And Finally: A Crash Course in Copyright Law, Part 3 (Exceptions)
What are some exceptions to copyright infringement cases?
So, in other words, when is it all right?
Purdue University offers a terrific and very readable summary of the main known exceptions to copyright infringement claims.
Note: the law changes in every area. This blog is no substitute for talking directly with an experienced copyright attorney!
Fair Use
For the fair use defense, Purdue outlines four basic factors:
Purpose and character
Some specifics favor fair use. These include nonprofit, educational, and personal usages. Plus there are those which represent a potential tipping point.
These include teaching, research, scholarship, criticism, commentary, and news reporting. And there are those which favor needing permission. These include commercial, entertainment, and for-profit uses.
Hence, a nonprofit’s research is more likely to be fair use than a for-profit enterprise’s commercial use. Hence the for-profit business should seek the copyright holder’s permission.
Nature of work
To favor fair use, it should be a fact and/or published. But to favor needing permission, it should be a fiction and/or unpublished. E. g. It is more likely to be fair use if you repeat a published fact about dinosaurs.
Whereas you more likely need permission for an unpublished novel about vampires.
Amount
Small and insignificant bits of copying are more likely to be fair use than large ones representing the heart of a work. As a result, those are more likely to require permission. Hence, if I copy the character of Millicent Bulstrode, then the character is minor and small. But this does not necessarily mean JK Rowling would never sue me. Still, copying Hermione Granger is another matter entirely.
Market Effect
You are more likely to be in the fair use realm if:
† Licensing/permissions are unavailable or there is no major impact, • There is limited/restricted access to the work, or † The user or institution owns a legal copy.
But it is different if there is a major impact, or licensing/permissions are readily available. Or the work has worldwide availability, or there is repeated or long-term use. Then the scale slides to requiring permission.
Profit and sales are not an element to this cause of action. Although selling the copied article, particularly multiple instances of it, can place the act into the ‘requires permission’ camp.
Exceptions for Face to Face Instruction
According to Purdue,
The traditional classroom or face-to-face instruction is when the instructor and the students of a nonprofit educational institution are in a place devoted to instruction and the teaching and learning take place at the same time. In this setting all performances and displays of a work are allowed.
Requirements:
† All materials must be legally acquired. † Teaching activities must take place in a classroom or a similar place devoted to instruction.
Exceptions: Virtual Instruction
Like face-to-face instruction allowance, virtual instruction generally gets a pass, per Purdue University. However, there are some specifics. For example, the class must be a regular offering in the curriculum.
What about Parody Exceptions?
The American Bar Association notes the United States Supreme Court treats parody and satire separately. But the ABA feels it is a distinction without much of a difference. Both are mockery. But satire is often more like commentary than outright mimicry.
For the ABA, and particularly when a work has both elements, the difference matters less. Although copyright holders might be more inclined to license satire rather than parody. This is because parody is pretty much a knockoff by definition.
Commentary generally falls under fair use. That commentary can be amusing or not, satirical or not. Copying generally is not fair use. But amusement and exaggeration blurs that line.
The best advice I can give you is: do not make your work into a copyright test case!
In other words: be original!
And please be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2!
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And yes, of course I have the copyright in my own material!
It is the first question pretty much any writer would normally ask anyway, and it concerns what to write about on your website.
Do You Know What to Write About?
Let us start with one thing, and make it perfectly clear. Your writer website is (spoiler alert!) not your personal blog. Rather, it is a marketing tool.
Oh, and by the way, your Twitter stream (er, X stream), your author Facebook page and/or group, and BookTok? Guess what? They are marketing tools as well!
This is not to say that you can never, ever be sociable. Actually, you should.
But there is a line between sociable and confessional. For the most part (albeit not necessarily always), you do not want to cross it.
Consider What to Write About as You Consider Where that Writing is Actually Going
Wait, what?
What happens to your blog once you publish it? Well, you probably share it on social media. At least, if you want anyone to read it, you sure as hell do.
In fact, Jetpack has a setting to get your writing out to social media. It is pretty easy to set up and then it is done.
This is not everything you should be tweeting, etc. You should be doing more than the barest of bare minima. But at least your stellar prose is going somewhere.
A Writer Newsletter is the World’s Greatest Landing Strip
Keep in mind, as I write this, I do not even have a formal writer newsletter yet! But I follow the newsletters of some other writers, like Trinity Blacio. I look at what they say, and what they do not say. And, I check out how often they put out their newsletters.
And here is what I have learned.
1. Newsletters that come out irregularly are probably not going to get you new readers. But they may appeal to your current fans. Still, you want to expand your base. Being consistent with your release schedule helps!
2. No one seems to know what to put in a writer newsletter, beyond a link to a free download and/or future appearance info. Why not reprint a part of some blog posts? And then link to the remainder!
