EBooks are everywhere these days. In fact, they’re so prevalent, it’s often easy to forget the “other” way to read books – by listening to them. Audio book lovers are passionate about their books. When you talk with them, you’ll probably hear that most can’t recall the last time they actually read a book word for word. In fact, some people listen to as many as five audio books each month – this is particularly common in people who spend long periods of time on the road, like over-the-road truck drivers. And you’ll also find that audio book lovers have a wide variety of tastes, listening to anything from world history to self-help and fiction.
Do you hear the words “copyright and permissions” and you all but shrug your shoulders? Trust me, you are not alone. These are not words many people give much thought to, but the fact is they do matter and they are starting to take front and center stage with the emergence of digital media and the way we retrieve our information.
As a self‐published author, educating yourself on copyright and permissions, will not only protect you from facing the risks of non‐compliance, it stands to enhance your income and success!
If you were thinking about writing a book, are in the process of writing book, or are looking to get your book published, here are some fast facts for you to take away, decide how they apply to you & how they may affect the way you move forward:
Via Joanna Penn, a podcast with Matthias Matting, who has just finished translating his book "How to Self Publish in Germany" into English. If you are interested in selling your book overseas, in other languages, this guide will help you understand some of the pitfalls of publishing into another culture. While many factors of the book market in Germany are similar to those of the US, there are some distinct differences (such as the fact that more Germans are book consumers than are Americans, or the fact that German law governs book pricing).
In addition to being a registration agent for ISBNs, Bowker is also a registration agent for ISNI. This is a new identifier - the standard was published in 2012 - for people and organizations. The mission of ISNI is (from the ISNI website):
- Assign to the public name of a writer, artist, performer, researcher, publisher, etc. a persistent unique identifying number in order to resolve the problem of name ambiguity in search and discovery.
- Diffuse each assigned ISNI across all repertoires in the global supply chain so that every creative work is unambiguously attributed to its creator or publisher wherever that work is described.
By achieving these goals the ISNI will act as a bridge identifier across multiple domains and become a critical component in Linked Data and Semantic Web applications.
Digi-Direct℗ a new service from Bowker, found on its MyIdentifiers site, gives independent authors access to the first patent-protected, automated, comprehensive Rights Management solution. Digi-Direct℗ helps you:
- Get a Rights Assessment on Your Manuscript
- Clear Rights and Permissions
- Register Your Rights for Others to See and Access
- License Your Rights to the Global Marketplace
This will help you avoid legal problems, make your content ‘rights compliant’, as well as generate new potential sources of revenue. Rights compliance is important as more and more libraries, educational institutions and other organizations - including some distributors - are requiring some type of rights audit to insure that content from Independent authors is valid and cleared.
Bowker announced today that it is partnering with Digi-Rights® (warning - sound on the site is automatically enabled). From the press release:
Digi-Rights® Direct [is] a patented suite of automated rights solutions and services for authors and publishers. This cloud-based service is designed to enable users to optimize their rights so that revenues are maximized and risks from copyright liability issues are minimized. The link to Digi-Rights® Direct is part of Bowker’s larger program to identify high-quality providers of key services for authors and small publishers, connecting them through MyIdentifiers.com....
Amazon announced this morning that they have licensed fanfic rights from the Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and Vampire Diaries franchises.
From the press release:
Through these licenses, Kindle Worlds will allow any writer to publish authorized stories inspired by these popular Worlds and make them available for readers to purchase in the Kindle Store.
