by Gus | Dec 25, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tips - Books, Marketing Tips - Films
One issue that frequently comes up in workshops or online forums is whether you need a copyright for your film or book. Occasionally people ask if they can use what is sometimes called the “poor man’s copyright,” where you send yourself your material in a sealed envelope, so you can later prove that you wrote it when you did.
First, the “poor man’s copyright” is perfectly useless. It is a myth that makes the rounds from time to time, usually because someone has just heard about it from someone else and wants to find out if it is true. Well, it isn’t. At best it might establish a date of mailing. But there are so many loopholes in that mailing to make a proof of anything problematic. A big problem is that one can easily steam open an envelope or mail an unsealed or empty envelope to oneself, and then put the document in the envelope and seal it up after the unsealed or empty envelope comes back in the mail.
Another misconception is that you need to formally register a copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office in order to have a copyright. But you actually have a copyright from the date of creation once you write your book, script, article, proposal, or anything else. You are similarly covered by a copyright when you draw something, compose music, record a song, or otherwise create anything and record it in written, visual, or aural form, though you can’t copyright an idea or title. A title might be covered by trademark, if you are using it or intend to use it; but that’s a more complex subject, since you can choose from multiple categories in which to register a trademark, and you can run into complications when you use a trademark in one geographic area and another person creates the same or similar mark in a different geographic area, depending on what categories you each are claiming. But for all practical purposes, if you write a book, book proposal, script or other written materials with hopes to get it published or produced, you are dealing with copyright law and the Copyright Office in Washington, D.C.
So essentially the question you are really asking is: “Should you ‘register’ a copyright?” with the U.S. copyright office. If you are writing a script, there is also a possibility of registering it with the WGA, either in Los Angeles or New York, though most register it in Los Angeles, and some producers and agents/managers may ask you to do this. However, that’s not the same as registering a copyright with the government; a WGA registration is more like just putting it on a list that establishes your date of conception, and then you have to renew the WGA registration every 5 years if you register it in L.A., every 10 years if you register in New York.
By contrast, registering a work with the Copyright Office gives you a registered copyright as of the day of registration. The most efficient and economical way to do this is to register online, which is currently only $35 for an individual copyright, meaning just one item is being copyrighted by one author. If there are more authors or this is a combined registration of different properties, it is $55 to register online. It costs more to go the old fashioned postal mail route — $85 — and it will take 2 months or more to get your registration. Ideally, go through the online system, where you pay and are walked through a step by step process to answer each question about the name of the author, date of registration, and other data. Then, your answers are entered into the copyright form which goes to you.
The costs can mount up if you have multiple items you want to register, so you might consider whether a copyright is really necessary. Take into consideration the fact that a copyright gives you the right to pursue your rights online or in court, but you have to take any actions to enforce your copyright, which can be time consuming and expensive. For example, the most cost effective way of using a registered copyright is to prevent someone else using your material online, such as by sending this information to the offending website owner or to a web hosting company which is hosting a website with your copyrighted material. You just send a take-down notice with evidence of your copyright, and normally the hosting company will take it down if the website owner doesn’t.
However, it is very expensive to take any legal action in court to enforce a copyright, so a registration won’t be of much use if you are seeking compensation from someone who has improperly posted your material online and they don’t have any money. But if you wait, maybe they will or they may arrange for someone else to use your material – at which time, you can inform them that you own the copyright and you aren’t giving your permission without a just compensation, whereupon you can negotiate the terms with them if they willing to do anything. Otherwise, you have the basis for taking them to court and claiming statutory damages, which may lead them to drop your material or seek an agreement from you.
In general, given the expense and limitations of a copyright, it is not necessary to register the copyright for a proposal or manuscript. The situation is different if you self-publish a book or if a traditional publisher publishes it and normally assigns the copyright to you. In this case, the publisher will generally take care of filing for the copyright in your name. If not, it is a good idea to file for copyright yourself, especially if you feel the book has a good commercial value for a general audience, since there is more risk of someone using your material or even filing a registration on a copy of your work.
Otherwise, if your work is unpublished, it may not be worth the time and expense, since publishers and agents are unlikely to use your material without you, since a key interest is in having you as the author be front and center to promote it. And normally there isn’t the kind of money in a published book as there is in a produced film or a recorded song. So with a book, unless it just makes you uncomfortable to not register a copyright, I feel it isn’t necessary – especially if you have written many books, because of the high cost involved. And even if you self-publish a book, it may not be necessary to register a copyright, especially if you have published multiple books, making it expensive, since most self-published books average about 150 copies in sales, and if someone pirates your book, it probably doesn’t matter whether your book’s copyright is registered or not, since it is unlikely you can do much more than send a take-down notice to the multiple sites offering free copies of your book and hope they take it down. But if they don’t, it’s not normally cost-effective to try to pursue matters any further.