3. Confessional newsletters should be few and far between. So, an irregularly published one might be able to get away with this. But if this is a constant? Nope. A weekly newsletter, and maybe even a monthly one will get tiring very quickly if it is only about how you have got writer’s block. Again.
So, consider some of your landing strips when you write.
What do Your Readers Want to Read?
Beyond your fiction (or nonfiction), what do they want to know? Do they want to see anything about your process? Maybe they want to understand your characters better. Or maybe they want to get an idea of what is coming out next.
But when considering what to write about, you also want to get inside the heads of this next group of folks.
What do Your Prospective Readers Want to Read?
Love it or hate it, if you are an indie writer and you do not just want to leave your writing in a drawer or on a hard drive somewhere, guess what? Congratulations, you are now a small business person.
What does that mean? It means that you should be trying to convert prospects.
I am not talking about clickbait here (although a little copywriting is probably fine if it is not too aggressive). It is, rather, about trying to add some readers.
Here is a Fer-Instance
Any number of die-hard Trekkies were appalled and clutched their pearls when a new timeline and new actors were introduced in the 2009 film. However, that film did something amazing. It attracted and hooked a new generation of viewers.
And when Paramount+ (it was CBS All Access at the time) added new series which were different from TOS, what happened? Oh, those same fanboys and fangirls clutched their pearls and sighed and screamed it wasn ot “real” Star Trek.
Whatever the hell that is. Yet Discovery and the other new series have also reeled in a new generation.
Resting on your laurels is comfortable and nice. But it also makes you irrelevant very, very quickly.
Back to You for What to Write About
I know how hard it is for so many indie writers to market. Believe me, I know! Why the heck do you think I got a Masters in Communication to begin with? It was, in part, because I wanted to learn how to market my own creations.
Still, consider it this way.
You are a writer. Setting words to paper or pixels is in your DNA.
And you should also be an inventor and an experimenter.
So, throw some of that writing jello against the wall. Document it and measure it.
Who knows? Maybe some of it will even stick.
Happy writing!
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If my post on website content resonates with you, then please be sure to check out my other articles about how to create a writer website.
Independent authors if you need a sign to tell you to get on Facebook, consider this your sign. This is why.
For Liberty, Justice (?), … and Facebook for All
Facebook matters.
At least, that is what Mark Zuckerberg would want us all to think, wish and feel. I can understand that, a desire to make a website about as universal as possible.
Once the site was no longer exclusive to collegians, the inevitable business model was to universalize it. And the site, today (although that will probably change), has about the best chance to become a truly universal web experience as any site.
And yes, this is despite the advent and rise of AI. It is even despite the fact that a lot of the youngest generations (Generation Alpha and Generation Z, to be more precise) tend to disdain it. But even they cannot avoid Facebook. Their families and teachers are on it.
Universality
So, are you trying to sell your books and short stories (and perhaps cover designs) on the biggest social media site on the planet? Over 3 billion monthly active users are there, as of 2025. That is an awfully big flea market.
But, wait, not so fast. Is that number truly accurate? Absolutely not. After all (and for different reasons), my husband and I each have more than one account. Do you?
Even if you do not, I bet you have at least one friend who does, and probably lots more. In particular, if someone has ever been in Facebook jail, they have probably got at least one separate account.
And that is perfectly all right, and is absolutely permitted by the site (although they would like to change that). And they are trying to….
Real Names
Facebook also pushes for users to go with their correct names. Why? Because if you can hide behind a username, you might flame people more than if you cannot. But the anecdotal evidence certainly points to this not working. At all.
Real names also (in theory) help to eliminate duplicates. But in all honesty, how many guys named Mike Brown do you know? I can think of two I have known in my life and that figure is probably more like four or five.
Even middle names might not fix such a duplication issue. There are probably several men with the name of Michael David Brown in the world.
Also, though, another use for real names is better marketing. If you Anglicize your name, then an advertiser might miss that you are Hispanic, and incorrectly market to you.
However, keep in mind that second accounts are far more likely to be under a fake name.
Not So Fast On Those Real Names
We have all seen names which are not quite so perfectly right, though. How many of us have seen married women using a middle name of something like Was(whatever their maiden name was)? Hence Susan Davis might call herself Susan WasSmith Davis.
It is not a perfect solution, and you do not really have to do that, anyway. Still, there are plenty of people who do.
Others might place a nickname within the middle name field. Robert Bob Brady, or Richard Dick Daily. But again, they might not have to.
The more common nicknames are already going to come up in a search, even though, in both of these examples, the nickname starts with a letter different from the full name.
So, Elizabeth (Beth, Liz), William (Bill), Christopher (Chris, Topher {maybe}), and Amanda (Mandy) are all covered.
Stage Names on FB
Still others may try to use stage names, but Facebook would rather you just create a fan page or have someone do so for you. This is not just to nicely help you keep your personal and professional lives separate. It is also to market to your fan base better.
