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AUTHORS GUILD Fall 2017 | Winter 2018 BULLETIN Symposium: Free Speech Under Fire What You Should Know Before Signing an Agent Agreement Jim Gleick on Strong Opinions and Tricky Subjects Mary Rasenberger on Resetting the Copyright Equation Q&A with Tayari Jones what I want to write about. That allows me to write in How Copyright the style that I want to write in as well. In an economy that is dominated by large organi- Promotes and Protects zations, by corporations and foundations and univer- sities, all of which benefit our society in many ways, Free Speech we need to maintain the individual voice — the voice of dissent, creativity, fresh perspectives, inventive- By T.J. Stiles ness. We must remember that all these things come from individual creators. This is the basis of our opyright is something that seems, to a lot of whole civilization. To be able to produce new work, people, to be an obstruction to access to culture we must preserve the individual’s rewards from that and knowledge. It seems to be something that work. I think it’s important to understand the value C that comes from respecting intellectual property. That creators impose to close people off from access to their work. value comes from the marketplace, and from respect- It is important for people to understand that when ing an author’s rights to his or her work. It comes from you pay for a book you’re also paying for the next seeing financial as well as cultural value in works that book. You’re helping to pave the way for the creation are not produced within the academy but rather pro- of new art and knowledge and for cultural enrich- duced by independent voices like mine. F ment. How does a writer create the next book? Well, you either rely on a patron, which could be an em- T.J. Stiles is the author of Jesse James, The First Tycoon ployer, such as a university. It could be somebody who and Custer’s Trials. He is a member of the Authors provides you grant money. It could be your wealthy Guild Council, and has received the National Book uncle. Or you go into the marketplace. You try to build Award (2009) and the Pulitzer Prize (2010 and 2016). an audience out of the broad public. This article is adapted from Mr. Stiles’s remarks at If I’m able to derive income that sustains my work the Center for Protection of Intellectual Property’s by amalgamating income from a wide range of book Fifth Annual Fall Conference, held at George Mason buyers, that’s freedom. That allows me to write about University, in Arlington, Virginia, October 12–13, 2017. Campbell Geeslin 1925 –2017 Campbell Geeslin, who wrote Along missed a deadline. He was also a gifted Publishers Row for the Bulletin from 1994 craftsman, carving wooden dolls and until his retirement in February 2016, puppets for the children of friends and died August 30, in Branford, CT. He was his own beloved grandchildren, which 91. his wife, Lyn, would finish off with cot- Campbell was born December 5, 1925, ton costumes. in Goldthwaite, TX. He was the fourth Campbell published one novel, The and skinniest of five brothers and played Bonner Boys: A Novel About Texas (Simon the organ barefoot at the local Methodist & Schuster, 1981), five illustrated chil- church on Sundays. He served in the U.S. dren’s books — In Rosa’s Mexico, On Navy from 1943 to 1946 and graduated Ramón’s Farm, How Nanita Learned to Make from Columbia University with a degree Flan, Elena’s Serenade and Clara and Señor in journalism in 1949. In 1959 he received his MA Frog — and the libretto for a children’s opera based from the University of Texas. on Nanita that was commissioned by the Cincinnati He had a long and varied career as a newspaper Opera and widely performed in children’s libraries and magazine editor, from his first job as a reporter and community theaters. at the Houston Post, on up through a series of editing In April 2013, at Paul Aiken’s suggestion, he be- jobs with the Gannett Newspaper chain. He worked gan writing a weekly blog for the Guild’s website; as an editor at People and Life magazines from 1975 his entries were subsequently pulled together for the to 1989. A spare and meticulous writer, he didn’t next Bulletin. The blog entry was due every Tuesday. like fancy words or long sentences, and he never Without fail, he sent it in the Saturday before. AUTHORS GUILD BULLETIN 2 FALL 2017 | WINTER 2018 FALL 2017 | WINTER 2018 THE AUTHORS ArtICLES GUILD BULLETIN How Copyright Promotes and Protects Free Speech ................. 2 President By T.J. Stiles James Gleick Writers Collaborating: Sometimes It Gets Complicated ............ 11 Executive Director Mary Rasenberger By Jonathan Lyons and Jesseca Salky, Lyons & Salky Law, LLP Editor Claiming the Royalties You Deserve ................................... 13 Martha Fay By Juli Saitz Assistant Editor Tayari Jones Q&A ........................................................ 15 Nicole Vazquez By Isabel Howe Copy Editors Heather Rodino The Authors Guild Foundation Reboots, Hallie Einhorn With an Expanded Board and New Initiatives ....................... 