A warning >>

[kevinlomas]

Cut and pasted from Lulu's Blog for those who never see it.  (Sorry about the links within the text, they are nothing to do with me).

"If you think writing a series of acclaimed supernatural thrillers, which get made into a successful television show and sell thousands of books, would be considered a job well done, think again.

Publisher HarperCollins removed LJ Smith, author of The Vampire Diaries, from the project after friction during the editing process. Smith said she was pushed out after arguing against cutting characters, scenes, and other creative decisions that she felt were important to her vision of the story.

Smith,  who began writing the novels on a “for hire” contract back in 1990, was shocked to find out that she  had no rights to any of the characters or stories she created. In an e-mail, Smith reflected, “Even though I  have written the entire series, I don’t own anything about The Vampire  Diaries.”

This  is an all-too-common story among writers of genre-fiction. Authors  desperate enough to sign anything end up losing any creative or  financial control of the characters, and the ensuing sensations, they  create. Where a publishing house offers a vast marketing and  distribution network, it also tends to dilute and altogether alter a  writer’s creative vision. To some writers, like LJ Smith, this becomes  too much to bear. They fight to keep their work intact, only to find “a  letter addressed to the ghostwriter by name, telling her to completely  rewrite my book.”

We’re neither arguing against the need for a good editor, nor against some self discipline and revision on the part of the author, however, we think this example demonstrates an important benefit of self-publishing: complete creative control and financial ownership of your work. Even after writing  several successful novels, LJ Smith was removed from her series with  little to no warning whatsoever, and absolutely no recourse."

[james_denham]

A case well put, and a timely reminder  - we may not have much but what we do have is ours, well done Kevin.

James

[Eric Begbie]

Interesting post, Kevin.

The two things I miss most, now that I self publish, are (obviously) the advance of royalties before I start writing and (less obviously) the immense help that comes from an expert editor guiding the process.

However, I do not write fiction (or, at least, I don't admit to it being fiction) and the scenario may be different there. But with non-fiction, I never encountered any attempt to reduce my ownership of my books. And it was rather nice to have all the editing, proofreading, production and marketing handled and paid for by the publisher.

[kevinlomas]

True Eric, but not at the expense of ownership. I suppose the moral is >> always read the small print, no matter how hard up you are, and never sign up an entire series and/or all future out-put.

[RiazAli]

I don't think I could ever 'write to order' - it's just not me.

It's a complicated position, when contracted to write for an employer and you, as their employee, have terms & conditions to abide by. It's easy to get a grasp of those terms and conditions if, say, you are a nurse. But in the creative arts, there is much more scope for interpretation, I guess.

But...I guess like a lot of us here, because we aren't in a fortunate position of being employed to write, very few of us would be precious about our characters. Or would we ? Maybe as time goes on and we write about those characters more and more, we *do* become precious about them and feel we own them, to some degree.

I'm really pleased with the above paragraphs, seeing as I've just come off a run of four night shifts and am downing a bacardi and coke...

[Ken Anderson]

Well Eric,
You don't need those advances now. 

Woof Woof. 

[kevinlomas]

"I don't think I could ever 'write to order' - it's just not me."

She wasn't employed to write, she sold the copyright to what she had written and to the entire rights to the names etc of future books in that series. I get the idea that someone then thought that she was a contract wriiter who they could tell to churn out what they wanted.
You do get the otherside though, where a writer, just to get their hands on huge wads of flim dosh, does not mind that it's re-written!

[gregorius]

seems silly of a company to seek out an author because of the acclaim and salebility their work has, to only then buy the rights for millions and then totally undermine what made it so readable in the first place. dont get it! seems bad business sense.


http://www.lulu.com/browse/search.php?fListingClass=0&fSearch=greg+hoey

[kevinlomas]

Who says she got millions? Often people sign over for peanuts. Superman was sold for $300.

[Peter May]

Smith,  who began writing the novels on a “for hire” contract back in 1990, was shocked to find out that she  had no rights to any of the characters or stories she created

Seems like she didn't read the contract she signed.

I wrote manuals for my then employer. I understood that although it was my creative work they owned it 100%. My salary was my payment, Smith got paid for her work.