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How do I protect both of us when writing with a co-writer? Myself when using a lay-editor?
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#1 Type your story in a word document (or whatever kind of document your computer supports) and email it to yourself. Do not open the email. This way the internet will put down the date and time you sent the work to yourself.
#2 Print out your story on paper and mail it to your mailbox. When you re-receive (if there is such a word) your story do not open the envelope. This is another way of proving the work is yours.
Hope that helps you.
I find working with friends to be quite difficult. I recently went through this on a project and was deeply disappointed by the experience.
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Well, some people fair better than others. It depends on the group members and what was agreed upon...
I know when I was getting my masters we did a lot of working in teams. For the most part it was a good experience, but not always. It could be very frustrating. One person that was suppose to be writing the paper would just use spell check as a way of editing the paper. One person would go off on her own tangent and do stuff that was totally different than what we agreed upon, so the paper was incomplete. On the other hand, with usually four different people in the group we had a LOT of creativity and a LOT of fun doing our projects.
I agree that if you are going to write together for both fun and profit you need to spell everything out. My dad use to say YOU CAN NEVER BE SUCCINT ENOUGH. You spell everything out like you were a two year old. He was a lawyer.
I had a bittersweet experience with an ex-friend on a project, granted that it was an RP project, but still. Friendship and project went down in flames. =[So I think if you have a good friendship and you both agree on around the same things, have great communication and are both honest. And also - as the advice already giving - write everything down and be as clear as possible. You may have fewer complications. And what Julius mention, is also something that works. I've been told that as well, so.
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I decided to call it a day and do it on my own.I have good friends and authors to help me out If I need it.I'm now 17 chapters in and am glad I'm working alone.I can work at my own pace.I'm hoping my book will get published before the end of this year.Having someone else with me caused too many problems.I can make my own decisions,the way I want my story to go.I even have the ending planned.I prefer working alone.
Our friendship was tarred cos of all this and we're no longer friends.Mutual agreement.
I've backed it all up.I wouldn't be this far into my book if I hadn't decided to go it alone.
Mod
#1 Type your story in a word document (or whatever kind of document your computer supports) and email it to yourself. Do not open ..."
That's a fabulous idea Julius.
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Lawyers often come up with the best advice, Dee. And that was pretty efficient advice. :)
Anyway, although I know you all know this, when cooperating with a friend/friends on a project like a story, when nerves start to get frayed, take a week's break and have both sides think the disagreement(s) over. And, when one side calms down enough, go and re-discuss things calmly until you can reason it all out.
Sometimes this doesn't work, though. And, although I think cooperating with friends is fun, you have to think;
"What happens if we starting fighting?" "Am I better off working alone?" "Will this stress our friendship?"
I personally run different situations through my mind on what outcomes could be before I start something.
Most people prefer working alone.
Disclosure: IANAL; I am an aspiring author; I am a freelance writer & editor. (But really, *really* am not a lawyer, mmm-kay?)The worst outcome is that the friendship goes south before you've completed the book. If you've both written towards the project, then you own the copyright jointly (AFAIK) and neither can use it without the other's permission. If you're not friends any more, that's unlikely, so the project has to be canned. No-one can use that material.
To "protect" against that you would have to have a contract (preferably notarized) to state one of two things:
1) Formally declare the status-quo (no-one can use the material in the event of dispute);
2) The reverse declaration, that in the event of a dispute you *both* get to walk away with a full set of rights to the material, including each other's.
Either way, to be frank, the odds are that no agent or publisher would touch it; but you could probably self-pub in the latter case.
Regarding protection from plagiarism on public, or semi-public sites...
Most publishers and agents consider work which has been posted into public fora as having been published and won't touch it (except in wildly special circumstances, to wit Shades Of Gray).
Fan-fiction sites are a bit different from other sites where authors congregate, in that fan-fiction writers are already predisposed to work with someone-else's copyrighted material. I'm not saying they are all thieves, not by a long shot, I'm just saying that the risk of being plagiarized could be considered higher in those venues.
Most times, with other original authors, people are far more invested in working on their own projects to do more than comment on yours, or help where they can.
Freelance editors, too, are usually far too busy editing (or writing their own works) to want to take yours.
In either case, if you post it publicly and someone copies it, that's copyright infringement. You can seek a cease-and-desist and damages, among other remedies.
With an editor, there should be a contract in place, but even an email stating the nature of the work-for-hire is probably sufficient for a breach-of-contract case, or copyright infringement if it goes that way.
As I say, though, odds are that if someone is an editor with some work history along those lines, they are:
a) not likely to pinch your pork;
b) not going to balk at an NDA or simple work-for-hire contract.
Emailing a copy of the work to yourself is not likely to help except in the most trivial of disputes, it is far too easy to fake timestamps. If you are using a third party's mail server, or webmail, you would need to get the court to sequester those records (if they persist) from the mail server logs, and that is an expensive process. Physical mail has been widely debunked as an effective copyright protection method, also, unfortunately, although it sounds like it should work.
Taking a completed, dated, signed copy to get notarized, and then sticking it in a bank security deposit box might work... Then again, it's probably easier to just go and get the copyright registered.
I think that's about it from me. Sorry to be less than up-beat about this, but I don't do the rosy-tinted specs, sorry.
HTH
K
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Nice words, phoebe.
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The worst outcome is that the friendship goes south before you've com..."
Hmmmm. That's food for thought, Kaal.
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Thankyou, Jul.
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The worst outcome is that the friendship goes south before you've com..."
Thankyou for your input, Kaal. It is much-appreciated, since you sound like you have a thorough understanding of the matter at hand. :)
Julius wrote: "Hmmmm. That's food for thought, Kaal. "I hope so. :) I hope it serves as a jumping off point for informed research. :)
Phoebe wrote: "Thankyou for your input, Kaal. It is much-appreciated, since you sound like you have a thorough understanding of the matter at hand. :) "Like everyone here, I am a writer so I have a vested interest in being informed about the industry I'm working my way into.
There is a metric tonne of informed information out there: independent publishers, blogging copyright lawyers, blogging agents, Writer Beware, etc.
Not everyone's nice. Just like every business there are some unethical people, and there are some who just play legal hardball.
Hope for the best, but plan for the worst. ;)
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Like everyone here, I am a writer so I have..."
Well, it's great to have a great grasp of the writing industry and how it works.
Like they say, "try being informed instead of opinionated." (I can't remember the person who said it) :D
You pose great advice, mate. We would all benefit from this, I daresay. :)
Before we even get to the actual "writing" bit, I want to make sure I do whatever steps are necessary to protect both of us. A common phrase around my area is "good fences make good neighbors" and I want to have a "good fence" to keep my good friend. Is it enough to have something casual in writing that we both sign to get us started? I trust her, she trusts me, but I know so much in life can change and be torn apart.
On a related tangent, how does one go about protecting oneself at a site like this where the work is just "out there" for people to see/read? I have been very badly plagiarized once on a fanfiction site. It was not a 'for money' writing, so in the long run it didn't matter, but I had a lengthy story posted on a fanfiction website that was copied by someone else, character names changed, and posted on an 'original' fiction site as their own work. I was horrified and since then have not posted anything on public venues.
I would appreciate any information, website links or other resources anyone might provide about this sort of nitty-gritty detail of writing/publishing. Thank you.