Likewise, if you write articles it is not necessary to copyright each one, especially when you are making the articles available for free. Just use them for promotional value, though if you combine the articles together into a book and self-publish it, you might get the copyright then.
By contrast, if you complete a script, treatment, or TV series or show proposal, it is a good idea to register a copyright, whether or not you have sought a WGA listing. Many producers for their own protection will want you to have a registered copyright, and often any NDA document they ask you to sign will have some language about your having only the protection that resides in what you have copyrighted and not to any similar ideas they might have developed in house or which they obtained from another writer or other party.
Another reason for registering a copyright in the film world is because it is so competitive, and sometimes, if a script reader sees the potential in your idea, it could be shared with others, though it might undergo some further changes in the script. Then you could be out of the loop, although a registered copyright will make it more likely for you to be involved in the project going forward. Or it could lead to a payoff to get the previously stated rights under the agreement signed over from you.
In sum, in the case of books and articles, it is generally not necessary to get a copyright unless you have high hopes for a large commercial sale or are willing to pursue take-down notices or a court case against someone who copies and sells your book and has the money to collect if you win. But if you write a script, TV series or show proposal, or treatment, do get your material registered, since you will often need it to even get your script considered by producers, agents, managers, or others in the film industry.
*************
Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books with major publishers, including two on writing and publishing books: FIND PUBLISHERS AND AGENTS AND GET PUBLISHED and SELL YOUR BOOK, SCRIPT, OR COLUMN. She has written and produced over 50 short films, has written 15 scripts for features, and has one feature film SUICIDE PARTY: SAVE DAVE, which she wrote and executive produced, scheduled for release in February 2015. She also writes scripts for clients, is Creative Director for Publishers Agents & Films (www.publishersagentsandfilms.com), and has several book and film industry Meetup groups which have meetings to discuss members’ books and films and help them get published or produced.
by Gus | Dec 16, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tips - Films
I’ve recently started thinking about how to best distribute a film, since I have been looking for distribution for my first feature film: SUICIDE PARTY: SAVE DAVE. This is the first of a series of posts which describes what I have learned is the best strategy and what to expect in the offers you get, so you can get the best deal possible, based on what’s realistic for your film. I’ll discuss both DYI (do your own) distribution if you can’t find a distributor, as well as different tracks to consider in distributing your film through different channels. Eventually, these posts will be collected together to create a book on DISTRIBUTING YOUR FILM.
First, know the major players in the film distribution space. The ones to contact depend on what your goals are for your film, such as whether you feel you have a film that merits theatrical distribution, or you want to focus on distribution in other markets. These major players include studio distributors, independent distributors, producer’s reps, and sales reps.
The studio distributors are largely out of the picture for independent films, unless you have a big breakthrough at one of the top film festivals where the big distributors go (Sundance, Toronto, and Cannes, and secondarily Tribeca, and maybe Berlin and Venice, plus some distributors go to South by Southwest. Such a film breakthrough requires not only being shown, but also creating an exciting talk or buzz about your film with an advance media build-up. Moreover, if you are aiming for the big festivals, you have to premier there, which means waiting to find out if you are accepted before you can submit to other festivals. However, the likelihood of acceptance is very small unless you have personal connections, since not only do the big festivals select a small number of films from thousands of submissions, but generally the vast majority – perhaps 85-90% — of those accepted come from personal connections with the festival director or staff, leaving only about 10-15% to be accepted on their own merits. Then if you are accepted, you still have to create that exciting buzz for your film to actually get a deal besides simply showing at a big festival. In short, for most indie filmmakers, a studio distribution deal is unlikely, though possible, should you later develop a great deal of excitement, so the studio distributors want to take a look at your project.
Then, there are the independent distributors, who come in all flavors. There are some who handle theatrical distribution, ranging from those who handle one or two films – generally their own films — to those handling a half-dozen or more. Many of these distributors will also handle distribution in other channels, such as to home video, cable, and foreign sales. Then there are many distributors who eschew theatrical for distribution in other channels.
Often if you want to seek a theatrical release, you will need a budget for P&A, which means promotion and advertising, along with the costs of any files, DVDs, posters, and local advertising, which you need for each theater, which can add up to $5000-10,000 or more per city, though normally you don’t pay the distributor. Rather, you typically make a split of the income arrangement, which is commonly 35-50%, though more often a 50-50 split, and in some cases, a distributor who wants your film enough will advance the P&A.
