All Questions
21 questions
2
votes
3
answers
313
views
Recreating public domain children's stories and using the original illustration?
Personally, I love old children's books. The artwork is phenomenal. Recently I saw more than one person selling Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. I do not intend to take public domain stories from one ...
- 53
1
vote
0
answers
116
views
How do Fair Use and Copyright laws apply to allusions in writing?
I'm working on a novel where one of my main characters is young, and supposed to be obsessed with anything under the brand name "Star Wars"(Especially pertaining to the movie.) When talking ...
- 11
1
vote
0
answers
98
views
Searching for an author with unpublished fantasy writing for my mobile game [closed]
I would be extremely grateful for any advice on how to search for or reach an agreement with an author. I'm a solo indie game developer, unreleased. My game is a fantasy random gacha hero collector. ...
6
votes
2
answers
715
views
Do I have to pay royalties if I include excerpts from other works?
In a lot of books, at the beginning, the authors include quotes from poetry or songs that are relevant to the theme of their story or to their characters' situations. Obviously I would have to ask ...
user34214
4
votes
3
answers
380
views
Can I retell a popular manga series as a novel and query it to an agent?
I’m working on my first draft of a retelling of a popular manga series from the 90s. It has been adapted and redone at least 6-10 times as an Asian drama TV series in many different countries. I’m ...
- 281
5
votes
4
answers
8k
views
Should I copyright my material before sending to my publisher?
Should I copyright my material before sending to my publisher? Can they steal my content?
- 713
1
vote
1
answer
892
views
How does public domain/copyright work across different countries?
What if I want to modify/sell a book that is copyrighted in my country, but is under public domain in X country? If I download a file containing the X country version, am I allowed to do this? If not, ...
- 13
4
votes
1
answer
217
views
Required Notices On Publishing A Public Domain Works
I am in the process of editing works in the Public Domain. I want them to be as clean as possible, so they are more like works of art. No Introductions, no foot-notes, no prefaces, etc..
I really ...
- 41
7
votes
5
answers
6k
views
Is fan fiction publishable?
This is a question that has been touched on here and there, and yet I can't find a good answer.
Suppose I am writing a story set in the Star Wars universe. I don't want to dodge copyrights and ...
- 6,153
3
votes
1
answer
171
views
Republishing public domain work by family ancestors
Both my husband's great grandfather and, on my side, my own great-great grandfather were published authors. Their books appear on the Bibliobazaar/Open Source sites. Although we are direct ...
- 31
1
vote
2
answers
99
views
'Out of print' not profitable or holding rights indefinitely by a Publisher?
Umm... The main cause the Publishers give more often than not is, the book was not successful to warrant a second run and hence it's out of print or 'it's just old'. I just read this question which ...
- 225
4
votes
4
answers
2k
views
How do we draw the line between plagiarism and allusion?
It’s no secret that in literature we see characters that remind us of other characters. Furthermore, it’s no secret we see plots that remind us of other plots.
For example, an author reads Book A and ...
- 115
2
votes
1
answer
192
views
Do I need copyright, trademark or other registrations, to publish stories by Shakespeare?
I have written summary and storyline of Shakespeare's plays. I need to know the process of publication, and the legal notes, on publishing synopses, where the original author is someone else.
18
votes
3
answers
828
views
Getting My Rights Back
Back in the late 90's I wrote a picture book which eventually was published in 2002 by a big name publishing house. The book was critically acclaimed, won an award, and went through a couple of ...
- 56.5k
8
votes
1
answer
7k
views
How can I get permission to translate and republish a book?
I am interested in translating an English book into my native language.
How can I get permission to translate the book? Would that also include permission to republish the book in the native ...
- 81
0
votes
2
answers
394
views
My publisher copyrighted my book cover and interior
My illustrator designed the cover of my book, but my publisher did not want to use his cover. They wanted their illustration department to do it. What I didn't know was that they copyrighted the cover ...
8
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Is Sherlock Holmes public domain for use in a story?
I am writing a short story and would like to name check Sherlock Holmes as a character; according to the ever reliable (?) Wikipedia the stories of Holmes are UK Public Domain. Does this mean I can ...
- 183
-1
votes
1
answer
223
views
Is there a way to ask online booksellers to pull pirated editions of my books?
Eight of my books are available on Google Books as 100% online, downloadable, but no Creative Commons licensing. Now I am starting to see them show up in bookstores, in versions I didn't have printed. ...
- 399
2
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Do different formats of the same book need to be registered separately?
We're self-publishing a book in both paperback and e-book format. The content between the versions will be identical except for some formatting corrections (mainly white-space) made for the digital ...
- 153
8
votes
2
answers
12k
views
How to publish public domain books?
It is known that the copyright permission is not needed for old books (usually 70 years after the author's death), because the copyright has been expired. However, I am not sure how easy a public ...
- 840
11
votes
4
answers
4k
views
Who is responsible for copyrighted materials (publisher or writer)?
Imagine that Writer A's book includes copyrighted material created by Creator B, and Creator B sues for copyright infringement. Will Writer A be held liable, or will the book publisher?
I think the ...
- 840