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At World Fantasy there was a one-hour panel on the Google Book Settlement with Russell Davis, Karen Wester Newton, Charles Petit, Jay Lake, Christopher Kastensmidt, and Dan Gamber moderating. This is a podcast of the full panel discussion.
Tags: c.e. petit, Christopher Kastensmidt, Dan Gamber, Google Book Settlement, Jay Lake, Karen Wester Newton, podcast, Russell Davis

Copyright, literally, is “the right to copy.” It guarantees the authors of creative works–including books, artworks, films, recordings, photographs–the exclusive right for a set period of time to allow other people to copy and distribute the work, by whatever means and in whatever media currently exist. It also prohibits copying and distributing without the author’s permission. You own copyright by law, automatically, as soon your work is fixed in tangible form–i.e., the minute you write down the words.
Tags: copyright, Publishing, victoria strauss, Writer Beware
This 34 page .pdf document by Sean P. Fodera and C. E. Petit provides an overview to publishing contracts.
Tags: c.e. petit, contracts, Publishing, sean p. fodera

Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA), in conjunction with outside counsel, has reviewed the terms of the proposed settlement between Google, Inc. and the Authors Guild, Inc., and other class action plaintiffs.
Tags: advocate, Google Book Settlement
This document has been endorsed by the Romance Writers of America (RWA), Novelists, Inc., Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA), and Western Writers of America, Inc. (WWA), representing a total of nearly 11,000 writers.
Ratified version (2002)
While affirming the freedom of every writer to negotiate in his or her own best interests, the [...]
Tags: authors' bill of rights, contracts
Purpose
To provide expert advice on contractual matters that affect significant numbers of SFWA® members, and to provide a clearinghouse for new developments or issue alerts to SFWA® members regarding those contractual matters.
Typical Functions
Evaluating standard contracts from new publishers with a view to improving their model forms.
Notifying members about questionable or contentious contractual provisions about which [...]

This .pdf document is an annotation of the Amazon Kindle contract as it was posted on Amazon’s Web site (downloaded in February, 2008).
Tags: Amazon, business, contracts, internet, Kindle, online
This contract was written under the direction of the SFWA® Contracts Committee. The model or sample contracts have been written as a guide to writers in understanding common publishing contracts and to help them negotiate better contracts. They are not intended to be used as boilerplate contracts by publishers, writers, or agents, nor should such [...]
Tags: agent, business, contract, literary agent, representation
1989
This contract was written under the direction of the SFWA® Contracts Committee. The model or sample contracts have been written as a guide to writers in understanding common publishing contracts and to help them negotiate better contracts. They are not intended to be used as boilerplate contracts by publishers, writers, or agents, nor should such [...]
1989
This contract was written under the direction of the SFWA® Contracts Committee. The model or sample contracts have been written as a guide to writers in understanding common publishing contracts and to help them negotiate better contracts. They are not intended to be used as boilerplate contracts by publishers, writers, or agents, nor should such [...]