Agents? I Wonder

Trying to land an agent again. My first effort resulted in finding an agent but that was short-lived. And nothing happened as a result. I went straight to publishers after that, and had some success. The Vase was seemingly the most popular. It was accepted by five publishers. I went with the publisher I thought would be the best, and it was in several ways. They taught me a lot about writing a novel. And I took that knowledge and applied it to all of my novels, and they are all better for it.

Killer of Killers drew a lot of interest as well. Not just from agents but from publishers. Although only one publisher offered a contract, compared with the five contracts offered for The Vase. But that publisher is still kickin'. Two of the publishers who offered contracts for The Vase, and with whom I signed, folded. Thus the rights are reverted to me. Another publisher with whom I signed had internal trouble, including lawsuits by former staff. I chronicled all of it on the blog here, so I don't need to get into it again. It was a frustrating experience

The bottom line I discovered is that people don't really care about you, or your contracts or your money. They only care about themselves. Of course, I knew that already. So it was no surprise. You can't really trust anyone. Not in the publishing business. Not in any business. It's what I teach my sons. As a matter of fact, my youngest son asked me recently what my most important advice to him would be. I said without hesitation 'Don't trust anyone.' I've told him before. Both of my sons. Many times. You just can't trust anyone is this world and it's a shame really.

Which means being an agent is an oxymoron. An agent is supposed to be someone you can trust. But you can't trust anyone. Still I'm seeking an agent. It's the best chance to make the Big Five. And I do want that. So I have no recourse. We'll see how that goes.

For me, it wasn't an agent, but a publisher who became an untrustworthy entity. Here's a lesson I learned and I did apply it the second time. You cannot trust a publisher who doesn't sign his own contract. I chronicled the happenings here on the blog some years ago. And when a later publisher tried to do the same thing to me, I told them that.

Here's the trick. A publisher will send you a contract unsigned by them. A first time author will sign it and send it back, thinking the publisher will then sign it and send you a copy. But that didn't happen. So I learned a lesson. Then when a second publisher did that to me, this time I knew better. I told them that publishers who don't sign their own contracts are publishers who cannot be trusted. I said that. Straight up. So then they got on the ball and signed it and sent it back to me.

See? Lessons learned and applied. But sadly three of the other publishers who offered contracts for The Vase simply folded. So that's another reason I'd prefer the Big Five. They won't fold.

But you take what you can get. When will I give up? Who knows. You keep trying. The Vase, Heart of a Zulu, and Second Chance will find homes again. We'll see which homes. Soon I hope.

Music Copyrighted

Submitting material to the Library of Congress for copyrights is nothing new to me. I've copyrighted all my books, right up to Second Chance and John Dunn, Heart of a Zulu. I've wanted to post some of my music to the blog for a while, and now that a couple of my "albums" have finally been digitized, I have the capacity to do it.

But first, the copyrights. I've completed the copyrights submission for the two "albums" today, which means as of today they are copyrighted. Which means I can now post the music. I've already posted the lyrics. I posted Rockin' the Afterlife years ago. And just recently I posted the lyrics to Rockin' the Cosmos.

But to post the music, you have to upgrade the website. That costs some money, but I'll be posting the music soon. Just don't pay too much attention to the vocals. The songs are good, otherwise I wouldn't post them. You'll need a little imagination to accompany the vocals, that's all. Hopefully by the end of the week both "albums" will be up. Stay tuned.

John Dunn Copyrighted

I just registered my John Dunn, Heart of a Zulu book with the copyright office, also known as the US Library of Congress. Yeah, I know I didn't invent the character John Dunn, nor the events that occurred in the story, but the prose is mine.

I did have a lithograph image of Dunn in there, but I removed it for the copyright office. Since that image isn't mine, meaning I didn't draw it, I didn't want to take any chances of being denied the copyright. I figure, however, that since it's been over a hundred years since that image was made, it should be public domain right now, so no need for it to be copyrighted anyway.

Now, I'm waiting for the publishing process to begin, but while I'm waiting, I'll be wrapping up the edits to Killer Eyes. That one should be released next month, so how exciting is that? Well for me, it's very exciting. Times are rolling for me right now.

To Register or Not - John Dunn

I'm going to wait before I register John Dunn for a copyright. For one thing, I didn't invent John Dunn. He was a real person who lived in a real world, and experienced real historical events. None of it was from my imagination. All of it was true. I invented no characters, no setting, and no events.

Well, I did throw in a couple invented events, actually, but that was only because I wanted to give Catherine Pierce, his first wife, a subplot. I wanted to give some kind of focus onto a woman in the story. But I had to invent something. And that's because in all of the books I read about Dunn, none of them featured or described any of the women in his life. Even Catherine was only mentioned as little more than a side note. None of his other 49 wives were given any coverage at all.

