which will track the unauthorized use and distribution of font files online. They’re trying to raise $4,000 to make this happen:
TypeSnitch is a community-funded service that helps you keep tabs on where your font files are being publicly shared online. It will monitor popular sources and help you request file takedowns and other tedium related to inappropriate sharing of your files.
If you’re out to make a great app or better hammer, there will be copy cats galore. As for nice artists looking to do something with your own characters… what I really must warn you about are crafters who rip IP. Boy do I hate them. I’ll take giant corporate entities ripping on us over crafters any day.
See, when it’s the giant companies, it’s always some young new in-house designer getting lazy and throwing existing IP into the mix, figuring nobody will know. It’s an easy fix, they pay your legal fees and remove the product, done deal.
But crafters? They don’t have the $ to pay legal fees. But you will always have to pay yours, and you will always always have to stop every single one of them.
It makes tremendous sense, but it’s not something most of us would think about until we were in that position. The image here are a crafter’s copies of his work. Copying is not always the “highest form of flattery” you can pay someone.
0 Comments on "If you’re out to make a great app or better hammer, there will be copy cats galore. As for..." as of 1/1/1900
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has caused concern for many reasons, such as secret negotiations and controversial provisions. Today, more than 70 law professors sent a letter to President Obama asking that he “direct the [U.S. Trade Representative] to halt its public endorsement of ACTA and subject the text to a meaningful participation process that can influence the shape of the agreement going forward.”
Despite this beneficial attention, one clause has slipped under the radar. Article 2.14 of ACTA would require participating nations to “ensure that criminal liability for aiding and abetting is available.”
This liability would apply to parties that assist others in engaging in “willful . . . copyright . . . piracy on a commercial scale.” Such scale includes “commercial activities for direct or indirect economic or commercial advantage.” These terms are not defined in the agreement. As a result, it would appear that any activity that would give an “indirect” commercial advantage (including the downloading of a single copyrighted song) could lead to criminal liability.
While such a consequence would appear severe, it is not even the most concerning part of Article 2.14. That distinction is reserved for the “aiding and abetting” basis for liability. Any party that plays a role in assisting infringement could be liable for criminal liability. The identity of such parties is worrisome: Personal computer manufacturers. Electronic device makers. Search engine operators. Each of these entities could play a role, however indirect, in contributing to copyright infringement.
Although copyright’s secondary liability law is not a model of clarity, courts have sought to ground its elements in balanced policies. Judicial tests have asked if devices have noninfringing uses (Sony). If the party has knowledge and materially contributed to the activity (contributory infringement). If it has a financial interest and the right to control (vicarious liability). If it has an intent to induce infringement (Grokster).
Aiding-and-abetting liability lacks such nuance. It is borrowed from criminal law. And it is used to punish those who assisted in the crime. The getaway driver. The fraudulent check presenter. The cocaine distributor. In the criminal law arena, such liability reaches broadly to deter true criminal conduct.
In the context of secondary copyright liability, in contrast, such a standard is not appropriate. Not when copyright is subject to competing public policies. Not when technologies could be held criminally liable for allowing search, performance, or retrieval. Not when these monumentally significant issues—which would dramatically expand U.S. liability—were never even debated.
In 2004, Congress considered adding “aiding and abetting” liability to copyright law. Its attempt, the Induce Act, failed. The secretive ACTA is not an appropriate vehicle to circumvent this failure and dramatically expand secondary liability.
Michael A. Carrier is a Professor of Law at Rutgers University School of Law, Camden. He has published and spoken widely on the antitrust and intellectual property laws, and is one of the leading authorities in the country on the intersection of these laws. His new book, Innovation for the 21st Century: Harnessing the Power of Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law, looks at how innovation has been threatened by the United States legal system and seeks to reverse the trend, offering ten revolutionary proposals, from pharmaceuticals to peer-to-peer software, to help foster innovation. In the post below Carrier reports on today’s decision in the Cipro case. Read Carrier’s previous post here.
A tidal wave of high drug prices has recently crashed across the U.S. economy. One of the primary culprits: agreements by which brand-name drug manufacturers pay generic firms to stay off the market. This issue has been raging in the halls of Congress, the courts, and the government agencies.
And now, perhaps, the first full appellate court. This morning, a panel of three Second Circuit judges upheld a settlement involving the antibiotic ciprofloxacin hydrochloride (Cipro), the blockbuster drug used to treat bacterial illnesses. In a nutshell, Bayer paid firms interested in making generic versions of Cipro $398 million in return for the generics agreeing not to enter the market during the term of Bayer’s patent.
This type of settlement, which is becoming more common by the day, includes a “reverse payment.” Such a payment differs from typical licensing payments that flow from challengers to patentees by preventing competition and by paying the generic more than it could have earned by entering the market. This is possible because, by delaying generic entry, the brand firm dramatically increases its monopoly profits and uses a portion of these profits to lavish windfalls on generics.
Agreements like these have been blessed by most courts in recent years. Courts have explained that the agreements reduce costs and increase innovation. They have referred to settlements as “natural by-products” of the Hatch-Waxman Act (the 1984 law designed to foster generic competition and drug innovation). And they have pointed to patents’ presumption of validity in demonstrating the agreements’ reasonableness. In fact, the Second Circuit had previously made these very arguments in upholding an agreement involving the breast-cancer drug Tamoxifen.
