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• Love and Lust. American men in Costa Rica
• The Construction of Latino Youth
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It’s a new year and one of the things I have noticed as editor in chief at Free-eBooks.net is that some of our authors have submitted revised editions of their eBooks with copyright modifications which seem to include just an update to the year. This made me go look for information about copyright claims and how to establish and maintain them.

Copyrighting a work is reserving the rights to reproduce, distribute, and perform a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work. From Encyclopedia Britannica:

“Copyright developed out of the same system as royal patent grants, by which certain authors and printers were given the exclusive right to publish books and other materials.”

…

“The Statute of Anne, passed in England in 1710, was a milestone in the history of copyright law. It recognized that authors should be the primary beneficiaries of copyright law and established the idea that such copyrights should have only limited duration (then set at 28 years), after which works would pass into the public domain. Similar laws were enacted in [ more ]

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As the debate over self-publishing versus traditional publishing rages, authors are quietly uploading their eBooks to websites such as Free-eBooks.net, Smashwords, Kindle Direct Publishing platform, and Lulu – to name a few.

I saw an article yesterday on the Guardian UK website in which Dalya Alberge discusses Ian Rankine’s suggestion that there be tax incentives given to new writers. Traditional publishing meant for authors an upfront advance on their book’s sales. An advance from your publisher 10 years ago could probably make a sufficient dent in your mortgage. These days, it might cover one month’s rent.

It is a sign of the times – not only are there more writers, but there is more competition among publishers. Even without the myriad digital self-publishing platforms available, independent publishers have increased in number in the last few decades. Conversely, the number of independent book sellers has diminished possibly as quickly as the independent publishers have increased. This means a smaller number of outlets for distribution for publishers to make books available through.

Amazon.com is [ more ]

There is such a thing as a reading block, isn’t there?

Not sure what I mean by that? It’s that moment just after you are done reading your latest book and are looking for the next one to read. You either have a few options waiting and you aren’t sure which one to tackle, or you have none at all.

I’ve had moments like that. There isn’t a specific circumstance that I can pinpoint under which this happens to me. The last time it did, I had just finished a rather involving read; “Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution” (Michelle Moran). It’s a historical novel and while the writing was superb and the weaving of story in with historical events and names was perfect, it was still not what you might call a “quick read”. It is one of those books that make you stop and read slowly and really think about what you’re reading.

If you are like me, the book might mention things that you identify with. For me, I visited the Madame Tussaud museum [ more ]