After all, even your most avid fans might not be too thrilled by a celebrity talking about the logistics of getting to a local hardware store.
Then again, I am pals with a number of former child stars from the 70s and 80s. They all seem to be using their real names. Only Pamlyn Ferdin seems to be keeping two separate pages/accounts.
But it is also likely that, say, the Livingstonbrothers are keeping separate accounts but those accounts are private and locked down tightly.
No Real Name, No, I Mean it, Facebook!
Then there are people who have damned good reasons for never using their real names, such as people escaping domestic violence. Facebook has gotten better and more sensitive when it comes to such needs.
And, FB may very well have to deal with this issue for anyone who becomes a victim of identity theft due to DOGE bull in a china shop-style actions. We shall see, although they have likely already dealt with identity theft in one way or another.
Why Facebook?
The main purpose of Facebook (in case you are just coming into the light after a few decades on a desert island), is to sell advertising. Its offshoot purpose is to connect people, of all stripes, for free. But it is those connections which sell the advertising.
There is a lot else to it, at least on a general basis. But it is still a valuable business tool for any Social Media Marketing Campaign.
But never forget: you are the product that Facebook is selling.
In fact, that is a good rule of thumb: if it is online and it is free, then guess what they are selling?*
The Best Parts of the Site for Indie Author Social Media Marketing
The main virtues of Facebook, when it comes to marketing your book(s), can currently be divided into three basic areas:
• Personal pages and peripheral connections to same † Company pages and groups and peripheral connections thereto, and, • Offsite connections back to the site
By “peripherals”, I mean all the extra stuff that goes along with the site experience, and not computer hardware peripherals.
In addition, FB Marketplace may or may not be a decent place for some people and companies to get some sales traction. But I would not count on it, if I were you. You will most likely find FB Marketplace is more for a used bike, not your books.
Other ideas include creating a Facebook page for you, the writer, or for your biggest series. Or maybe just for your biggest book. What about a group? That might be a good idea for your fans to gather.
You could use it to plan when you will be doing a signing or a reading. And then coordinate when you can meet and greet your bigger fans. Or use a group to gather together all of your beta readers.
The Concept of Universal-ish Reach at Facebook
Beyond just the sheer numbers, Facebook is extremely good at putting people together who are similar. You always get friend suggestions, yes? Those people tend to either have friends in common with you, or they have some other characteristic in common with you.
The part that is in common might be home town. Or it might be favorite sports team. Another possible connection could be where you work.
Now, face it: if you work in a huge Fortune 50 company, then you will have tons of coworkers. And the chances are beyond good that you will not know everyone. You may not even know everyone in your office building or even on your floor.
So sometimes when a friend request arises, it may feel like a mystery. Hence, look for a commonality. Sometimes commonality is religion, by the way.
So, if you are a Muslim person working in New York City for a huge company like Exxon, the list of people that FB tags as being somehow related to you is laughably long.
Clutches of People
But getting back to the people you do connect with. It is perfectly natural to hang out with the people you went to high school with, or who love the same sports team you do. You might feel more comfortable with fellow cancer survivors, horse people, etc.
Or you might want to set up a political echo chamber. Another thing you might want to do is spend time with people in the same profession as you, and do some networking (although LinkedIn really is better for that. Usually).
Your readers may want to get together online to discuss your book. And, spoiler alert! They might not want you to be a part of that discussion.
But no matter what, we people tend to group together. It is a natural tendency. We have been gathering together since before there was a Homo sapiens species.
Facebook just exploits that. Really, really well.
And if various antitrust cases go one way, they might not in the future. But we do not know that yet.
Takeaways
Your readers and potential readers probably have a lot in common. Helping gather them together can be a way to relate to them but also sell more books. FB can be a way to put together a street team, too.
Your readers may very well connect with each other, too. This is great news all around, and not just for sales.
After all, FB friendships are as real and powerful and intimate as those which originated offline. I know more than one couple who met and married after first meeting there. Don’t you?
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If my experiences with Facebook resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about the largest social network on the planet, by far.
Ever feel like you’re on an online treadmill? Well, you just might be falling victim to social media’s relentless pace.
Social Media Continues its Relentless Pace to Try to Make You Stay Put
It’s a relentless pace out there. And much like the holidays accelerate the end of the year, and we suddenly look up on January 7th or so and wonder exactly what the hell just happened, social media is continuing to not so much reap the whirlwind as to be the whirlwind.
But at the same time, there is an effort afoot to slow down and control that very same whirlwind.
Twitter’s Relentless Pace
Case in point: Twitter (er, X) has implemented changes, over the course of its history, that are designed to keep people on as long as possible.
They do this by embedding media more directly and making it so that you do not have to leave Twitter’s embrace in order to enjoy a clip or a photograph. Often, this means shortening a URL.
So far, so good. But shortened URLs can allow for more malware exploits. It’s like one step forward, a step back and another one to the side.
Facebook’s Relentless Pace
Facebook tests its layout pretty much constantly. In fact, it changes it every single day. They are the biggest A/B testing site on the planet, bar none! So, what is changing? And what isn’t?
The profile is going to continually become richer and provide more information. This may or may not be useful to users but it will certainly keep them on longer. At least, that will happen at the start, when it is a fresh, novel concept.
As time has passed, we have all seen how Facebook has attempted to become more things to more people. Is that good? Well, it can be.
But it also means that people have to take it more seriously. Somewhat ridiculously rigid rules on verbiage force people into typing silly stuff like ‘unalive’.
LinkedIn’s Relentless Pace
Long ago, LinkedIn tried adding Signal to make it easier to track even more of the social media avalanche – and, of course, to try to keep people on LinkedIn as long as possible.
They are also using status types of communications. And do not get me started on the avalanche of AI-written garbage that infests status updates and articles. Sounds a lot like Facebook, eh?
LinkedIn also pushes articles, and tries to get you to follow thought leadership. By itself, this is not a bad idea over all. Except anyone can, conceivably, become a thought leader. Kinda. Just post enough, and get a big enough follow.
This is not a bad gig if you can get it, but it can also be a dandy way to spread misinformation, sports fans.
The Common Thread
What these changes have had in common, other than, perhaps, novelty for the sake of novelty, is the desire to keep people on site as long as possible. Put some tar down, and have us all stick, at least for a while.
So while the internet spins ever faster, and social media sites attempt to keep up, their overall strategies seem to try to slow us all down. Will it work? Is it a foolish dream to think you can keep people around with such tricks, such slick bells and whistles?
The Lack of Meaningful Content
What disturbs me is that there is not a lot of content happening. Or at least not a lot of good content. Good content would, could, should make me want to hang around.
But instead of hiring writers to improve things, or rewarding good current content providers, each of the big three sites is instead pursuing a software solution. Al, folks.
But what is the sense in hanging around a site if the content is not compelling? Or are we, instead, merely getting the sites that we, perhaps, deserve?
Hence here is what happens if my Facebook friends list is dominated by people I went to High School with over forty years ago. Their status updates and my wall have a lot of news of their birthdays, their children (and grandchildren these days), and their careers.
But why would we ever expect anything else?
And if I instead tip my list in a different direction, and it is suddenly dominated by the people I work with or diet with or do artwork with, the news is going to be different.
In particular, politically, you can see very different versions of each site, depending on your bubble. After all, a lot of us prefer to see people we like and agree with. … and that’s how we get ideological bubbles.
Comparison to Reality TV
One thing about Reality TV is that it is anything but real if it is at all successful. Because people just, generally, do not lead terribly interesting lives.
Yes, you too, gentle reader. We pick up the dry cleaning. Or we bicker over the remote. We forget to buy sausages and make do with hot dogs. And around and around and around we go.
And all three of these really big social media sites, when we are not following celebrities and businesses, are really just a big agglomeration of Post-It Notes whereby we tell each other to grab milk on the way home.
For “Reality” to be compelling at all, it has got to be unreal, and have a scripted. It must become this fight or that rose ceremony or this other weird pancake-making challenge.
The bigger, older three older social media sites, when you strip away the celebrities and the companies, can be a boatload of errands or a standard-form holiday letter. You know the kind, where you learn little Suzie has taken up the clarinet. Over and over ad infinitum.
No wonder we need software solutions to keep us there. The relentless pace continues.
Whither TikTok and the Rest?
TikTok shackles you to it by way of its algorithm (sound familiar)? Like one video and you get sucked into the next one, and the next, and then the next one after that. The videos are short, so it does not feel like a relentless pace.
Until you look up and realize that four hours have gone by.
It is a lot like eating a bag of potato chips. You stick your hand in, grab a few or a big handful, and go to town. It does not feel like a lot, until suddenly the bag is empty and you are thirsty from all the salt.
In the world of dieting, the conventional wisdom is to portion out your chips. Fill a smaller bag and put a clip on the bigger one, and stick it back in the cabinet. In short, have some discipline and a smidgen of self-control.
With TikTok or anything else, unless we put a timer on our sessions or have external pressures getting us off the virtual hamster wheel, our lives pass us by as we succumb to the relentless pace.
Dang, I am a ray of sunshine sometimes, eh?
Want More About Social Media?
If my experiences with non-platform-specific social media resonate with you, then check out my other articles about navigating our social media obsessed world.
Whether paid or volunteer, the life of a community manager tends to be fairly similar. Community management can be a piece of social media marketing and management, but it does not, strictly, have to be.
Most of a Community Manager’s time divides into three different modes:
1. Discussions 2. Nurturing and 3. Disciplining AKA Trust and Safety
Discussions
The discussion piece involves creating new discussions and shepherding them along. Users will not return, day after day, without new content. While the users are, ultimately, responsible for the content in a community, the Community Manager should create new content as well.