The court today relied on the Tamoxifen case in upholding the Cipro settlement. But the most interesting aspect of the decision was the panel’s recommendation that “because of the ‘exceptional importance’ of the antitrust implications of reverse exclusionary payment settlements of patent infringement suits, we invite plaintiffs-appellants to petition for rehearing in banc.” The panel could not overturn its earlier decision absent an intervening decision by the U.S. Supreme Court or an in banc proceeding involving the entire Second Circuit. But it offered four reasons for rehearing:
(1) “The United States has itself urged us to repudiate Tamoxifen” (in a brief filed by the DOJ by invitation last summer);
(2) “There is evidence that the practice of entering into reverse exclusionary payment settlements has increased since we decided Tamoxifen”;
(3) The principal drafters of the Hatch-Waxman Act have criticized settlements after Tamoxifen was decided; and
(4) “Tamoxifen relied on an unambiguous mischaracterization of the Hat
As a freelance Illustrator still scraping my fingernails to get noticed by the industry, I’ve created a site that includes multiple styles. I had been told all through art school this was a big No-No to feature multiple styles under the same name. I find this rather frustrating, as I’m sure Editors can appreciate diverse styles to fit story needs… right? Is it better to have one solidified style to ‘brand’ one’s self in the memory of Editors? Or do you appreciate an artist with multiple approaches to solving a children’s text?
I like multiple styles. The designers I know like multiple styles. I don't know what they're teaching people in art school.
I hear people talk all the time about revising manuscripts based on what rejection letters say. If I have received 50 form rejection letters that have no specific connection to my writing, does that mean my work is not worth commenting on, editors are over-worked, or something else entirely?
I would say that's a bad sign. Whether it means you've been submitting something unremarkable or submitting to people who don't take the sort of thing you're submitting, I don't know.
About a year ago I sent out a manuscript to three slush piles of three prominent houses and a couple of other places which shall not be named. Today I was walking through Target and saw MY BOOK WITH ANOTHER PERSON'S name on it. Obviously, it was her book, containing my idea, and a little suspicious that it is out a little less than one year after submitting it. Is this just how the business works? Does my book even have a chance? Should I hope that it is a best-seller so that another publisher wants to pick up my book? Should I get a lawyer? Okay, so not the last, but it is tough seeing a water-down version of my fabulous story on the shelves. Yes, it may be like the Twilight phenomena and we just had the same idea at the same time, but it doesn't make me feel better. The one saving grace is that I like the illustrations and I know that another version is worth publishing. Though the reason I like the illustrations of the woman's book so much is because they are very similar to the illustration that I sent in on my cover letter. I know these things happen, but I feel I need a "pat on the back" and "carry on young grasshopper". I promise I won't be pathetic tomorrow.
First of all, it's unlikely that a publisher could find your idea in the submissions pile and crank out an imitation in less than a year. The book you saw in Target has most likely been underway for a couple years. Likewise, if you sell your manuscript, it will be another couple of years before it comes out. So unless it's a very unusual topic and your approach isn't meaningfully different, there's hope for your book yet.
I write literary fiction, mostly, as well as young adult. But that's beside the point. My question is what does one do with a 15,000 word story--not long enough to be a novel, but not short enough (I understand) to be a short story. Is there any way to sell stories around that length?
Probably not. I mean, Seedfolks is around 11,000 words, but chances are you're not Paul Fleischman. And I can't think of anything that short in YA. I never say never, but that sounds like a bit of a long shot.
10 Comments on Never Say Never, Again and Again, last added: 12/25/2009
The poster said: "Though the reason I like the illustrations of the woman's book so much is because they are very similar to the illustration that I sent in on my cover letter."
I think this sentence is a sign that this author needs to do some more research. Check the posts on EA and others about submitting illustrations and resources for new authors.
Having multiple styles can confuse some buyers to the point of losing a sale.
Buyers become afraid of choosing the *wrong* style amongst your work and back off fearing they'll pick the least effective.
I saw this when showing my commercial art portfolio around San Francisco. Limiting their decisions actually secured more sales!
Haste yee back ;-)
Anonymous said, on 11/26/2009 10:09:00 AM
What they teach in art school is that if you are unknown and show too many very different styles, it is hard for art directors to remember and identify you with any particular style (among all the other illustrators' work they see) or to know exactly what they'll be getting if they hire you.
Eilonwy said, on 11/26/2009 5:17:00 PM
Oh, EA, have you already boxed up your imagination and put it in storage for the holidays? In order to make a 15,000 word manuscript into a YA novel all one needs to do is rearrange the lineation into short chunky paragraphs and present it as a novel in verse. And unlike vampire fiction, even a stake through the cover won't kill the stupid things.
Also, take a look at Duotrope's Digest - you can narrow down markets by various criteria, including wordcount. I got 97 matches for a wordcount of 11,000 although obviously only a small subset will match your genre.
Ooh..... someone needs to write a vampire novel in 'blank verse!' I bet editors everywhere would snap that up. (evil cackle....)
There are some very good verse novels. I loved Hesse's 'Out of the Dust.' Very few stories actually WORK in verse, and even fewer authors can actually WRITE good blank verse. Especially since blank verse actually DOES have requirements for Metre.... it's alot harder than you'd think.
