Month: October 2013

Time to Vote!

Who will it be? It’s time for IU readers to choose the next flash fiction star.

Check out this week’s entries here. Vote for your fave then use those share buttons at the bottom of the post to spread the word.

Remember, all our winners will be included in the next edition of the IU Flash Fiction Anthology.

Support your fellow writers and participate in this week’s voting, then spread the word, bang the drums, and share the link to let everyone know the vote is on.

Polls close tomorrow at 5 PM.

 

Whose flash fiction entry was your favorite this week?

  • Kathy Steinemann (43%, 34 Votes)
  • Yvonne Hertzberger (21%, 17 Votes)
  • Kat Cantwell (15%, 12 Votes)
  • Jacqueline Hopkins (11%, 9 Votes)
  • ALKaplan (5%, 4 Votes)
  • Lois Browne (4%, 3 Votes)
  • Helen Haught Fanick (1%, 1 Votes)

Total Voters: 80

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NOTE: Entrants whose submissions exceed the 250 word limit are eliminated from the poll.

Poor Misunderstood Sturgeon and BigAl’s Rebuttal

I’ve never been a big science fiction reader, so the name Theodore Sturgeon meant nothing to me. But he’s been inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, so I guess as an author he might be a big deal. Regardless of whether you’re familiar with his books, you’ve probably heard or read his words.

Often paraphrased as “90% of everything is crap,” Sturgeon’s Revelation (sometimes called Sturgeon’s Law) is one you’ll see bandied about in various contexts. In my experience the most common situation will be coming from the mouth of an elitist of some kind, one of those people who look down on everyone and everything. Needless to say, I’ve read or heard this many times in reference to indie publishing  from both sides of the discussion. Continue reading “Poor Misunderstood Sturgeon and BigAl’s Rebuttal”

Book Blogger Spotlight: All That’s Written

If you don’t already know her, meet Lucy Pireel. She is the force behind the book blog, All That’s Written. Lucy is also an author and started her blog to give some unknown authors a place to showcase themselves and their work. She says when she reads a book she likes, or comes across an author who has great ideas, she wants to help spread the word.

Lucy sees the blog as serving a dual purpose: “As an author myself I would hope that my paying it forward helps me when I release a book into the world, because readers know where to find my blog by now.” But there is another, secret reason behind her blog. Lucy says, “But to be honest I wanted to get to know these authors. (Hey, I’m only human, with a most human flaw, I’m curious about what makes people tick: i.e. nosy bugger.) And why not share what I found out about them with the world on a blog?” Continue reading “Book Blogger Spotlight: All That’s Written”

Licensing Music for Book Trailers

Lord Russ and the Aloha SteamtrainYou just turned on the radio and heard the PERFECT song for your book trailer. Should you:

A) Stalk Beyoncé after a concert and ask her for permission to use it;

B) Use it without permission, because no one will find out until your book becomes a bestseller, at which point Beyoncé should be thanking you; or

C) Sing it yourself so you don’t have to worry about licensing — and because your mom says you’re as good as Beyoncé, anyway.

The correct answer is none of the above. At least in the United States, if you are going to link music to video, you need synchronization licenses both from the record label that owns rights to the recording AND from the songwriter(s)/publishing company(ies) that own rights to the music and lyrics. Even if you perform it yourself and don’t need the sound recording, you still need the sync license from the latter because the composition is copyrighted. BMI.com provides a good summary of the different types of music copyrights at http://www.bmi.com/licensing/entry/types_of_copyrights. Continue reading “Licensing Music for Book Trailers”