This is not always topics as it can also encompass informing users about changes in the site blog (if any) and even a Facebook fan page (if it exists).
This discussion piece will evolve as the community evolves. In a community of fewer than one thousand users, content from the Community Manager might be the only new content for weeks! Which…can sometimes be problematic.
As such, it can loom very, very large. But it can also have a much stronger calming effect if other content is snarky.
As the community grows, regular Community Manager contributions should diminish. But there should still be some involvement. Otherwise members may feel the Community Manager is hanging back a bit too much.
It is a community, and that means that the users want to know the Manager(s). An easy and somewhat safe way to do this is by creating discussions.
On Topic/Off Topic
And the discussions need not always stay on topic! Lively discussions can be almost spun from whole cloth if the Manager can get the people talking. An automotive community might thrill to talking about cooking.
A cooking community might engage in an animated discussion about the Olympics. And a sports community could very well bring its passion to a topic like politics.
In particular, if the community is single subject-based (e. g. about, say, Coca-Cola), going off-topic should probably at least peripherally relate to the overall subject.
Hence Coke could branch out into cooking and, from there, into family relationships. Or into health and fitness.
But a push to discussing politics may not work unless it stems from a major recent news item or if there is precedent. And, if you get started with politics, it is maddeningly hard to put that genie back in the bottle.
Finally, if a member is ill, or has passed on, getting married or having a child, an off-topic discussion can spring naturally and effortlessly. This happens regardless of the community’s main subject matter.
Corporate management may not love off-topic discussions. But they keep a community together, and they do help to keep it viable.
Nurturing
The nurturing piece relates to the discussion aspect. However, it tends to encompass responding to and supporting good discussions on the site.
This is especially helpful if the Community Manager identifies top users who are good at making topics who the community likes.
And then nurtures them to promote their discussions over more inferior ones.
Use nurturing to encourage newbies. And use it to encourage members who might become superstar users if they only had a little more self-confidence. Give them a track record of support and positive reinforcement.
But keep in mind that welcoming people can get old rather quickly. But there is nothing wrong with a form welcome, whether it is an email or a private message or even a popup. Why not explain where to go to contact a Moderator? Or where to look and even where to report if the site is down?
Another use for a welcoming message can be to link to the Terms of Service and any other rules the community must abide by.
The Life of a Community Manager and Relationships
Nurturing can also take the shape of developing relationships with members. The Community Manager does not have to be friends with everyone, even if the site is very small. However, they should get to know the users.
Private messages (if available), writing on a wall or the like can do this.
Furthermore, the Community Manager can use private messages, etc. to head off potential problems at the pass.
Headstrong members might be wonderful when they write on topics not related to their overarching passion. Or they might respond to a tactful request to tone things down a bit. Or a lot.
The Community Manager can encourage those members to take part in those other discussions. The manager can reach out to other community members. Friendship can help to minimize flaming.
After all, it is a lot easier to go ballistic on someone if they are just faceless to you. But with your friend Joe, it is a rather different story.
Disciplining AKA Trust and Safety
And this leads me to the disciplining part. It is often the first thing that people think of when they think of community management. That includes things like pulling spam.
It also includes giving users timeouts or even outright suspending them when their activities run against a site’s Terms of Service.
Trust and Safety can also mean checking content to be sure that it fits community standards. Those can be everything from avoiding porn to getting rid of health misinformation.
The Facebook Trust and Safety team, for example, once had the unenviable responsibility to weed through violent and disturbing imagery. Nowadays, that is a task done by AI.
And it also includes shunning and ignoring. These can be extremely powerful. The Community Manager can help to mobilize other users.
But the Community Manager Must Do It Right
An email or private message campaign is almost always a very poor idea. Rather, the Manager must lead by example. Do not take the bait when challenged, unless it is absolutely necessary. But that is rare.
It is the Community Manager’s call when to take it, particularly if personal insults fly.
Often the best tactics include: (a) get offline and cool off. And (b) ask another Community Manager or Moderator to determine if it warrants disciplinary action. And then enforce that if it does.
One thing a Manager should never forget: there is far more to the community than just the people posting. There is often a far larger audience of lurkers, both registered and unregistered.
They are watching events unfold but rarely comment. By leading by example, the Community Manager can influence not only active posters but also the community at large.
Customer Service is Key in the Life of a Community Manager, Even if the Forums are Free, with no Real Customers
During a typical day, new members register. Also, members lose their passwords, or start and respond to topics. Furthermore, they answer older topics. People engage in private communications (if permitted on the site).
Members may disagree on something and they may do so vehemently. The site may get spam. Or someone might add violent and disturbing imagery.
The Community Manager can become involved as a content creator if content creation lags or goes too far off subject. He or she should discipline difficult members if necessary.
