Fair Use: Don't get caught plagiarizing unintentionally!

It can happen that you plagiarize unintentionally if you don't have a rudimentary understanding of the term "fair use."

 

I think I get more questions about copyright than anything else, and I'm not a lawyer. But fair use is something I can help you with.  Just don't consider it advice, OK? (-:

 

 "Fair Use" may have to be determined by a court but they consider

1. Whether material was used for a commercial, nonprofit, or educational purpose;

2. How much of the work was used (the percentage used compared to the size of the work as a whole);

3. How its use affected the value of the copyrighted work; 4. The nature (genre, etc) of the copyrighted work that was used.

 

Number 3 is extremely important. If a person cannot show that they were materially or monetarily damaged by the material used, many lawyers advise they not sue because legal costs will outstrip a settlement—if any—received as a result of the suit.

 

Sometimes you hear "fair use" in a blanket permission or agreed upon guideline for use of part of the work. Some online bookstores, as an example, suggest quotes in reviews should be credited and no more than 25 words, but obviously that doesn't take into consideration all the legal guidelines for fair use. If someone quoted 25 words of a haiku, that might not be seen as "fair use" at all. In fact, you'd probably have quoted the whole poem.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

Making Marketing Lemonade Out of Controversy

In The Frugal Book Promoter I talk about making good lemonade out of a very sour fruit and here is a way to do that. It seemed easier to just include the entire release that explains a copycat of Maggie Ball's and my series.--intentional "borrowing" or not.  This way we all get some publicity for it.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Magdalena Ball

maggieball@compulsivereader.com
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
HoJonews@aol.com

Imitation is the Highest Form of Flattery

Poets Take Borrowing in Stride If It Increases Poetry Readership

July 22, 2011: It was only a matter of time before someone stole the idea that Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball first meted when they created Cherished Pulse, the inaugural book in their poetry based Celebration Series.

Of course the idea of using poetry as a form of gift or greeting card isn't new. People have been using poetry to celebrate big events like marriage, wedding anniversaries, and milestones since Homer's day, but nowadays most of the expensive greeting cards in shops are so rife with platitudes that they've ceased to have any meaning at all and can hardly be called poetry. What was new was making chapbooks into a kind of carriage trade greeting card with real poetry grouped around holiday themes. They are genuine messages that mean something. Make the books as inexpensive as a card, and as beautiful as a gift book, and you've got a gift that provides sentiment that won't be thrown out with the wrapping paper.

That has always been the rationale behind Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball's Celebration series, which includes a range of chapbooks clustered around themes like Valentine's Day: Cherished Pulse (www.budurl.com/CherishedPulse ), Father's Day: Imagining the Future (www.budurl.com/Imagining ), Mother's Day: She Wore Emerald Then (www.budurl.com/MotherChapbook ), Christmas: Blooming Red (www.budurl.com/bloomingred), and the newly released feminist inspired Deeper into the Pond, suitable for any female birthday or celebration (www.budurl.com/DeeperPond ). All of the chapbooks are as inexpensive as a high end card, attractive, featuring real art, and perfect for gift giving.

So it's no surprise that others are copying the idea.

This is what happened. Three years after the release of the Celebration Series. Relationships Australia, Australian Poetry Ltd, and artists/designers Gracia and Louise have just released their own father-themed book titled Dear Dad, promoted specifically as a great Father's Day greeting card/gift. It's a little dearer than the Celebration Series offered by Ball and Howard-Johnson, but it's a great idea featuring some excellent Australian poets, and probably the tip of the iceberg when it comes to real poetry as greetings. Why not? Poetry is always a good gift.

Learn more about Ball and Howard-Johnson's work at www.howtodoitfrugally.com/poetry_books.htm .

For more about Dear Dad, visit: http://www.australianpoetry.org/blog/2011/07/19/dear-dad-2nd-edition-pre-sales.

For more information on Ball and Howard-Johnson’s Celebration series and their Father’s Day entry, visit www.howtodoitfrugally.com/more_on-Imaginings.htm.

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Images and media kits available on request: HoJoNews@aol.com

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

A Writer's Worst Creative Enemy: Fear of Suits

This Copyright Tip is from a recent newsletter and I'm publishing it aa a filler--a subsitute for a real post--while I am away from my computer. That doesn't mean that it isn't worth a read.(-:

Copyright Tip: A Camden, New Jersey judge threw out Donald Trump's libel case against an author because Trump failed to prove malice on the part of the author (Timothy O'Brien). Anyone can bring a suit in the US courts, of course, but it is much harder to win one (even with money behind it) than authors tend to suppose.

Our courts and the laws are predisposed to free speech. A class I took from a copyright lawyer at the San Diego State writers' conference said that the author who plagiarizes--a different thing altogether from libel-- must have made some money from stealing the idea for there to be awarded any money.

Now, here's my legal disclaimer: This post meant both to put my blog visitors and subscribers' minds at ease so they won't be paralyzed by their fears. Too many writers--especially new writers--worry so much about protecting their work they cripple their ability to produce.

It is also meant to encourage my readers to get expert legal advice when they have questions. It's hard to believe that Trump wouldn't have done that before he spent his money suing. He either got bad advice, the case was iffy, or he just didn't care.

By the way, I talk about the fear of writing, the fear of plagiarism, and the fear of success in The Frugal Book Promoter. There are lots of little things a writer can do to help overcome these fears. Copyright is, indeed, one of them but other steps may be needed--some of them merely psychological-- long before a book is ready to be sent to the copyright office.

Those who would like to receive the Sharing with Writers newsletter (most of the articles and tips in are different from what you receive in this blog), may sign up using the subscription form in the left of this blog or send an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to HoJoNews@ aol.com and I'll do it for you.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog.

If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widge to let them know about it:

In Passing: Plagiarism and Your Stress Level

"In Passing" is a new mini column I decided to occasionally incorporate into this Sharing with Writers and Readers blog. These mini columns will touch on some aspect I cover in more detail in one of my HowToDoItFrugally books for writers. Thus, they are more like little reminders and those who want a longer discussion can go to the indexes in my books to learn more about specifics of coping with each of the "In Passing topics. (Note: I am rather proud of those indexes; I learned to do them myself because I figured I know better than anyone else what my treasured audience will need--especially the indexes in The Frugal Editor and A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotion.)

I believe that that relatively unknown authors worry too much about plagiarism and other theft. For good reason. I can safely say I never present or teach a class but someone doesn't tell me that they are afraid of even the basic essentials like sending their idea to an agent or publisher for fear of having their idea swiped.

First, there is not much money in pirating a newby's book and if one's material did get copied in some way and the author followed my ideas in The Frugal Book Promoter for turning lemons into publicity lemonade, she might find herself more famous and selling more books that she would have otherwise.

Still you will want to know more on the subject and this link on the digital piracy of books was submitted by poet, photographer and subscriber to my Sharing with Writers newsletter May Lattanzio: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/technology/internet/12digital.html?_r=2&emc=eta1

For my take on protecting your copyright, using discovered plagiarism to your benefit and relaxing a bit go back to your copy of The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog.