The "What Are You Doing This Moment" Thread

Slammed said:
Copyright is a given on all created works. If you are that paranoid forget the cost of copyright put the file on a USB stick and mail it to yourself, keep the package unopened with the date stamp on it. It's hard proof of when the file was created because the metadata shows when the actual file was first created.
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https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html

"Registration is recommended for a number of reasons. Many choose to register their works because they wish to have the facts of their copyright on the public record and have a certificate of registration. Registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney's fees in successful litigation. Finally, if registration occurs within five years of publication, it is considered prima facie evidence in a court of law."

Poor man's copyright doesn't come with those benefits.

Slammed said:
As for anonymity even if you do make a successful book, having a pseudonym is no draw back if you don't want your full name out there. Plenty of authors, known and unknown use pseudonyms, many readers don't even realise it. If you do use one and the book is successful it can be reprinted with your full name.
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I guess... just a question of how long it would take to get it re-registered/reprinted (registration alone can take like half a year), and whether people who read the original would bother to look up the new edition.
 
Yeah I've been through all that for 30+ years. I've registered copyrights, I've registered trademarks and sure they do protect you but copyright is still a given and if you can prove it's your work there isn't anyone in the world that can take that from you.

You also have to take into account that you can't copyright an idea, so the plot of the book is almost impossible to protect, it's the words you protect, therefore copyrighting a partially finished book could see the author only partially protected. Also as a first book it's not going to be great and therefore more than likely not going to have a line of people willing to steal it. And there is already a thousand books out there that use a similar premise, similar plot and are already published, trust me they are out there even for the most obscure genre.

Poor man's copyright may not come with the benefits but in the real world the chances of your work being stolen are pretty damn slim.

Writing under a pseudonym and revealing the real authors name can happen in many ways. It could be as simple as a byline on a cover, it could be so much more. But before any author worries about the name on the cover they need to write the book, edit it, send it to beta readers, edit it again, pay for a line edit, re-read it, pay for a full edit, and then start shipping it to agents if they want traditional publishing. The truth of the world is only a very very very small number of fist time authors get picked up and it's a long process. The publishers wont even give a crap if you call yourself Uncle Fairynuts on the manuscript, if they like it they will give you the pros and cons of choosing names for publication when they offer a contract.

On the self pub route of course it's all different, you buy an ISBN throw the shit on Amazon because you've read it three times and think you can edit it your own work and then another half arsed novel gets released on the world. But the advantage is you can change whatever you like when you like.
 
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zabu of nΩd said:
I guess... just a question of how long it would take to get it re-registered/reprinted (registration alone can take like half a year), and whether people who read the original would bother to look up the new edition.
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I think it's awesome you're working on this. For what it's worth, literary recognition is a fickle thing. Basically, if you write an immensely popular book under a pseudonym, it will become obvious almost immediately that the name isn't a real person. If you don't do book tours or let journalists photograph you, people will realize. At that point, if the demand is there and you're comfortable divulging the info, then those who want to know your name will know it. The only way to stay anonymous after writing a popular book is to really, really try.
 
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Good points guys. Especially about self-editing vs hiring an editor. And yeah, I'm nowhere near the point of needing to worry about the name on the book.

My main goal right now is just to finish a short story early next year, cause I know the full book is gonna take much longer. I'm trying to write the short story in a way that lets me use it as a prologue for the book later on.

I don't see myself making a career out of writing. I have ideas for other books, but I don't want to spend 10+ years of my life writing. I think I need to get this first one right, and not just churn it out as a springboard for a second book. I'm open to it taking 3-4 more years if I find myself consistently improving the quality over time.
 
The second hardest part about writing a book is finishing it. That hardest part is coming to terms with the fact that what comes after the writing is shit loads harder and more time consuming than the actual writing.
Stuff like thinking you can self edit, thinking that your best mate is a worthy person to read it and assess it's worth, finding obvious and stupid mistakes that have glared at you for months but you've not seen and editing the crap out of it to 'make it read better' are things all writers do at least once.
 
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Laughing my ass off at this woman trying to make prawn curry, chopping up the tinned whole tomatoes with scissors, being confused about how tomatoes and curry go together, all her utensils look burnt and fucked up and the prawns look wretched. :rofl::rofl:
 
Just had a really strange experience. Today I remembered this porn video that I saw from a meme a long time ago. Never saw it again until today when I suddenly remembered it and after some searching I found it.