However, generally, a Community Manager’s main task, both daily and over the life of the online community, should be to carefully nurture and shape relationships.
Want More About Community Management?
If my experiences with community management resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about how online communities work, and how to best make them work for you and your organization.
Here are some posts about my years in community management, and what I have learned.
We have all heard of what an elevator pitch is. It seems like it is the kind of stuff for some overly eager new sales associates looking to make an impression on the big boss between floors.
But there is more to it than that.
Someone has just turned to you and asked, “You’re a writer. What is your book about?”
Don’t just stand there! You have got to be ready.
Some Ideas for Your Verbal Elevator Pitch
Try something like this on for size.
Imagine if animals started talking, and they told you what to do in a topsy-turvy world.
My book is about Alice; she’s a young girl, a little bored on a sunny afternoon, when she spots a white rabbit. The odd thing about this rabbit is, he’s wearing clothes and talking. She follows him down a rabbit hole, but then she can’t get out.
That is less than seventy words, and the person asking has the basic plot, the name of the main character, and a reason to want to know more.
Also, you do not give away any spoilers with this pitch. Is that important? You had better believe it is.
Your Pitch in Writing
Yes, you need one of these, too. But a written elevator pitch is going to be a little different.
Even if readers know you for writing sweeping, epic sagas, you should still write some short stories. They can be in your universe, or not, although it might help with both marketing and your own personal creativity if they can fit somewhere within your universe.
They do not even necessarily have to be sent out for publication, but they could be good for anthologies. Do not knock that. This is exactly how a lot of people get their starts.
In fact, if you are having trouble breaking in, or want to impress a publisher, try submitting to anthologies. You can get a publication credit and impress the publisher of the anthology. And maybe also impress other publishers.
That is a win-win right there.
Point them there, if someone wants to read a sampling of your work. Do not make them commit to a 100,000 word novel.
Unless, of course, you really feel like alienating a potential customer.
In all seriousness, never, ever do something like that.
How Do You End Both Types of Elevator Pitches?
Why, with a call to action, of course! Why, here’s one right now.
On Balance
Finally, try to have some fun with it. Is your main character funny?
What about quoting one of her best zingers, assuming you do not need to explain the joke (that is key)?
Now that is an off-beat idea for a pitch.
And it just might be memorable enough to snag you a customer.
Offsite sharing is a bit like old-fashioned door to door marketing. But it has a modern twist and modern metrics. Both are ideal for the independent writer of today.
… And Facebook for All — Offsite Sharing
Offsite sharing is a fascinating concept. Perhaps the most compelling feature of Facebook consists of the availability of the Like button. And it is in so many places that there are likely many end users who can scarcely recall a time when it did not yet exist.
The Like Button and Offsite Sharing
Because the offsite Like Button dovetails beautifully with its presence on the site itself, i.e.,
“The Like button lets a user share your content with friends on Facebook. When the user clicks the Like button on your site, a story appears in the user’s friends’ News Feed with a link back to your website.”
Drag and Drop
Furthermore, the site tries to make it easy for even novice programmers (and people who can really only do drag and drop) to place a Like Button on their own sites for offsite sharing.
The premise is irresistible. You add the Like Button, people like your own site, and that information transmits back to Facebook and to the likers’ friend lists.
In addition, their friends, who may not have know about you at all, suddenly do, and the offsite sharing spreads even more. They, hopefully, check you out, like you, and the process repeats on and on, ad infinitum, or at least in theory.
And with enough intersecting friends with enough non-intersecting additional friendships, a few likes could translate into dozens, if not hundreds, or even thousands, of new people who know about you.
If those start to translate into sales, then you are golden.
Engagement and Reach
However, engagement and reach are both going down. And Facebook actually has the gall to try to get people to pay for what it does. Quelle horreur!
But, seriously folks, how do you think Facebook pays its bills? They do it with advertising. If users will not be charged (and Facebook would be mighty foolish to start charging all of those free sources of detailed consumer data), then advertisers will be.
And of course that already happens.
What gets a lot of people’s undershorts knotted is that the freebie advertising is harder and harder to implement. Facebook seems to push everyone with a page to start buying likes to get more offsite sharing.
Thumb on the Scale?
Whoa, Nelly! Because that would be kind of unethical, if the site was deliberately putting a thumb on an imaginary scale and making it harder for indie authors and others to reach their fans without paying for reach and engagement.
So, are they doing that?
While the jury is still out (after years!), I am still inclined to say no. After all, the site grows by leaps and bounds on a second by second basis. And so engagement and reach dilute without Facebook having to do a damned thing.
Finally, does the site benefit from making it harder for page and group administrators to connect for free? Absolutely. But do they have to work in order to create this condition?
Probably not (or at least, not much). Life does it for them.
Offsite Sharing: Takeaways for Indie Writers
Beyond issues with Russian interference and how the Facebook algorithm can sometimes tamp down third parties, offsite sharing can work pretty well there.