Some distributors may additionally ask you to have E&O insurance, which refers to “Errors” and “Omissions.” Even though your film is already produced, some distributors may still ask for this, just in case, such as one distributor interested in SUICIDE PARTY: SAVE DAVE explained to me. “Maybe a scene in the film might show a store or company in the background, and they object to the way they are portrayed. So this could trigger a request for a recut of the film or a lawsuit, but your E&O insurance would cover this.” On the other hand, most distributors I spoke to didn’t require this.
While some distributors will ask for worldwide rights, others just want domestic (which includes Canada as well as the U.S.), and some specialize in foreign. So everything is negotiable including what markets a distributor will handle, the percentage split, and how much P&A budget you will need if any.
Another major player is the producer’s rep. This is essentially a middleman who contacts distributors and foreign sales agents on your behalf and negotiates a deal for you. Commonly these reps handle a slate of films for different producers, generally about 5 to 20 other films, depending on the size of the rep’s company. Commonly the rep get 5-10% of the deal, occasionally 15%, depending on what they do. However, the reps should not take any upfront money from you, though some may ask for this. But they should only get an upfront payment if they are doing extra work, such as writing releases and creating posters for you.
According to Ben Yennie, a producer’s rep in San Francisco and the author of The Guerrilla Rep: American Film Market Distribution Success on No Budget, a good producer’s rep can help filmmakers connect with distributors and foreign sales agents, since they have built relationships with them. They can help you get a faster response from them, as well as assess and select the best ones to work with, since they better know the market. They can also evaluate the different offers and handle the negotiations for you, which can result in a better deal for the film. Additionally, they can help you get into the bigger film festivals if they know the director or staff member. However, Yennie cautions that a lot of reps are ineffective and don’t deliver what they promise, so it is important to look at a rep’s track record and expect the rep to give you a realistic assessment of your film’s potential and what the rep can do for you before selecting a rep.
Finally, there is the sales agent, also called the “foreign sales agent,” who handles foreign sales. In this case, it can be very valuable to work with such an agent, since he or she will know the distributors, exhibitors, and other channels in the territory covered, and so will be in a better position to make the contact and negotiate any sales than you. While some sales agents may have a network of agents in different countries, others will specialize in selected areas, so you need to learn the areas covered, as well as the channels in which the sales agents wants to pitch your film. In this way, you can make sure you don’t have overlapping exclusive representation by sales agents who are covering the same territories.
So now that you know the major players, the next step is to assess how you want to position and promote your film in different channels, as well as prepare the materials you need to get a distributor or sales agent, and in some cases, a good producer’s rep.
*************
Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books with major publishers, including two on writing and publishing books: FIND PUBLISHERS AND AGENTS AND GET PUBLISHED and SELL YOUR BOOK, SCRIPT, OR COLUMN. She has written and produced over 50 short films, has written 15 scripts for features, and has one feature film she wrote and executive produced scheduled for release in February 2015. She also writes scripts for clients, is Creative Director for Publishers Agents & Films (www.publishersagentsandfilms.com), and has several book and film industry Meetup groups which have meetings to discuss members’ books and films and help them get published or produced.
by Gus | Dec 12, 2014 | Press Releases
Dear ********:
Publishers, Agents & Films www.publishersagentsandfilms.com has set up a new Facebook page with tips for writers and filmmakers on finding agents and publishers and film industry contacts to get book and film deals. It is also a forum for writers to ask questions about finding traditional publishers or self-publishing successfully – which includes building buzz so their book or film stands out from the millions of books and thousands of films launched each year. Within a few days, the page has scored nearly 200 followers.
The Facebook page includes links to marketing tips on its website, based on author Gini Graham Scott’s experience in publishing over 50 books with traditional publishers, publishing over 30 books through Changemakers Publishing, and selling 10 new books to five
publishersthrough Publishers Agents & Films’system of sending out personalized emails to targeted contacts based on the kind of project.
One of the recent articles deals with a disturbing trend in the industry – traditional publishers are charging book authors to publish their books, sometimes by requiring minimum book purchases of 2000 to 10,000 books, at a cost of $20,000-$100,000. At one time these publishers paid authors advances, but now given the turmoil in the publishing industry, they require these payments from authors. So they are like the printing services and platforms, which enable authors to publish their own books for no charge to a few thousand dollars. The major difference is they have the big name and prestige. So they are getting some clients this way, but many others are turning them down.