But, I would be willing to bet- that most of the "novels in verse' that skitter across EA's desk like dried husks of last autumns corn, or dessicated corpses, deserted by rot are just random strings of prose sounding clunky, but lacking punctuation - much like this paragraph.
Would it be possibly to write (or get together with the authors of) a few more in-between-lengths stories, if they're thematically similar enough, and send them in as an anthology of sorts? More Tokyo! than Paris, Je T'aime...
working illustrator said, on 11/28/2009 9:08:00 AM
About different art styles:
I just saw the children's book Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators and this theme came up a lot, as pieces for different books by the same illustrators were hung side by side.
Some artists - Jerry Pinkney and Michael Hague come to mind - have a way of pulling every project they work on into a particular way of working.
Others - Paul Zelinsky, Steven Johnston and Lou Fancher - customize their work, sometimes radically, to each individual text.
In movies you see the same thing: Tom Cruise is always Tom Cruise; Gary Oldman is unrecognizable from role to role.
I think the the challenge to the would-be chameleon is properly defined by the first commenter: too much variety makes it hard for art directors to remember you.
It's a marketing problem, essentially, and the solution is, I think, a creative one: when Brian Karas, Paul Zelinsky or Lane Smith work in different styles, there's a connective aesthetic running through the work.
It's all clearly the same artist working in different modes. The same imagination is at work through different visual languages.
EA would probably say - as she often does with writers - that this is something only advanced people can do. That's certainly true, as far as it goes... but I'm assuming that this questioner - or someone else who might read this thread - has the capacity to do that.
I'm assuming that there is such a thing as developing or undiscovered talent, and that discussion of these topics needn't just dead-end under the sign "you're not famous; don't go there."
Scott Magoon is a good example of a a younger artist who does this: Ugly Fish and Luck of the Loch Ness Monster are very different stylistically, but the underlying line and sensibility link them.
If you're a strong enough artist - if your vision is sufficiently developed - you'll be able to work in different styles and media and not lose what makes you distinctive.
But it is harder. And the more variety you to want to show, the stronger your core aesthetic – and the wider your overall skill set – needs to be.
Plagiarism is easy to spot and prosecute when actual wording has been lifted from another work, but stealing characters, plot structure, and ideas is a gray and murky area.
Obviously some ideas, like "a kid who finds out he has special powers and has to go away to school to learn about them", are general enough that nobody's stealing from any particular source when they write yet another one of these. And there's no question literature is rife with repeated tropes and deliberate allusion. That's all ok.
But then there are the cases where there's really no question where the ideas came from... and no sense the author expected you to make the connection. I can think of a particular author's characters who have shown up more than once in other books... with no indication that it was "an homage" of any kind.
Over and over I get asked about the danger of writers' ideas being stolen at publishing houses, and I roll my eyes, because it's not a danger at all. And because when it comes to stealing ideas, as heartbreaking as it is, the danger (though still not so common) is most likely to come from other writers.
11 Comments on Stolen Ideas, last added: 7/23/2009
Thank you for joining in with the anti-plagiarism theme today: it's most appreciated. I'm still amazed by how many people have picked this up and blogged about it!
This is probably a dumb question, but how is it that anyone who has ever watched a Star Wars movie is allowed to write Star Wars books? The things are all over the place.
Anonymous said, on 7/18/2009 5:48:00 AM
The more I think about it, the less sure I am that I really know what this means. One writer's characters appearing in other writer's book--I dunno. Rowling wasn't the first to write a young orphaned boy who discovered he's a wizard and went off the school. She isn't the first to write one with that personality, either (to the extent that Harry Potter actually -had- a personality).
But because her plots were her own--completely derivative, but still her own--I don't think you can say that Harry is 'someone else's character.' You can't really disentangle plot and character to that extent.
And there are types. The downtrodden housewife, the alcoholic cop, the chick. I guess I'm just not sure where the line is, here. I'd say that 80% of the chick-lit novels I've read--including many of the best!--starred some version of Bridget Jones. Every book with a hot girl in tight leather pants and a dagger on the title features Anita Blake. And poor exhausted Philip Marlowe ...
Thanks for the link. Since the Cassie Edwards (Ferrets!) plagiarism hit the fan, I've picked up a couple of her books at used book sales. It's fun to skim through (the plots in the Secretare essentially the same—hot prairie chick meets hunky native American/torrid scenes ensue/etc.) and pick out the plagiarized parts that are so different in style from her usual narrative.
I can see where plagiarism can happen in romance novels, but does much occur in children's literature? Well, aside from the occasional Harry Potter and Stephanie Meyers rip-off attempts.
Anon 6:48: In terms of stealing characters, you're right that a single similar character in more than one author's writing is bound to happen organically.
But the example I was thinking of features a whole cast of characters, including pets. That's no damn coincidence.
Let's say, for instance, that Egmont's new book Leaving the Bellweathers features (1) an egomaniacal father figure who prizes his creativity, is prone to apoplectic rages and yelling about the bills, and has a running feud with the housekeeper (2) an ethereally beautiful but mentally abstracted artist mother figure who is inanely and comically unaware of the daily catastrophes around her (3) a hellion orange cat (4) a child / children who are surprisingly precocious, cherubically innocent-looking, and destructive enough to be her/their own natural disaster (5) other child / children with whole sets of eccentric interests, which include self-motivated interests in school topics like languages, math, instruments, painting, and computers, and all of which manage to contribute to the daily clangor and chaos of the household (6) a bizzarely long-suffering housekeeper who does nothing but whinge.
