CNN reporters seem to think I lost my copyright...

badducky · Apr 6, 2009

CNN seems to think I handed over my copyright when I published my novel with a major house...

"Anyone can publish, that's the beauty of it," said Gail Jordan, Director of Public Relations at Lulu. "Nobody's going to say, 'We don't like your cover. Chapter 10 should be Chapter 6.' "

This means that the author retains the copyright to his or her book and is responsible for almost everything, from the costs for printing to, if they choose, marketing the book.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/06/print.on.demand.publishing/index.html?iref=t2test_techmon

I'm no editor for a major worldwide news organization, but this little combination of paragraphs not only is wrong about what happens when you publish a novel with a major house, but also makes not one iota of sense.

badducky · Apr 6, 2009

Honestly, I didn't even know where to begin picking apart the bad information, bad advice, and all-around badness of this article on CNN.com.

I'm flabbergasted by the s***-storm of bad.

Cathy C · Apr 6, 2009

Unfortunately, there's no comment ability on that particular article. I looked, because I noticed the same thing.

M.R.J. Le Blanc · Apr 6, 2009

badducky · Apr 6, 2009

Can't we find a way to get Bud Webster or Mike Resnick from the SFWA Bulletin to write an article or two about self-publishing for those poor, misguided, kool-aid drinking journalists?

I bet they'd actually give CNN their money's worth factually, stylistically, and morally.

Cyia · Apr 6, 2009

"With this economy, there are people who really need to make money and people with more time on their hands," Jordan said. "We've been seeing a surge since November in people publishing."

This is the part that made me :Jaw:

People need money... so they go with a POD publisher. Right. That's some sound logic right there.

Cyia · Apr 6, 2009

Cathy C said:
Unfortunately, there's no comment ability on that particular article. I looked, because I noticed the same thing.

There's a comment option below the article, but CNN censors the comments before they allow them to show on their site.

MaryMumsy · Apr 6, 2009

That's just...I don't know what that is. :rant:

MM

badducky · Apr 6, 2009

It's as if a lazy intern with limited grammatical skills just rephrased marketing materials from iUniverse's brand manager, without having any oversight from an actual editor.

Amazing.

Hildegarde · Apr 6, 2009

badducky said:
It's as if a lazy intern with limited grammatical skills just rephrased marketing materials from iUniverse's brand manager, without having any oversight from an actual editor.

Amazing.

Which has been the problem with a lot of so-called "journalism" the past few years. Why bother researching or writing a story when you can just read off some company's press release?

colealpaugh · Apr 6, 2009

Just to add, badducky, as a longtime journalist, the slow death of real journalism has been a process dating back to the early '80s.

Here's a typical question I've heard a thousand times from "reporters" while beginning an interview: "I don't know anything about your [insert business/problem], so what questions should I ask you?"

Reading the CNN article didn't offer a single surprise.

colealpaugh · Apr 6, 2009

Hildegarde said:
Which has been the problem with a lot of so-called "journalism" the past few years. Why bother researching or writing a story when you can just read off some company's press release?

Ding, ding, ding...

Exactly.

blacbird · Apr 6, 2009

colealpaugh said:
Just to add, badducky, as a longtime journalist, the slow death of real journalism has been a process dating back to the early '80s.

I'd place it a little earlier, late 1970s, post-Watergate. I, too, was a reporter, from the late 1960s through 1975 (when I got smart and went back to school in a completely unrelated field). The rise of "happy news" in the broadcast media, especially, derives from right around when I left the arena. "News" became a product instead of a service, and the telegenic qualities of every reporter began to trump any other factors, including plain ol' intellligence. At the local level, in particular, broadcast "journalism" became a playground for dolts and ditzes.

It soon spilled over into the written media, with the rise of USA Today, People Magazine and all the clones thereof. Content became subsumed to Style. Bright spots remain, but they are few and scarce.

caw

WendyNYC · Apr 6, 2009

Hildegarde said:
Which has been the problem with a lot of so-called "journalism" the past few years. Why bother researching or writing a story when you can just read off some company's press release?

Or maybe someone tweeted it, so it must be true.

colealpaugh · Apr 6, 2009

blacbird said:
I'd place it a little earlier, late 1970s, post-Watergate. I, too, was a reporter, from the late 1960s through 1975 (when I got smart and went back to school in a completely unrelated field).

Fair enough...I only date back to early '80s. I guess I always saw the Falklands coverage as the beginning of the end.

Magazine headline: "[FONT=Arial,Verdana]STICK IT UP YOUR JUNTA!"

I love the survey saying most college kids relied on The Daily Show for their news. Jon Stewart used to be one of the barkeeps at my favorite club...
[/FONT]

Hildegarde · Apr 6, 2009

colealpaugh said:
Fair enough...I only date back to early '80s. I guess I always saw the Falklands coverage as the beginning of the end.

Magazine headline: "[FONT=Arial,Verdana]STICK IT UP YOUR JUNTA!"

