Adding Criminal Law and Procedure to Your Fiction: Part II
In my October 6 article for Sidebar Saturdays on Adding Criminal Law and Procedure to Your Fiction, I considered whether you should worry about getting the law right in your stories and novels. It’s up to you, authors—after all,...
Multiple Arrest Warrants – What is a character to do?
Todd from Utah is revising a manuscript involving a character with multiple arrest warrants in different states. His character is arrested and charged in New York for insider trading, then flees to Oklahoma where he is arrested...
Inside the Courtroom: Little Stuff that can be Big Stuff
Very few non-lawyers write legal thrillers, but many authors include courtroom scenes in their books. I often find these scenes lacking not in drama or suspense but in authenticity and I suspect the writer is drawing more on what...
Making Fiction Stranger (or at least more compelling) Than Truth
The presidential campaign of 2016 is – blessedly – almost over. If you’re like me, you can’t wait to be done with it. On the other hand, to the fiction writer, the election has been morbidly fascinating, with the obscure,...
Publishing Contracts — Ten Tips for Negotiating the Grant of Rights Clause
The nucleus of any publishing contract is the “Grant of Rights” clause. This provision defines what rights under copyright the author transfers to the publisher to commercially exploit in exchange for payment. For...