Imagine you wrote a book or drew a comic. You decided to print it yourself or perhaps you went with a really small press, the type that doesn't put much effort into marketing and advertising. Basically, for the most part, it's all up to you. Your book is thankfully online via the usual channels: Smashwords, Amazon, KaBlam, Lulu, Comixology, etc. ( Read more... )

The world is full of well intentioned but gormless people. Unfortunately, a lot of those want to be literary agents and/or publishers. Most of them don't stand out, aside from being remarkably clueless, but today I read of one that was a level 80 Clueless. In fact, I wonder if she's crossing over from clueless to downright unscrupulous ( Read more... )

Let's start today with publishing advice for writers. Jim Macdonald wrote:

Once upon a time, I was that 15 year old. And, as it happened, I went to a presentation by a Big Name Pro about his Works (in our beloved genre, as it happens, a name you’d all recognize) for in those days there was no Internet. And, at the very end, in the question and ( Read more... )

[UPDATE 2] Monica posted her emails -- she doesn't wish to post Judith Griggs' without permission as that may be a breach of copyright as well -- on her Livejournal to counter Griggs' claims she was rude. Now it's up to Griggs to post her email correspondence, but I don't think it'll happen. Griggs did "she will leave her statement up a few more ( Read more... )

[UPDATE] This blogger contacted multiple people and received five confirmations that "Cooks Source" used their material without permission. Food Network hasn't replied publically yet, but Paula Deen notified the legal department.

Also, in 1999 Ms Griggs was seeking to sell the magazineThis was brought to my attention by ( Read more... )

This was brought to my attention via Artists Beware (must be a member to view) and sirilonwe. Because he's edited it and I don't trust him to not delete it, it's copied and pasted below:

( Read more... )

Remember the Nick Simmons incident, where he used Bleach as "inspiration" for his comic Incarnate? Some of his original works (the rest can be found here and start with TDS) may have shared similarities to other manga, but it was noticeably his own work, good or bad. But it wasn't good enough, and I believe Nick outsourced the work. Whether Nick ( Read more... )

On Artists Beware someone brought up a site called Drawgasmic, sending form emails to artists.

I got an email invite the other day to this site (it was an impersonal email addressing me as "Hi you" LOL) [...] From their site:

"We're bringing together the work of 1000 international artists, illustrators, and designers in an exhibition and book ( Read more... )

While some of these examples I dismiss -- it's common place to mimic a design, grabbing another deer silhouette or calculator watch or dancing cookies and slapping it on a shirt. It's irritating to the person who came up with the concept, but they don't own the copyright on deer silhouettes and calculator watches and cookies* -- a couple stand out ( Read more... )

The artist has updated her blog. It makes me feel good to see a big company, or even an influential group, try to silence or dismiss the "little guy" only to find out that it just makes them look like asses.

These past few days have been a journey and a lesson on various fronts. I have learned that an individual can only be defined as alone when ( Read more... )