And now let's say there's another book with that same set of characters. What then?
Anonymous said, on 7/18/2009 4:11:00 PM
It happened to me. I'm an illustrator. A "friend" lifted my character, compositions in sequence and some of the author's words. In fact, this "friend" lifted many of my art works and is dumb enough to blog it. But it doesn't take an clear thinking person to steal in the first place. "Friend" was pretty snarky about our friendship (?) when called on it. Publisher was upset, did nothing. PS prefer to be anonymous and glad people are taking a stand.
(Venice, Italy) Ten years ago, when I first arrived in Venice, I was fortunate enough to score an Access All Areas pass to the Doge's Palace. I had permission to roam unrestricted wherever I wanted for an entire week, so Palazzo Ducale is magical to me. I imagined myself straight back into the past, and wandered with the spirits through the great halls and chambers. I gazed upon Titian's fresco of St. Christopher and Veronese's Victory Against a Sinner, and trembled in front of the Council of Ten. I mounted the Golden Staircase, and danced under Palladio's ceiling in the Anti-Collegio. I stepped into Tiepolo's Neptune Offering Gifts to Venice, her seductive finger holding back the yearning of the Adriatic, and never quite stepped out again.
In addition, the first press conference I ever attended was held in the Sala del Piovego, and I found myself in that very room a few nights ago for the Fifth Annual Venice Award for Intellectual Property Rights ceremony. As a writer, it is a topic close to my heart.
Alison Brimelow, the President of the European Patent Office was there, as was Paolo Baratta, who, among many other things (as you know if you've been reading this blog), is President of La Biennale. Kevin Cullen accepted the award given to the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) for their work in bringing together universities, research institutions, government agencies and innovative enterprises. In other words, they connect research to the market, and spin thought into gold.
Long, long ago in 1474, Venice herself passed the first written law to grant and protect patents. Paolo Baratta said they probably signed the law in the very room where we were seated, the Sala del Piovego. Although most of the Palazzo Ducale is now a museum, there are a few rooms that function in a contemporary way, and that room is one of them. Just think -- 534 years ago Intellectual Property rights were a topic of discussion here in town, and the Venetians were wise enough to understand that ideas and thoughts should be protected.
What is Intellectual Property? This is from Wikipedia:
"Intellectual property (IP) is a legal field that refers to creations of the mind such as musical, literary, and artistic works; inventions; and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce, including copyrights, trademarks, patents, and related rights. Under intellectual property law, the holder of one of these abstract properties has certain exclusive rights to the creative work, commercial symbol, or invention by which it is covered."
It is amazing that this battle has been going for 500 years, probably much longer. I have spent most of my life in a creative environment, so it is difficult for me to understand how others fail to recognize the worth of original thought, and the tremendous time, energy and effort it takes to produce it. It is what I encourage in the books I write, and I have been fortunate enough in the past week or so to be surrounded by like-minded people. These days, Venice is teeming with discussions and conferences about how to be creative and productive, not stagnant and destructive; it is a very exciting time. There is a fascinating dynamic that erupts when you bring contemporary thinkers into ancient venues; you can almost feel the thoughts still floating in the air from centuries ago mingle with present-day brain waves. (That's Canaletto's version of Palazzo Ducale, though he is only about 300 years old:)
Here is the text from the ancient law:
19th March, 1474
There are in this city, and also there come temporarily by reason of its greatness and goodness, men from different places and most clever minds, capable of devising and inventing all manner of ingenious contrivances. And should it be provided, that the works and contrivances invented by them, others having seen them could not make them and take their honour; men of such kind would exert their minds, invent and make things which would be of no small utility and benefit to our State.
Therefore, decision will be passed that, by authority of this Council, each person who will make in this city any new and ingenious contrivance, not made heretofore in our dominion, as soon as it is reduced to perfection, so that it can be used and exercised, shall give notice of the same to the office of our Provisioners of Common. It being forbidden to any other in any territory and place of ours to make any other contrivance in the form and resemblance thereof, without the consent of the author up to ten years.
And, however, should anybody make it, the aforesaid author and inventor will have the liberty to cite him before any office of this city, by which office the aforesaid who shall infringe be forced to pay him the sum of one hundred ducates and the contrivance be immediately destroyed. Being then in liberty of our Government at his will to take and use in his need any of said contrivances and instruments, with this condition, however, that no others than the authors shall exercise them.
After the ceremony, I wandered out onto the Loggia and gazed at the imposing courtyard below... the bronze well-heads, the Giants' Staircase... and I think I glimpsed the Doge!
Dear Editorial Anonymous:
First off, thanks so much for doing this-- your site is a map for all the people out there picking through the children's publishing minefield-- a resource that is truly appreciated. Please know that I mean it and wasn't just buttering you up--- even though I do have a big, long juicy question for you:::
On the topic of Intellectual Property (which you seem to be
12 Comments on Frankenstein's Monster, by Igor, last added: 10/21/2008
I didn't ask this question but I love your response. The execution is everything in a book, it's what makes one book sell and another not. Ideas, even those given to you that you can latch onto and will solve a problem in the manuscript are not the same as writing the thing. Otherwise every single book would have two authors. The writer and the writer's editor.