The only authors getting the big bucks – sometimes millions — from these traditional publishers are the famous name authors, who are like loss leaders to attract the writers who pay.And increasingly publishers need these paying authors when the books by the big names tank. This pay to play arrangement is a disturbing trend that writers have to contend with today, along with lower or no advances from many publishers.
Other past articles on the website with links from the Facebook page deal with the ins and outs of finding publishers and agents. The articles are provided by Publishers, Agents & Films as a public service to help writers get their books published or their films produced.One way the Company helps to do this is by sending out emails from the writer’semail, using special software to send a personalized query to contacts in the publishing and film industries. The success of this approach is shown by the over 260 testimonials from clients on the Company’s website, along with the books of several dozen successful authors on the website’s home page.
For more details, visit the website at www.publishersagentsandfilms.com,and you can call Nancy Parker at (925) 385-0608 for further information.
Nancy Parker
Changemakers Publishing and Writing
Publishers Agents and Films
Lafayette, California
(925) 385-0608
changemakerspublishing@gmail.com
by Gus | Dec 11, 2014 | Press Releases
Dear ********:
Publishers, Agents & Films www.publishersagentsandfilms.com has now launched a new Web series of tips for finding publishers and agents and navigating todays difficult publishing waters. The latest posts deal with problems when publishers seek book purchase commitments, writers face delays in getting paid, and are uncertain whether to work as a co-writer or ghostwriter on a book project.
The tips come from author Gini Graham Scott’s experience in selling 10 books to five publishers in the last 6 months and in packaging projects and pitching them for a half-dozen recent clients during this time. The complete list is at https://publishersagentsfilms.com/marketing-tips
The latest articles cover these topics:
– What to Do About Advance Purchase Commitments and Payments from Established Companies
What to Do About Advance Purchase Commitments & Payments
– Should You Work as a Co-Writer and Take a Percentage?
Should You Work as a Co-Writer and Take a Percentage?
– Should You Begin Writing Anything Before a Payment or Contact?
Should You Begin Writing Anything Before a Payment or Contract?
The question about advance purchase commitments has come up, because a growing number of mainstream companies are not only paying smaller advances compared to four or five years ago, but they have added purchase requirements, such as for buying 2000 to 10,000 books, which can turn into an investment of $30,000 to $100,000, depending on the cost of the books. Do the math. A typical author’s purchase commitment for a book will be $10 to $15 times the required number to buy, which will normally dwarf any advance. So will you as an author ever make that back, even if you can claim bragging rights for having a major house publish your book? As the article discusses, more and more writers are asking that question and saying no.
The co-writer/work-for-hire issue comes up when ghostwriters work on a topic in their field and they have a choice of getting paid more as a work for hire or taking less to get co-writer credit and a share of the royalties. But if advances are lower and most books don’t earn out their advance, why do it? The article discusses the pros and cons of what to do.
Finally, the third article deals with whether a writer should risk working on a project for a publisher or individual client, when there is just a verbal promise and the contract and payment are in the works. Sometimes it’s worth it, especially when there’s a tight deadline and you are working with a publisher or client you trust. But at other times, writers can find they have done much of the work when the contract doesn’t arrive or gets cancelled and they don’t get paid. The article discusses how to decide whether to take the risk.
Other past articles deals with the ins and outs of how to find and pitch publishers and agents. The articles are provided as a public service for writers by Publishers, Agents & Films, which is devoted to helping writers find publishers, agents, film producers, and distributors, or successfully self-publishing their own books. The company has a unique way of making connections by sending out emails from the writer’s own email, using a special software to send out a personalized query to editors, agents, and producers interested in that type of project. So far, the company has over 260 testimonials from clients on its website, and commonly over half of its clients get deals with publishers or agents. The published books of several dozen successful authors are featured on the Publishers, Agents and Films’ website.
For more details, please visit the website at www.publishersagentsandfilms.com, and you can call (925) 385-0608.
Nancy Parker
Changemakers Publishing and Writing
Publishers Agents and Films
Lafayette, California
(925) 385-0608
changemakerspublishing@gmail.com
by Gus | Dec 10, 2014 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tips - Books
A recent trend among some major publishers is to create special imprints where writers pay to get published or ask for a pre-purchase commitment of a minimum number of books. A key distinction is these offers are coming from established companies that have had a tradition of paying writers an advance as well a royalty, even if it’s a low advance, or in some cases making a no-advance offer. But whatever the specifics of the deal, the writer has not had to pay anything or make a purchase commitment.