[FONT=Arial,Verdana]I love the survey saying most college kids relied on The Daily Show for their news. Jon Stewart used to be one of the barkeeps at my favorite club...[/FONT]
[/FONT]

College kids?? Hah! A combo of the Daily Show and BBC are my stand-bys for daily televised coverage and I've been out of college for (cough, mumble). At least his staff can think back further than yesterday AND they know how to research a story.

badducky · Apr 6, 2009

I bet Jon Stewart was a hellaciously awesome bartender. I'd go to his bar.

The sheer volume of freelance awesome on this website is ginormous. Can anyone pitch a comeuppance to CNN or Slate.com or something about how wrong wrong wrong this article is, and how it is a symptom of a larger ill in journalism?

Do you think it could make it on The Daily Show or The Colbert Report?

Because about every third or fourth line there's something that boggles the mind with the lack of research and/or reality of self-publishing.

Was it Reagan who deregulated the news media from government mandated standards of balance and funding? It's impossible to Google anything with "Reagan' 'Deregulation' and 'News' these days without a sea of current events...

colealpaugh · Apr 6, 2009

badducky said:
I bet Jon Stewart was a hellaciously awesome bartender. I'd go to his bar.

City Gardens is, sadly, long out of business. I met two of my wives there...one is really, really great.

mamaesme · Apr 6, 2009

colealpaugh said:
[FONT=Arial,Verdana]
I love the survey saying most college kids relied on The Daily Show for their news.
[/FONT]

I read the Wall Street Journal.... Thanks Business class, you've made me a nerd.

Though my reaction to the article was. "OMG! MY EYES! THEY BURN!"

Though POD's have been getting a lot of press lately, which is rather frightening. AuthorSource bought out a traditional publisher in Canada (from the WSJ).

Matera the Mad · Apr 6, 2009

Kistovenu!

I refuse to translate that, lest I burn eyeballs.

badducky · Apr 6, 2009

You know who would be an excellent guest on either the Report or TDS?

Victoria Strauss and/or A C Crispin.

Who wants to add this to their blog tomorrow and see if we can't get SFWA's Writer Beware a spot on a news show that actually matters?

I mean, if Colbert can do a web campaign to name a space part after himself, why can't we do a web campaign to pick his next guest(s)?

We're talking about a multi-million dollar industry of fraud perpetrated on mentally unstable, elderly, and otherwise plain clueless folk who are being fed waves of misinformation, just like this CNN Article that's already the "most-e-mailed" last I checked of all today's articles.

Cathy C · Apr 7, 2009

Hildegarde said:
A combo of the Daily Show and BBC are my stand-bys for daily televised coverage.

I just discovered yesterday that BBC World News America has closed down their morning broadcast.

They were on from 6-9 a.m. every day and were the only way I saw what was happening in the rest of the world. Now I have only the twaddle of the cable newscasts to rely on. And the internet, but I have a sucky connection at home. I even wrote an email to BEG them to put it back on in the morning, but apparently even the BBC is tightening their belts. The news will only be shown at 6:00 p.m. (which I'm not home in time for) and 10:00 p.m. (which I'm seldom awake for.) Guess I'll have to buy a TiVo and record it to watch with my coffee.

Bubastes · Apr 7, 2009

mamaesme said:
Though POD's have been getting a lot of press lately, which is rather frightening. AuthorSource bought out a traditional publisher in Canada (from the WSJ).

Call me cold, but if news coverage like this causes more people to go the POD route without doing any additional homework, I'm okay with that. More room in the slush pile for me.

MetalDog · Apr 7, 2009

Cathy C said:
I just discovered yesterday that BBC World News America has closed down their morning broadcast. They were on from 6-9 a.m. every day and were the only way I saw what was happening in the rest of the world. Now I have only the twaddle of the cable newscasts to rely on. And the internet, but I have a sucky connection at home.

Can you pick up the World Service on the radio where you are?

Should be able to find the right frequency here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/worldservice/psims/ScheduleSDT.cgi

badducky · Apr 7, 2009

Bubastes said:
Call me cold, but if news coverage like this causes more people to go the POD route without doing any additional homework, I'm okay with that. More room in the slush pile for me.

The victims of these kind of scammers, and the clueless ones that don't know better and self-pub with high hopes, skew deeply to the elderly, the impoverished, and the mentally infirm.

We're not just talking about clueless writers, here, that ought to know better in their research.

CNN reporters seem to think I lost my copyright...

No Time For Chitchat, Kemosabe.

No Time For Chitchat, Kemosabe.

Ooo! Shiny new cover!

aka Sadistic Mistress Mi-chan

No Time For Chitchat, Kemosabe.

Rewriting My Destiny

Rewriting My Destiny

the original blond bombshell

No Time For Chitchat, Kemosabe.

A newb in the fog

"Bear trumps Elephants!"

"Bear trumps Elephants!"

fiddle-dee-dee

"Bear trumps Elephants!"

A newb in the fog

No Time For Chitchat, Kemosabe.

"Bear trumps Elephants!"

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

No Time For Chitchat, Kemosabe.

Ooo! Shiny new cover!

bananaed

Woof!

No Time For Chitchat, Kemosabe.