Does anyone know Mordecai Richler's wife's name? Not likely, even though she played the same role that this author's girlfriend did. You won't find her name on the cover, it's in the acknowledgements, though she worked as Richler's editor for every book written after they were together. Ok, I guess if you're a "Jacob Two-Two" fan, you might know, because his wife is a character.
Ouch. Sounds like an ugly custody battle in the making. Here's my question... What does "she doesn't want to be left out in the cold if it gets published" actually mean? Does she just wants a byline, acknowledgment and gratitude? (Understandable) Does she want to use the book as a credit when submitting her own writing? (Possibly do-able)Does she want a say in submissions and marketing
It's like the paper I'm working on for English 310. If my tutor gives mes some ideas to help me get going, and does some editing for me, that's nice and all, and I certainly appreciate it. But what, does she expect a share of my A minus? Need I break her off 15 points and take credit for a C plus? I'm the one who wrote the paper. As long as I wrote the product, I don't see why I should compensate
Most books are not created in a vacuum.The act of writing is a solitary affair, but at the same time most of us have critique partners or groups who helps us brainstorm ideas and edit, so that we can make the book the best it can be.But I agree with you, EA, the writer is the one who has done the actual writing.
Thank you for your clear response. I've often wondered just where to draw the line when sharing ideas and editing with a partner. You couldn't have made it any simpler. Thanks!
Wow. This was really interesting. Thanks for posting it! It would never occur to me to include more than a thank you to my husband in my book, even though I've stolen all his good jokes, half his life, and run a zillion things past him, plus all the ideas he's added after reading ten drafts. But it would never occur to him either, so we're cool.
(Dear Abby)I know this situation very well, from the p.o.v. of the girlfriend/wife who offers ideas, reads and edits draft after draft of book after book, writes the back cover blurb (in-house editor came up with a dud), organizes the book launch (publisher was a tight-wad), etc ad nauseam. Done all that!I got a nice thank you on all the credit pages, which was totally fine. Because did I write
Although I have no sympathy for this man due to my insane jealousy of anyone who can travel around the world for 13 months, I applaud his equanimity. It is very good of you to want to find a solution that keeps everyone happy. I think you are extremely generous to want to allow her co-creator status when you put in twelve times the work. Is this what she is asking for? I think EA nailed it -
Anonymous said, on 10/21/2008 1:17:00 PM
I like Miriam's advice about trying to discover what she has in mind. This is a very vivid account of one side of the story, but I would be curious to know what the process looks like to the other party. What kind of "writing" involvement was there (if any)? Not all writing takes place at the computer.As a former composition instructor, I've spent lots of time working through essays with students
So, let's say that I have written a fictional book. I've had some friends read it, and while they like it, it certainly needs a "real author's" touch. I think I need some character development, etc. It's kind of like I have the frame work of a house, but need it finished...Any suggestions?Are we talking about a hypothetical fictional book that needs to be written by someone else? Please take
23 Comments on The Story Is Done! Now All I Need Is Someone to Write the Story!, last added: 10/12/2008
I'm hypothetically laughing my hypothetical ass off right now.
Anonymous said, on 10/10/2008 10:36:00 AM
It's good that the OP actually knows the book needs work, though. When I was green I would've sent that right out to a million agents, I didn't know any better, none of us do at first. Original Poster -- what you've desribed is a rough draft. After you get that first draft out of you with blood sweat and tears, then you roll up your sleeves and do the real work -- rewriting. That's where you FIX
I get people at cocktail parties, at the store, in the dentist chair and all sorts of other pplaces pitching ideas for children's books to me. Invariably, the offer is the same: "I'll give you the idea and you can write it. Then we can split the profits."I smile and nod while they get their pitch out. Then, I politely tell them that my hard drive is filled with enough of my own ideas that I won't
Anonymous said, on 10/10/2008 11:19:00 AM
I have an idea of the people I want my children to grow up to be, now can someone else raise them?
Let me clarify, as the original poster. I wrote a book, totaling somwhere near 200-250 pages. There is a full story line, characters, plot, etc. So, it's not just an "idea" or hypothetical, as you suggest. The problem, as I apparantly failed to articulate properly in my example, is like home building. You have framers, finishers, plumbers, electricians, and I suppose, general handymen. I can
Anonymous said, on 10/10/2008 11:42:00 AM
Most writers come about that "professional touch" by re-writing and re-writing and re-writing -- four, five, six drafts. They read tons of craft books that teach less-experienced writers how to do this.If you want a published writer to go over your work without completing the above steps, either join a high-level critique group or be prepared to fork over big bucks for a professional editor.