About an hour later I'm scrolling through instagram and BOOM this shit pops up in my feed in another meme.

keep in mind this is a hard to find video, it's not a trending one or anything
 
I'm scared I might get drunkity drunk today. It's saturday and there's two double birthday parties ahead. My mom and grandmother throwing a lunch party in a garden restaurant and then in the evening two friends having a party on a boat in the centre of Prague, plus there's apparently a huge storm coming to the city so both the celebrations might get fucky or more exciting.

There's also a beer festival taking place in the city so we know what to do if we have a free moment in the afternoon. :D
 
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@zabu of nΩd
an "editor" is going to "edit" your book in a way that will "get more people to read it"
the problem with this is they'll re-write your book into something that is totally different than what you initially intended to make

example, Stephanie Meyer fully intended the first Twilight book to be a completely self-contained story with a definitive ending where "everyone lives happily ever after" the editor completely changed the ending to make a sequel possible and then insisted on the book being a trilogy and then the editor extended the "trilogy" into a quartet only after the first one sold a huge amount of copies

to avoid huge story-altering things like this
you might want to consider some kind of "self-publishing" where you actually control the content of the final product
unless you already have some kind of contract with a publisher, i'd seriously consider this website
Online Self Publishing Book & eBook Company - Lulu
or maybe this one
Category - All
 
Horseshit. There is no 'going to re-write', it happens in the slimmest of cases and given that only a tiny fraction of the books actually written ever get published by traditional means it's not like it's prominent in the industry. Changing every book they choose to publish does not have reason, publishes don't pay editors to re-write every story they sell. If they don't like the way a story is written they ignore it along with the thousand other manuscripts they get each day.

Books like Twilight are few and far between, if Meyer had gone to them with a three book story they probably wouldn't have accepted it, but with what she gave them they saw promise, they saw something they could market and they put the option to her. Even before the option was offered the publishing house would have known they could sell a series, merch, movie rights and whatever else, changing the book for their purposes had reason which the author happily accepted, as would most authors. Had the author not accepted fame, fortune and the ability to write a series the publisher would have either canned the book and gone on to the next one in the slush pile or they would have paid her for the idea and got their own writers to write what they wanted without her name on the cover.
 
Arizona ruled. I actually thought about posting pictures, looked in the picture thread and saw it was all spammed up and figured nahh. More effort than what it's worth lol. It's such a beautiful state though could totally see myself retiring there. I've also got 6 days left of this school year. Going to Chicago in two weeks.... for Metal Threat and for some sight seeing. Should be awesome. I plan to eat my ass off.


Also, been binging the fuck out of the show Oz. That shit is brilliant, why didn't I know this before?
 
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Slammed said:
Horseshit. There is no 'going to re-write'

Books like Twilight are few and far between
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are you sure about this
my whole fucking point was that it's something that happens and i'm pretty sure it's not nearly as rare as you think
and in the specific case of Twilight it was a monumental change
the original ending Bella is transformed into a vampire to save her life in the scene at the end where there's a fight an Bella ends up in the hospital
if you binge-read the series, you can totally tell that the entire second book was thoroughly outlined by an fucking editor with Stephanie really just filling in some blanks, in the first book, Jacob Black isn't even a properly-developed-character, he's just a fucking prop to help the female narrator figure out that the main male is a fucking vampire
and the idea to stretch the trilogy into a quartet wasn't even made until after the third book was heavily outlined
this is why Jacob still doesn't have a girlfriend at the end of the third book, even though the third book describes imprinting
if they'd kept it as a trilogy, the explanation of imprinting would have been earlier in the third book, (or maybe even the end of the second book) and Jacob would have imprinted with someone before Bella got pregnant instead of imprinting on Bella's kid

but then the decision was made to make the 4th book the last in the series instead of doing a 5th book
with explains all the weird-as-shit moments in the 4th book
most of the acid-trippy things about the 4th book were really just the editors painting Stephanie into a corner by insisting the trilogy get stretched into a quartet and then the editors refusing to stretch out the story into a 5th book

if they'd kept Stephanie's original first-book ending of Bella turning into a vampire after the big fight at the end of the first book
Jacob could have easily been used as the male in a same-universe romance novel that wouldn't have had Bella being the narrator
where Jacob's past interaction with Bella wouldn't take up a huge amount of text and Jacob getting married/happily-ever-after would have been Jacob with someone older than Bella instead of Bella's fucking Daughter
 
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