Political and other paid ads, though, are another story. They are a reminder that, every year, Facebook becomes more and more of a pay to play platform.
Hence if you want to share something from off the site, or you want to sell from your site by sharing to FB, then your shared content might be lost amidst the paid stuff.
You may simply have to attribute it to life in the big Facebook city, and start paying for some ads. So be it.
Want More About Facebook?
If my experiences with Facebook resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about the largest social network on the planet, by far.
Hype? Hope? Now, this subject has probably been done to death but, here I will do it all over again. Perhaps (hopefully!) my perspective will be fresh and/or of some value.
First of all, this post is inspired by The ABA Journal’s take on Social Media. As in the online magazine for lawyers. And they went on about Social Media, much like I have and others have, as well.
Hype Feeds Itself
And I can’t help feeling that that, in and of itself, is feeding the ole hype machine. Is Social Media hyped? Well, let’s put out an article about just that, and we’ll rev up the hype machine and get the word out and and and …. Suddenly, there’s hype about the hype.
Ai chihuahua.
However, there is, perhaps less of a hype issue than there is one of unrealistic expectations. I suspect that most people, if they give Social Media more than a passing glance (and, in particular, if they need to touch on it for business), take one look at it and think: free. Ooh, goody!
This marvelous free thing will supplement (and perhaps eventually supplant) all of the things I have to actually pay good money for! My wealth will increase, in an incredible and exponential manner, because I can put my advertising and marketing dollars elsewhere, outside of traditional (read: expensive) channels, and instead shove it all into some investment that catches my eye. Llama ranching, perhaps.
Traditional vs. Social Media Marketing
Okay. Let’s back up. The real thing is, Social Media marketing isn’t really an apples to apples comparison with traditional marketing. It’s more like holding a town hall meeting and seeing what people have to say about your product. Or like doing community outreach (e. g. having your company send people to work at a soup kitchen or build a house).
It’s like a million networking events. In short, it’s that dreaded, over-used term: relationship building.
And creating relationships is hard. And messy. Plus it’s not necessarily terribly free, at all.
Hype and A Sense of Entitlement
Because I have seen, in many instances, when software on a website changes. And in particular with community forums, people tend to freak out. They have a mislaid proprietary interest in a whole lotta sameness. Or they want the site to be the same from day to day, because that’s familiar to them.
Hence moving the post button from the left to the right, or changing its color, is akin to moving their cheese. So it tears at them.
But, ultimately, they figure it out. And they give it a chance and come back, and pretty soon, so far as they’re concerned things have always been the new way, and were never the old way. Because for them, it’s not about the tools; it’s about the people.
And the same thing should be true for you – and that should knock the hype right out, and for good. It’s not about the tools. It’s not about Twitter, or Facebook, or TikTok, or Groupon, or Yelp, or AirBnB, or MySpace (back in the day), or LinkedIn or StumbleUpon or Snapchat or a billion others. Instead, it’s about the people.
Want More About Social Media?
If my experiences with non-platform-specific social media resonate with you, then check out my other articles about navigating our social media obsessed world.
There is more to the engaging of a cover artist part of working as an independent writer than just selecting an image or giving them an idea of what you want. Working with a cover artist involves some paperwork. Welcome to the business side of writing.
Because—surprise!—guess what you suddenly are now?
You’re a small business owner.
Working With a Cover Artist Should Mean a Contract
A lot of us get nervous talking about contracts and copyright and that is completely understandable.
They seem difficult, complex, fraught with meaning, and all-too final. It feels like a prenuptial agreement sometimes – don’t you want to have faith that everything will work out all right?
Eh, not so fast.
This is not your great love (even if the cover artist is a friend or a relative). Instead, this is about rights. Your rights and the rights which belong to the visual artist.
The question is: who owns what? Without getting into the minutiae of copyright law just yet, this site offers not only a decent basic breakdown of the law in the United States, but also a good basic contract for a free download.
Contracts are also extremely helpful because they are, in part, a set of instructions. The artist produces the work as of X date, you pay Y amount of dollars as a down payment, etc. So, you get the idea, yes?
So, Are We There Yet?
Are you all set now, and just have to fill in the blanks and you’re good to go?
Not exactly.
Read over the agreement. If any of it does not make sense to you, talk to a lawyer! Even those of us not specially trained in copyright or contracts law can generally dope out an agreement.
Further, in the US, you have got to have competence in Contracts Law in order to pass the Bar examination. It’s a basic part of the Multistate Exam.
Hence even your friend the real estate lawyer should be able to answer your basic contract questions. Oh, and please pay for their time.
One Quick Tip
For the part which is about City, County, and State, you want to write in your own city or town and state, and county or parish. Why?
Because if a lawsuit comes down, you will be a far happier person if you get to go to the courthouse in your county, instead of one potentially on the other side of the country.