Building a house does require framers and electricians and plumbers and all sorts of other subcontractors. There's the hot mop guy and the Finish Contractor. But, there are no subcontractors in writing. Even a good critique group or trusted readers are simply people you might stand in front of your house and say, "what do you think?" You wouldn't expect them to pick up a hammer. The agent
Perhaps a critique, and perhaps some help. I guess the feedback I have gotten thus far from family/friends and a good friend of mine in L.A. who reads movie scripts for a living, is that while the overall story is a good one, the concept is a good one, etc., that my character development, and or overall "story telling" ability could use some work. I am not a professional writer. Never claimed
Anonymous said, on 10/10/2008 12:49:00 PM
"I am not a professional writer. Never claimed to be." Do you want to be one? It's hard to tell how much heart you have for this. Because, if you want to improve your story, you can do it yourself, but it's not easy. It takes work. I get the feel that you don't want to do the work.I saw this quote on another blog yesterday - Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will
I guess motivation is the key question here. Do you want to be published? Because if you want publication, then you need to treat writing a book as though it were a job. A job where you need to figure out all the parts yourself and do them well. Even if it takes you a long time to learn how.You can take classes and workshops. But the best teacher of writing is actually writing. And reading
ajree -- I get what you are asking now. You might want to take up the previous advice and join a critique group. It doesn't take a professional author, sometimes, to be able to point out flaws. It sounds like you are wanting something more formal -- since you mentioned your friend makes a living reading screenplays in L.A. I'm a screenwriter too, and there are "coverage" programs, from the Austin
Thanks Anonymous, I think we are on the same page now. It is not that my heart is not in it, In fact, I do have writing experience in other areas. I have published articles in the past in scholarly journals related to my employment discipline. This however, was my first crack at writing a fictional work. I suppose the help I am seeking is the guidance of someone with experience in the area.
Ajree, you should look into the UCLA Extension Writer's Program. The classes can be somewhat expensive, but they are all taught by actual published authors and can be done online. I found the critiques given by my classmates and the teacher to be quite helpful in finding the problems in my own work.In the end, you probably need to write another draft or two, or perhaps consider putting it aside
Thanks everyone...At least my question spurned a lively debate...
Anonymous said, on 10/10/2008 11:58:00 PM
As a "John Q Public" who's always dreamed of being a "Best-selling Author," I find your blog entertaining and insightful, if not just a little TOO MUCH reality!Still, keep at it, and THANKS!Posted by: Frantically Dreaming of Making A Living Writing
Anonymous said, on 10/11/2008 6:14:00 AM
If I had a pound (or $2.40) for every time someone's offered me an idea, in return for half the royalties... Well, I wouldn't be rich, but I'd have sunk a few nice bottles of wine. But since this poster seems actually to have got quite a lot of words down on paper, there's something for them to work on and learn from. If they want to. As a commenter said above, motivation is all."I'd skip trying
I echo a lot of what's been said here. Learning to be an author takes time and effort and sometimes a bit of money (classes, retreats, workshops).If you just want to see your words in book form, there's Lulu. It's a service that you pay for and they give you a bound copy of your book. Then you can have it on your bookshelf or your coffee table and be done with it.There are a lot of people out
Again, thanks everyone, at the very least, all of your suggestions have pointed me in a direction I was unaware of previously. I will look into a lot of your ideas...I did spend the time to copyright it as well, I guess as a vanity thing, but if anyone wants to take a read, let me know...Hahaha!
It depends upon (1) what the problems with the book are, and (2) what your level of skill is, and (3) whether you actually desire to become a professional writer.If you want to become a pro at fiction writing, then you need to buckle down and learn the craft first, then rework your novel yourself. (Perhaps with input from a crit group, then later participation by an agent or editor.)If you don't
Old post, new inquiry:
Dear Anonymous,
How safe is it to pitch a book idea?
I'm writing a book but don't want anyone to rip off my idea.This is a not infrequently asked question. The worry that your manuscripts need protection is pretty unnecessary, but let's go through this once anyway.
I don't send out stories, but if I did: copyright is more trouble than it's worth, and I've heard that the
19 Comments on rerun: Copyright, Intellectual Property, and the Threat of Pythons, last added: 10/14/2008
Yes, saw two pythons on streetcars myself this morning, and I wasn't really paying attention.If anyone has a shortage of ideas then I can generate any number, my apartment is so jammed with them I hardly have space left in which to sleep.
Reminds me of the guy who offered to read my latest manuscript for me. He was afraid to talk about his idea for a novel. Talking to him further, I found out he had not yet put a single word on paper, but he was in school for writing. Um, yeah. So an idea and some classes made him a writer rather than actually writing anything.
Great post........................................Download free 320x480 iPhone and iPod Touch wallpapers, backgrounds and themes........................................www.e3iphone.com
I'm still waiting to see if the Blogs Of Note thing does anything for this blog besides finding me a bunch of spam commenters.Moderating comments is a pain in the ass.
Hi EA,Why not let them waste their time posting here. And if you really feel the need, you can delete any comment you want. That should be easier than moderating and can be done in your own time.Frankly, I'm good with ignoring the idiots and just replying to the posters who have something real to say. It's great practice for life - ignoring the inconsequential things and putting my energy into
Anonymous said, on 10/6/2008 11:13:00 AM
Oh, my. Really?Steal ideas?Honey, no one even wants my finished book and I've been previously published. And you know, it has the idea, the dialogue, the character arcs, the prose, and a beginning, middle, and end.
150 said, on 10/7/2008 12:47:00 PM
I always say: Agents won't steal your idea because they can make more money by representing it. Editors won't steal your idea because they can make more money editing it. Other authors won't steal your idea because they all think they're better than you.
I really enjoyed reading this Post and yes, I did stumble across it via "Blogs of Note".Editorial Anonymous, I know you don't like the fact that all it is achieving is getting you comments, but at least it is increasing your online readership and audience. Plus it is the first Google Blog I have enjoyed reading, but I have only been a member since September.Thank you for sharing.