Surprisingly, none of his 117 children were described either. Even in Dunn's autobiography he mentions only his oldest son, and that was only about the incident when his oldest son fell ill. It happened when Cetshwayo was supposed be crowned the Zulu king. (And even then Dunn never mentioned his son by name!) In Dunn's autobiography, which is titled John Dunn, Cetywayo, and the Three Generals, Dunn wrote that he had to stay by his son's side because he thought he was going to die. And Cetshwayo refused to be crowned king unless John Dunn was present. What made this particular part of the story even more interesting was that none of the white doctors could cure his son. It was a Zulu witch doctor who did.

So it's in my book. But the point is, because it's all true, anyone can write about it. Even if I copyright this book, the story's not mine. It's anyone's. I guess the prose is mine. But the story is not. The same is true about other historical figures. How many Abraham Lincoln stories have been made? How many about George Washington? King Henry VIII? Jesus Christ?

So I'll wait until it's published. Who knows? The publisher might want to change the title of the book or ask me to add something or delete something. So it's already copyrighted automatically, but once the final version is published then I'll register it. Or not.

Killer Eyes finally registered

I wasn't in a hurry to register Killer Eyes with the Library of Congress, because I had already registered Killer of Killers way back when I finished writing that one. Since my character, Trent Smith, and the original story were already copyrighted, I didn't have an urgency to get it done with Killer Eyes.

But Killer Eyes is due to be published this summer, so I went ahead and registered it with the Library of Congress last night. It cost 35 dollars, which is affordable, so I figured to go ahead.

Of course, in America, all original work is automatically copyrighted, and you don't have to do it officially with the copyright office at the Library of Congress. But it's better protected that way. For instance, if someone else were to write about Trent Smith, or use any of my ideas from KOK or Killer Eyes, the only way I could sue them is if I had a copyright registered already.

My other novel, The Vase, is also registered with the Library of Congress. So that's three of my books copyrighted, or registered now. Like I pointed out, all work is "copyrighted" but only when it's "registered" will it count in any courts.

I should do the same for my songs. I remember once, many years ago, I had composed a song on the piano. I was only fourteen years old, but it was a pretty good song, or at least I thought so. I never did anything with it. And I pretty much forgot about it. But a year or two later, that same tune that I had composed, or one very similar to it, became a hit on the radio. It was the song The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, by Traffic. I'm certainly not saying Traffic copied it from me. I was a nobody. They most certainly came up with the tune on their own, and since they were already a famous band, they had the means to record it, perform it, etc., and it became a hit.

So, similarly, my stories are such that if anyone were to come up with the same ideas, say, in KOK, Killer Eyes, or The Vase, I've got proof, now, that I had the ideas first. That's all.

Titles Not Copyrighted

Even though I copyrighted my novel Killer of Killers, no one can copyright a title. And it's a good thing, too, because Michael Winner's movie, The Mechanic, starring Charles Bronson was originally called Killer of Killers. I saw that movie back in the 70s, but never knew it's original name. Actually, The Mechanic is a better name for that movie, because as I remember it, not all the victims of "the mechanic" were actually killers. The recent remake of The Mechanic, with the same name, The Mechanic, starring Jason Statham, was a much better movie. After watching the remake, I tried to re-watch the original Charles Bronson movie and the original sucked in comparison. The acting, the production values, the directing was all inferior. So, whatever. But I'm pretty sure that my book, Killer of Killers is the only book with that name. And that's good enough for me. Killer of Killers, a martial arts thriller, is available now from Melange Books. Click on the image to the right of this post and buy your copy today!

The Vase - Not so Done

Went back and began rereading my second novel, THE VASE. Just as I've said before, whenever I reread these manuscripts, I just can't seem to help making additional revisions. I've read about it on other writers' blogs, so I know it's not just me. At this point it's mostly just a word or two changed or rearranging a sentence - minor stuff. Certainly nothing major at this point. Since I've already sent it to the Library of Congress for a Copyright, I hope nothing major gets changed. I don't believe it will.

It happened with KILLER OF KILLERS. I finished it, revised it, and before I sent fulls to agents who requested it, I went ahead and copyrighted it. But then, as I explained in earlier posts, I ended up making some major revisions, and so I had to resend the changed version for another copyright.

As I understand it, you don't need to resend for another copyright if you make minor revisions, as I'm doing now for The Vase. But if you make some major changes, say, adding new chapters, for example, then you do need to resend it. That's what happened with KOK.

Of course, agents say you really don't need to copyright your material in the submission stage. They say no one is going to "steal" your ideas. But I think it's wiser to do it, anyway. It's easy, because you can do it online, it's cheap, about 30 bucks, and it takes the LOC about six months to finally get it done, but it's retroactive. Meaning the copyright is valid from the point they receive your material, not just when you get that certificate from them in the mail.