It will be far less expensive, and you will be far more likely to exert your rights if you feel they have been violated.
But when it’s a dispute for $100 and it costs $200 each way to fly to where the lawsuit is happening, you’ll do a cost-benefit analysis and not assert your rights. At least, that’s what the vast, vast majority of people would and will do.
Second Quick Tip
Introduce the idea of a contract before the cover artist does anything. Make it clear you won’t engage them to do the work if the agreement is not signed, but also give them an opportunity to look it over and make changes to it (e. g. they might agree to a different-sized format, etc.).
Note: this agreement is rather artist-centric. They probably won’t have much of a problem with it. But it’s not outside the realm of possibility.
Be patient and pleasant like you would be with anyone. This is not you forcing the artist to do anything. But do insist on a signed agreement.
Anyone who is insulted by your insistence on signing an agreement is never, ever someone who you would want to work with. Ever.
Changes
You might want to make changes to a design. You can spell those out in the contract. Should the artist charge you for any changes? They might. So, make sure all of that is in writing. See why it’s a good idea to know pretty much what you want before you start?
It could come in handy for, say, an agreement that the first three changes are free.
Working With a Cover Artist Means Payments
Don’t pay it all up front, and don’t agree to do so. If you are absolutely, flat-out broke, you should still be able to pay something, even if the artist hand waves and doesn’t want anything for their work.
Be good to your conscience and at least ask if you can make a small donation to one of their three favorite charities.
Otherwise, payments should be as specified in the agreement. Are they in dollars, Euros, bitcoin, or something else? Do you pay with a check, a credit card, PayPal, or something else? When is the first payment due? What percentage of the total is due at the time? What’s the mechanism for getting a refund if things don’t work out?
If this sounds an awful lot like engaging, say, a roofer for your home, then ding ding ding! You’ve got it. You are, in essence, working with a service contractor.
Recommendations
Do you absolutely love your cover? Or do you dislike it but still think the artist is great (in other words, sometimes our visions can clash)? Then find out where and how to recommend them, whether it’s a recommendation on LinkedIn or a review on Yelp. And be sure to tell your writer friends, too!
Be good to your cover artist, and they will reward you many times over.
Want More About Creating, Commissioning, and Deciding on Book Covers?
If my experiences with book covers resonate with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about getting the best cover for your book. Because, like it or not, we all use them to judge books.
They are a fellow creative soul. But they express their artistry in a far different way from how you and I do.
It is like any business relationship, or it should be. Respect your cover artist, and they will help you. Don’t, and beware!
Get an Idea of What You Want Before You Start
So the last thing a cover artist wants to hear is, “Surprise me!” When they ask you how you envision your cover, you need to have an idea. One of the best ways to get such ideas is to browse Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and even your local bookstore.
Look at the typical covers in your genre. Are they natural-looking? Industrial? Hand-drawn?
What are the predominant colors? Black and white? Green? Pink? Red? Something else? So are they angular, or are the shapes softer and more muted?
Consider the fonts as well. Science fiction tends to have sans serif fonts. Romances tend to have serifs and script display fonts.
Also, are there people on the covers of the books in your genre? Is it two people holding each other, or just someone’s impressively chiseled abs?
Use Care!
Now we have all heard or read the expression, don’t judge a book by its cover.
Except that it’s absolutely untrue. We do judge books by their covers. All. The. Time.
Do Your Cover Artist a Favor and Do Some Research
If the covers in your genre’s section of the bookstore are all orange, should your cover be orange, too? It’s hard to say. You want it to look like it belongs in that section, right? But you also want it to stand out.
I would say, if you are a new author and you are predominantly selling online, you need to consider how your work is going to look when it’s shown with others in the genre.
Perform an Amazon or Barnes & Noble search for your genre, and for any keywords related to your plot. If your book is a children’s work about a super-ocelot named Clive (please don’t steal this work. I suddenly have a wicked plot bunny ping-ponging around my head), then you could search under children’s works and then under superheroes or animal stories, etc.
Do some in depth research because your cover is a valuable piece of your marketing.
It might even be helpful to take a screenshot, print it and then consider images which would fit in and images which would stand out.
Your Name
So, your name is probably not going to be recognizable to most people. While it is an important part of the cover, it might be better for the artist to make the title stand out more.
Unless you are very famous already, it is highly likely that the cover will have the title of your book at the top and your name at the bottom.
Cover Artist Contracts!
Oh, and another thing – be sure to have a written agreement with this person. Even something relatively informal, signed by both of you, is better than nothing. But why? Because you’re exchanging money for labor. And that means, sometimes, people sue.
This is the very essence of the business side of writing. So, it’s time to pull out all the stops and be a professional about such things.
Want More About Creating, Commissioning, and Deciding on Book Covers?
If my experiences with book covers resonate with you, then check out my other articles about getting the best cover for your book. Because, like it or not, we all use them to judge books..
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