Just send in an cover letter, your pitch, and two to three chapters only. You can copyright it even the old fashion way by mailing it to yourself. But it's happening more and more where people ideas are stolen. If you have the money see a communications attorney.Does anyone here have the Writers Guide that answers these questions very easily? That's the basics 101 for any writer that answers
I have a great idea for a novel about a guy who has a great idea for a novel but he's too paranoid to tell anyone about it and too disorganized to actually turn it into a finished book so he asks someone on a weblog what she thinks but he leaves all of the important stuff out because he's afraid she'll steal it from him, make lots of money, and thumb her nose at him from the Bahamas while he
I wonder if this fear about stealing ideas came from those publishers that think up a book, or accept an idea for a book, and hire a writer to write it.
There's a woman who writes with our poetry group who considers herself a professional writer. Each time I read one of her creations, I’m dumbfounded. This woman does not know how to spell simple words, has no grasp of grammar, no idea of how and when to use a pronoun, or a contraction, or an adverb verses an adjective. Her writing shows no sense of meter, and there is no use of form. Her
Today I was reading a children's blog and came across a story that had the same title as mine and plot as mine. The plot line may not be unique, however, it is a true story that happened to my sister's and I. The only difference in the story is that she used chickens as character and I used people. I feel that this author stole my idea. What should I do? How do I prove that the idea was mine
15 Comments on Pythons Attack!, last added: 5/2/2008
"Here's another guy with an idea for a story. He hasn't written it down. His idea is a completely formed, sentence-by-sentence expression of a story about a girl, a pumpkin, and a fairy who makes fantastically uncomfortable shoes."Actually, the fact that he hasn't written it down could be problematic when it comes to whether he has created "intellectual property." Copyright is born upon "
Carly said, on 5/1/2008 9:23:00 AM
I'm so glad you mentioned Trenton Lee Stewart. Today is the release date for The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey! I can't WAIT!!!!!
cslarsen said, on 5/1/2008 9:44:00 AM
So maybe my story, 'Larry Potter and the Chronicles of Farnia' is original?
Editorial Anonymous said, on 5/1/2008 10:56:00 AM
"but there does come a point when the details of a particular plot can become dense and specific enough to constitute expression that is legally protected"That's true. However, if we're talking about the plotline of something that actually happened in real life, that series of events, however specific, does not belong to anyone. Even the people it happened to.
Deirdre Mundy said, on 5/1/2008 11:23:00 AM
Plus, if it happened to you, it probably happened to someone else at some point too.....I'd also guess that, in general, the people who try to steal your ideas aren't the people who are BETTER writers than you....Because most serious writers I've met have a HUGE backlog of stories they'd like to write-- they certainly don't have the time to go around stealing other people's!
Anonymous said, on 5/1/2008 12:32:00 PM
Off the topic of whether or not an idea is or isn't one's "property" depending on this or that factor - I'd like to pile on here with a different angle. This is not meant as a response to the original question-asker, since I have no idea how exactly she/he imagines someone had access to their idea in order to possibly 'steal' it in the first place. I cannot count the amount of times perfect
ChrisEldin said, on 5/1/2008 12:50:00 PM
...what Deidre said.And so many people 'talk' about writing a book as if it's easy just to sit down and start typing. But actually finishing the book is another story. Let alone critiquing, editing, etc.
Anonymous said, on 5/1/2008 2:33:00 PM
So, I'm working on revisions to an MG. And I heard about Hollywood’s plans for a remake of an 80's teen movie that sounds like it had a similar premise as my book. There are many different subplots, details, etc. But the elevator pitch is very close to mine. How do I know if I have been subconsciously stealing all along? I thought I was being totally original! Do I scrap the whole thing at this
Anonymous said, on 5/1/2008 2:43:00 PM
A creative writing instructor told us to go with the eleventh scenario when developing plots & stories, because ten other people have probably had the same idea before you thought of it. All of us have similar expriences, similar ideas. The challenge comes in the finished product.
Deirdre Mundy said, on 5/1/2008 2:57:00 PM
.... I'm suddenly filled with an overwhelming, irresitable desire to watch "Pretty in Pink" followed by "Say Anything." Must resist....must not expose kids to 80s teen melodrama at such an impressionable age...... Seriously, though, anon 3:33 -- OF COURSE you borrowed subconciously from the 80's teen movies! Every writer is influenced by the work that came before..... The trick is to make
working illustrator said, on 5/1/2008 5:03:00 PM
I think this connects, in a way, to our previous discussion about voice. If plotlines and narrative situations are more or less accessible to everyone, the importance of an individual author's sentence-by-sentence use of language becomes that much more important.There's a reason why we don't remember Shakespeare's sources for Hamlet as well as we remember Hamlet.
Kimberly Lynn said, on 5/1/2008 10:06:00 PM
Editorial Anonymous said:“That's true. However, if we're talking about the plotline of something that actually happened in real life, that series of events, however specific, does not belong to anyone. Even the people it happened to.”Even the people it happened to? Oh sheesh. Say it isn’t so! I can’t even have rights to my own darn life?! This just freaks me out . . . I’m going to the
lynnekelly2000 said, on 5/2/2008 8:16:00 AM
I was wondering too how the original poster thinks it could have happened that the author stole her idea; it's highly unlikely, maybe even impossible, unless the story was posted in some public place or if they had a conversation about it. And for the book to have been published already, that author must have had the idea a couple of years ago at least.I'd say go ahead and write the book you were
Mary said, on 5/2/2008 8:54:00 AM
Ideas float around in the ether. It’s quite common for artists to have similar ideas at the same time because we’re all influenced by the current culture. (This is also how trends occur.) As you said, it’s the expression of the idea (not the idea itself) that creates the unique piece of work.