18 All non-staff contributors to the The Authors League Fund at 100 ....................................... 20 Bulletin retain copyright to the articles that appear in these Advocacy News ........................................................... 21 pages. Guild members seeking Symposium information on contributors’ other publications are invited to Free Speech Under Fire? ............................................ 29 contact the Guild office. A Guide to Literary Agency Agreements ............................. 50 Published by: The Authors Guild, Inc. Literature and Migration 2.0 ............................................ 54 31 East 32nd Street 7th Floor DepartmeNTS New York, NY 10016 Short Takes .................................................................. 4 The Bulletin was first published From the President ......................................................... 6 in 1912 as The Authors League From the Home Office ..................................................... .7 News letter. Legal Watch ................................................................ 26 Books by Members ........................................................ 46 Members Make News .................................................... 48 OVERHEARD In Memoriam .............................................................. 50 “The Library of Congress is the greatest library in the ABOUT THE COVER ArtIST world. If you ever get down Kevin Sanchez Walsh is a freelance artist and longtime contributor to the about American culture, [re- Bulletin. He can be reached at [email protected]. member that] there are more public libraries in this country than there are Starbucks.” — David McCullough, at the National Book Festival in September 2017, and elsewhere, at frequent intervals. Copyright © 2018 The Authors Guild, Inc. AUTHORS GUILD BULLETIN 3 FALL 2017 | WINTER 2018 Sundar Pichai, mentioning that she the agency on government time and SHORT TAKES was writing an article about her how frequently they were corre- week of fruitless pursuit. She did sponding about this,” he said. “And Dear Google, That’s Not Me not hear back from Pichai. But a few did they do anything that would be For anyone who has tried to navi- hours later, her photograph was re- useful for Republicans?” gate Google’s “Help” page or reach moved. Definers picked up the baton, a live company representative by but as we went to press, and as criti- Alternative Terms/Forbidden phone, the saga of New York Times cal news coverage of the service in- reporter Rachel Abrams’s campaign Words tensified, the company announced it to have her photo deleted from a It can’t be long before someone pub- was pulling out of its $120,000 con- Google entry for a different Rachel lishes an “alt” dictionary. The ques- tract. It had become a “distraction.” Abrams will be familiar. tion is which will come first: the satire After Ms. Abrams’s father version or a government manual? In Search of New Voices alerted her to the mistaken post- The Centers for Disease Control In an effort to boost both indepen- ing — her online doppelganger was a is the latest federal agency to have dent bookstores and appreciation writer named Rachel Abrams, born its standard terminology “tweaked,” of international literature in the in 1951, married to former Under the Washington Post reported in mid- U.S., Europa Editions and Other Secretary of State Elliot Abrams and December, with a string of standard Press launched Bookselling Without deceased in 2013 — she e-mailed agency terms banished from budget Borders, a Kickstarter campaign Google’s corporate communica- proposals being prepared for 2019. to raise money to send four to five tions team to try to sort things out. Out go “science based,” “evidence- indie booksellers to the 2018 Turin She was sent a link to a help page, based,” “fetus,” “transgender,” Book Fair in Italy, the Frankfurt which led her to a “Knowledge “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diver- Book Fair in Germany, and the Graph” but no resolution. When she sity.” In comes “recommendations Guadalajara Book Fair in Mexico. and a cousin asked Amazon’s Alexa on science in consideration with After a modest startup in 2016, “who is Rachel Abrams?” a whole community standards and wishes.” when the group sent a single new Rachel Abrams popped up, a Over at the Environmental Pro- bookseller to Frankfurt — Ariana sprinter from the Northern Mariana tection Agency, a different kind of Paliobagis, from the Country Book- Islands. Times Rachel and her cousin word check is picking up steam, shelf in Bozeman, Montana — asked Alexa if the sprinter Rachel the tracking of comments made by Bookselling Without Borders had was dead or alive. Dead, said Alexa. E.P.A. employees, followed by re- been looking to establish a perma- (Not according to Wikipedia; she’s quests for any e-mails in which the nent fund to “[diversify] the culture 22 and her personal best for the employees have made comments of reading by building bridges be- hundred meter is 13.05.) A friend of about President Trump or E.P.A.

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