NaNo

Copyright Registration & NaNo

Devil FallsAs you know, Devil Falls is out. (Everyone, go buy a copy! ;) ) Samhain doesn't register copyright for the works it publishes, and so it was up to me to do it. And I did just now. It's very easy to do by going to copyright.gov and it only cost $35. (BTW -- there's nothing fishy about Samhain not registering copyright for its authors. Samhain is a small press, and it doesn't have the kind of resources to do it for all the titles it publishes.)

Some may ask why I bothered. Or why I hadn't waited to see if it was worth it based on the sales data before I registered.

I did it for the same reason I got my Samhain contract reviewed by a literary attorney. This is business, and I wanted to do it right. There's a big difference between the kind of protection you can get by registering within three months of publication v. later (or not at all):

Registration within three months allows you to become eligible to receive statutory damages and legal costs and attorneys' fees from a copyright infringer.

...lots of other benefits that come with registration, like providing a public record of your copyright claim or that copyright registration is a prerequisite to bringing a copyright infringement suit. Sure, you can register your copyright later and then sue, but you'll end up paying a lot more to expedite the process since you'll want to immediately obtain an injunction against whoever is infringing your copyright.

Will I ever need the protection? I hope not, but you never know, and I prefer to have all my bases covered.

Now for more fun stuff....NANOWRIMO!!!!!

I'm planning to write 15 ms-formatted pages a day, five days out of a week, and write about 5 to 9 pages on the other two days. I think that's very reasonable.

So NaNo, here I come!

Oh the Awesomeness!

First, everyone go congratulate Monica on her big sale to Berkley! She's an incredibly generous and talented writer, and I'm absolutely thrilled for her.

Second, I finally figured out a difficult point in my story. That's always very satisfying. Also the hero's talking to me more than before, although he's still very reluctant to open up. And this means I should be able to start NaNo on time and hopefully write a good draft.

PSA

1. I'm not looking for critique partners anymore. If you're thinking about contacting me because you saw my wanted post, please don't. Thanks.

2. I'm going on a hiatus. No personal problems or crises here. It's just that I'm in the middle of working on my new project ideas, characters, etc. and I don't want to be distracted. This also means I won't be on IM or Twitter, for those of you who have my contact info there. I will, of course, be available via email. I will blog, but not as often as before.

3. If I have no idea who you are, I'm not going to approve your request to see my Twitter updates. It's not that I'm trying to be exclusive or elitist, but I just don't feel comfortable adding strangers I've never met in real life or online before, esp. because I tend to yap a lot about a lot of inconsequential stuff there.