Anonymous said, on 5/2/2008 5:53:00 PM
I have to say, that while much of the time similar stories that emerge are either coincidence or the collective consciousness at work, theft DOES occur. Make no mistake. And it occurs in the illustration world, too.That said, this brings up a related point that bugs the crap out of me even more: that often it is reviewers in cranky review journals, that are the first to write (unoriginally and
Hi all! Ok Im ready for the new year, and one of my new year resolutions is to allways do the sfg weekly challange! :-) I know its a bit of a late start, but better late than never :-P
0 Comments on SFG: Round as of 2/5/2008 1:54:00 PM
![By Self-portrait by the depicted Macaca nigra female. See article. (Wtop.com) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://blogoup.electricstudiolt.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Macaca_nigra_self-portrait_large-628x744.jpg)
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The poster said: "Though the reason I like the illustrations of the woman's book so much is because they are very similar to the illustration that I sent in on my cover letter."
I think this sentence is a sign that this author needs to do some more research. Check the posts on EA and others about submitting illustrations and resources for new authors.
For what it's worth...
Having multiple styles can confuse some buyers to the point of losing a sale.
Buyers become afraid of choosing the *wrong* style amongst your work and back off fearing they'll pick the least effective.
I saw this when showing my commercial art portfolio around San Francisco. Limiting their decisions actually secured more sales!
Haste yee back ;-)
What they teach in art school is that if you are unknown and show too many very different styles, it is hard for art directors to remember and identify you with any particular style (among all the other illustrators' work they see) or to know exactly what they'll be getting if they hire you.
Oh, EA, have you already boxed up your imagination and put it in storage for the holidays? In order to make a 15,000 word manuscript into a YA novel all one needs to do is rearrange the lineation into short chunky paragraphs and present it as a novel in verse. And unlike vampire fiction, even a stake through the cover won't kill the stupid things.
There are some shorter YA books out there, but like Eilonwy said, a lot of them are in verse.
Another alternative might be to turn it into a graphic novel--they are also short on word count.
Um... for the record, poetry is not just ragged lines of prose. Despite what one billion bad poets want to believe.
You definitely can find markets for short stories at 11,000. There's a few contests - just a quick glance shows me Prose And Poetry Prizes - The New Writer Prizes Page goes up to 20k.
Also, take a look at Duotrope's Digest - you can narrow down markets by various criteria, including wordcount. I got 97 matches for a wordcount of 11,000 although obviously only a small subset will match your genre.
Ooh..... someone needs to write a vampire novel in 'blank verse!' I bet editors everywhere would snap that up. (evil cackle....)
There are some very good verse novels. I loved Hesse's 'Out of the Dust.' Very few stories actually WORK in verse, and even fewer authors can actually WRITE good blank verse. Especially since blank verse actually DOES have requirements for Metre.... it's alot harder than you'd think.
But, I would be willing
to bet-
that most of the "novels in verse'
that skitter across EA's desk
like dried husks
of last autumns corn, or dessicated
corpses, deserted by rot
are just random strings of prose
sounding clunky, but lacking punctuation -
much like this paragraph.
Would it be possibly to write (or get together with the authors of) a few more in-between-lengths stories, if they're thematically similar enough, and send them in as an anthology of sorts? More Tokyo! than Paris, Je T'aime...
About different art styles:
I just saw the children's book Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators and this theme came up a lot, as pieces for different books by the same illustrators were hung side by side.
Some artists - Jerry Pinkney and Michael Hague come to mind - have a way of pulling every project they work on into a particular way of working.
Others - Paul Zelinsky, Steven Johnston and Lou Fancher - customize their work, sometimes radically, to each individual text.
In movies you see the same thing: Tom Cruise is always Tom Cruise; Gary Oldman is unrecognizable from role to role.
I think the the challenge to the would-be chameleon is properly defined by the first commenter: too much variety makes it hard for art directors to remember you.
It's a marketing problem, essentially, and the solution is, I think, a creative one: when Brian Karas, Paul Zelinsky or Lane Smith work in different styles, there's a connective aesthetic running through the work.
It's all clearly the same artist working in different modes. The same imagination is at work through different visual languages.
EA would probably say - as she often does with writers - that this is something only advanced people can do. That's certainly true, as far as it goes... but I'm assuming that this questioner - or someone else who might read this thread - has the capacity to do that.
I'm assuming that there is such a thing as developing or undiscovered talent, and that discussion of these topics needn't just dead-end under the sign "you're not famous; don't go there."
Scott Magoon is a good example of a a younger artist who does this: Ugly Fish and Luck of the Loch Ness Monster are very different stylistically, but the underlying line and sensibility link them.
If you're a strong enough artist - if your vision is sufficiently developed - you'll be able to work in different styles and media and not lose what makes you distinctive.
But it is harder. And the more variety you to want to show, the stronger your core aesthetic – and the wider your overall skill set – needs to be.