Three Articles For Freelancers

I've been harnessing the power of RSS to subscribe to more blogs about writing recently. The trouble is that every time I check out the blogroll on a writing site, I find more stuff to subscribe to.

In my trawl through the writing sites today, I have found three articles worth paying attention to.

First, Angela Booth writes about the cumulative effect of writing for self promotion, making the point that you need to think long term when it comes to promotion. I agree with that, having recently seen one of my old articles find new life.

Second, the EzineArticles article writing blog has a good article template to give you inspiration when you're looking for something to write. Browse around that blog; there are other gems to be found.

Third, thanks to Anne Wayman, I have found this great article on contracts for freelance writers. This is a great article if you're new to freelancing, and even those of us who aren't could use it as a reminder. Enjoy.

Making It As A Freelance Writer - Tip #8 - Copyright: rent, don't sell

Copyright protected works (see the previous tip for a definition) are known as intellectual property. Intellectual property is a bit like real estate - it can be bought, sold, transferred and inherited, though only with your written permission.

The key thing to remember as a freelance writer is that ideas themselves are not protected but the way ideas are expressed is protected. So if you think of an idea for an article, that isn't protected; when you write it, it is. It's the information you select and the way you arrange it that makes it unique.

When you give someone the right to publish your writing, you are assigning that right temporarily (a bit like renting out your house). As a writer, you'll want to avoid signing away any of your rights permanently. Instead, be clear on what rights you are assigning. First serial rights are normal. This gives the publisher the right to publish your material first in whatever country or region (for example, the UK or US) the rights apply to. Once the material has been published, all rights revert to you. Some publishers will also request online rights and the right to keep your work in an online archive. You'll want to make sure these rights are for a limited period or are non-exclusive, so you can make the most of your material.

A key term to be aware of is moral right. This is the right to be credited as the author (have a byline) and to object to alterations or errors which might damage your reputation (known as derogatory treatment of your work). It also includes the right not to have work falsely attributed to you. In other words, no one should say you wrote something if you didn't.

So what do you do if someone tries to pass off something you've written as their own work? If your copyright has been breached you can take the infringer to court and try to get any offending material seized or destroyed. However, there are two things that could damage your case. The first is if the person commits innocent infringement, which means the person genuinely didn't know you owned the copyright; the second is if you have previously allowed someone to use copyrighted work without complaint. This is known as acquiescence

Making It As A Freelance Writer - Tip #7 - Copyrights and copy wrongs

As a freelance writer, you'll need to be aware of the legal protection your work enjoys so you don't sign away rights that you should retain. Here are some some key aspects of UK copyright law you should be aware of.

In the UK, copyright is an automatic and unregistered right. That means there's no need to apply specially or fill in any forms. Copyright takes effect as soon as protected material is produced. Copyright protected material is known as works and there are nine types of work that are automatically protected. These are literary work (including newspaper articles), dramatic, musical, artistic (photos, drawings, diagrams, maps etc), sound recordings, films, broadcasts, cable programmes and published editions of works.

In order for material to have copyright protection it has to result from independent intellectual effort. In other words, you must have put some work into it. You'll need to be able to prove this if challenged, so although it's not obligatory, you can protect yourself by sending a copy of your work to yourself by recorded delivery and leaving the envelope unopened. Recorded delivery post is date stamped so you'll be able to prove that your work existed on a particular date.

Copyright lasts for the duration of the author’s life plus 70 years for literary, dramatic or musical works. Different periods apply for films (70 years after the last to die of the director, screenplay authors and musical director), sound recordings (50 years) and published editions (25 years). People are allowed to publish excerpts from your copyrighted work for the purpose of news, review or criticism. This is known as fair dealing. Works used in this way should be properly acknowledged.

More on copyright in the next tip.