Using Photographs of Copyright or Trademark-Protected Content
Most authors, at some point in their careers, use photographs with their creative work. Maybe to bring a story to life. Maybe to create a book cover. Maybe as an aesthetic enhancement to a blog or newsletter. Depending on the...
Story Ideas Are Free as the Air — Just Don’t Breath Too Deeply (Copyright and the Law of Ideas)
Many authors labor under the misconception that copyright law exists because they have a natural, God-given right to control their artistic product. Not so. Copyright serves not the author but rather the broader culture. The wide...
Bail To Sentencing: Stages Of A Criminal Trial
Earlier this month, two writers asked for a description of criminal trial procedures. Below is an overview of the trial stages from Bail to Sentencing. While states and the federal government follow a standard set of procedures,...
Defamation? It’s the truth, I SWEAR! — How to Avoid Libel in Fiction
Whether writing fiction or memoirs, we writers are constantly encouraged by the literary community to mine our own experiences, relationships, and observations for writing material. As I write this post, the old adage “write what...
Publishing Update — These Honored Dead by Jonathan F. Putnam
Sidebar Saturdays contributor Jonathan F. Putnam’s debut novel, These Honored Dead, published today (August 9th, 2016). It’s a historical legal mystery starring the young Abraham Lincoln and his real-life best...
USING SONG LYRICS IN YOUR NOVEL (Spoiler Alert: You probably have to pay for it)
The creative spark for my third novel – LOSING FAITH – was a line from the Coldplay song Viva la Vida. I wanted to use it as the epigraph for the book, following my junior high school English teacher’s recommendation that an...