However, now the pay to play offer has come about because publishing has become much more difficult for what has been traditionally called the “mid-list” book by a relatively unknown author, so sales have gone down, as have advances. Instead, what publishers increasingly want and are willing to pay for with big advances are books by well-known and celebrity authors with a high-profile platform. For example, authors like Hillary Clinton may make millions in advances, plus millions more in sales, while advances for mid-list book authors have commonly shrunk to about a third to a half of what they were. So instead of getting $15,000 to $20,000 for an advance, you may get offered $5000 to $10,000, or even less.
These lower and no advances are a matter of market economics and reflect the growing inequality/rich and poor divide throughout society generally. Likewise, in publishing, the very successful high profile authors are getting more – often much more — in today’s celebrity and media driven culture, while other authors are getting less.
At least in these low or no-advance scenarios, the writer is simply getting less. But in many instances, publishers now are asking writers to be like self-publishers who are paying for the cost of their publication by committing to buy a minimum number of books. However, when this publishing is by an imprint of a major house, the publishing house still is in control, though the copyright as it has traditionally, continues to remain with the author. The main advantage of this arrangement compared to self-publishing with a company which just prints your book and then the marketing is up to you is that the imprint is affiliated with the major publisher. So the book is normally distributed through that publisher’s channels, rather than being a print-on-demand or e-book available on your own imprint or an imprint associated with the self-publishing company. Thus, with a pay to play deal with a traditional publisher, you may be more likely to get reviewed and distributed, though you are still paying a hefty amount up front, rather than the publisher paying you something – or at least not making you pay for publication.
Commonly, these payments range from about $10,000-50,000, which is a substantial amount – and unless your book sells very well, you are unlikely to make all of that money back or turn a profit. For example, one author was offered a deal from Wiley requiring a commitment for 10,000 books, which would cost at least $50,000 to $100,000 depending on the wholesale purchase price to the author. Three co-authors were initially offered a deal based on buying 3000 books, later negotiated down to 2000 books, at $15 each – a total of $30,000, so even if the publisher offered an advance, possibly as much as $5000, the authors would still have to pay $25,000 up front for the books. No wonder they turned down the deal.
A rationale for this requirement to pay up front to buy books is that publishers expect authors with a platform to be doing programs where they can sell high numbers of books, which will be a win-win for the publisher and writer. But if the writer doesn’t have such a platform, the writer will end up with huge piles of unsold books to be stored somewhere like a basement or garage. Or maybe the books might make a nice charitable give-away.
Perhaps the main advantage of such a pay for books arrangement is getting the credential and bragging rights of having a book with a major publisher, which might open other doors down the road. But if the book doesn’t sell very well because you aren’t able to do much to support these book sales, this credential might not matter very much in pitching future books to other publishers. In fact, the low sales of a previous book might prove to be a disadvantage in pitching the next. And today major publishers do little to promote these mid-list books; they depend on the authors to do much or most of the publicity and promotion, so low sales can be a problem.
At least publishers with these pay to publish arrangements are in most cases still somewhat selective in what they publish, so they don’t offer these deals to everyone, as do the self-publishing companies who are essentially printers. So there is some selectivity. But you still have to pay.
Thus, be cautious when you are offered such a deal. Ideally, it’s best to get a publisher who actually wants to pay you to publish your book or at least offers a no advance arrangement. But if you aren’t able to get such a deal, under some circumstances it might be an advantage to go with a pay to play publisher for the aura of publishing with a traditional publisher, as long as you understand you may get little or none of your payment back, though there is always the chance of getting more.
On the other hand, if this is the only option available to you from a traditional publisher, it might be worth considering self-publishing under your own or a self-publishing company imprint. These prices can range from nothing if you do it yourself under CreateSpace or Kindle or similar platforms to a few hundred dollars for help using these platforms or to a few thousand dollars from many self-publishing companies who charge more. Just be aware that you will still commonly need to do your own promotion and publicity to call attention to your book if you set up distribution through a self-publishing platform or company. But now with most publishers today, even those who pay, you still need to cover most or all of the publicity and promotion. Unless you are already a very well-known personality or celebrity, that’s the way of the publishing world today.
*************
Gini Graham Scott, PhD, is the author of over 50 books with major publishers, including two on the writing and publishing books: FIND PUBLISHERS AND AGENTS AND GET PUBLISHED and SELL YOUR BOOK, SCRIPT, OR COLUMN. She has written and produced over 50 short films, has written 15 scripts for features, and has one feature film she wrote and executive produced scheduled for release in February 2015. She also writes scripts for clients, and has several book and film industry Meetup groups which have meetings to discuss members’ books and films. She is the Creative Director for Publishers Agents and Films.
