We are all familiar with slasher movies where the killer never really dies. We know this because the sequel has already been budgeted before this installment hit the theater. What about your dead books though?
The image included with this post is a picture of “Zinc It! Interfacing Third Party Libraries with Cross Platform GUI’S“. It is the very first book ever published listing me as the author. Granted I was writing for a tiny niche market and shortly after the book was out a major version change happened with the library, but still, it was my first book. Within about a year the Zinc product was purchased by another company to bundled with their embedded RTOS and the multi-OS versions went away. I held onto a few boxes of these books because it cost nothing to store them, but, basically, assumed a dead market.
A few years ago I received an email from a gentleman asking what I still had. The version of Zinc which this book was written about had just been OpenSource and he was trying to get it to compile with current compilers as well as create a Linux port. We exchanged a few emails, then lost touch. I’ll be damned if he didn’t succeed.
Recently (May 2018) I had someone from Belgium reaching out to me about my books from this era. They were looking to read up on cross platform development both from the historic method and the current Qt methods. I ended up having to create a product page so he could purchase one copy.
There is a limited supply of these books. Once they sell out I have no real plans of doing anything to make more. So much of what was available then has disappeared. I did actually find Patrick’s resume on-line. We spoke on the phone a time or two back then. Never met though.
I didn’t write this to brag my fellow authors. Odds are I went to all of the effort of setting up that product and page to sell one book at a loss. I can always hope that however many boxes I have left suddenly find paying homes and that a groundswell of interest in OpenZinc generates 5000 pre-orders for a completely new book covering the OpenSource version on Linux, but, we both know the odds of that happening.
I’m taking the time to write this today to tell you that you don’t get to choose which of your “dead” titles comes back to life. You simply have to do the best job and get multiple rounds of professional editing. The topic you wrote about may not have been popular at the time or your marketing plan may simply have sucked or any of a hundred other reasons, but, one day, if you right enough books, one of your “dead” titles will come back to live.
When you introduce a shiny new title and have a long list of previous titles, there is generally an up-tick in the sale of those older titles. We call this “wagging the long tail.” It’s one of the many reasons to push for each new title to have more sales than the last. When your publication list is 20+ deep you can really whip that tail then.
I don’t have a phrase for a title which rises from the ashes and becomes relevant. It would definitely have to be a different phrase for a title such as this, which existed only in print. Most of you don’t even bother with print. If you do you lose your ass on each copy using some POD service. Most of you are hoping to hit the Amazon lottery. Just hurled an electronic file up there and hoped for a million bucks. Your title will never be “out of print” . . . or will it?
How many of you took the time to set your publishing venture up as a business? How many of you put in place a business plan of succession? Didn’t any of you read up on copyright?
How long does a copyright last?
The term of copyright for a particular work depends on several factors, including whether it has been published, and, if so, the date of first publication. As a general rule, for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years. For an anonymous work, a pseudonymous work, or a work made for hire, the copyright endures for a term of 95 years from the year of its first publication or a term of 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever expires first. For works first published prior to 1978, the term will vary depending on several factors. To determine the length of copyright protection for a particular work, consult chapter 3 of the Copyright Act (title 17 of the United States Code).More information on the term of copyright can be found in Circular 15a, Duration of Copyright, and Circular 1, Copyright Basics.
Your works need to be held in some kind of legal business entity which can both defend your copyright and receive royalties while fulfilling any financial obligations. How many of you set your Amazon/Smashwords/insert-name-here account to be owned by a business? How many of you have a complete and up-to-date list of all the accounts with passwords and security questions stored in a safe place your successor knows about?
At some point little froggy, you will croak your last. These titles will continue to exist and Amazon will happily collect the money. If you wrote well and about things which might one day matter, one of your dead titles could take off.
I don’t remember the title. I don’t even remember if it was Merv Griffin or Mike Douglas which was on when I was a little kid. I just remember there was an author being interviewed by one of them. He was telling this story about his wife calling him frantic on the phone that his royalty check had arrived and it was for something like $650,000. He thought that his wife’s eye sight went bad and told her to put it to the side, he would look at it when he got back to town. His normal royalty check for that title was $650 or less.
Sure enough, it was $650,000. This book, written long before Nixon got elected and forgotten about by most, just happened to parallel or tie into Watergate. His work had been fiction but it had some eerily similar path and suddenly everybody wanted to read it so they could predict what would be on tomorrow night’s news. The publisher was all to happy to print as many copies as consumers would buy and royalty checks started getting zeros added.
You know, 70 years is a long time. If someone stole your book and made a movie out of it, wouldn’t you want your grandchildren to both get some money and have the right to sue for it? The simple truth is that most authors works are there for the taking once they die. That 70 year thing the copyright law says exists tends to mean nothing because you didn’t set up a business entity with a plan of succession. Technically they broke the law, but you didn’t give anyone the right to sue, so, they robbed you blind.
Eventually your copyright will expire.
You know, I’ve never liked that phrase. It causes immense confusion. I am not a lawyer, but here is how a mere mortal such as myself explains this.
A copyright never expires. It transfers ownership and is renewed by an entity named Public Domain. The copyright is once again in effect and held by an entity which can neither die nor sue anyone.
At some point one of your works may well leap to life. Be sure you have everything in place so your descendants can benefit from it.
