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Photo credit: Owen Moore |
Take for instance a cold. Not long ago, someone I knew had one. When speaking about it, I referred to it as her cold. Then, when I soon caught the germ, my husband actually called it my cold. Hearing him say that at first seemed strange, until I realized the cold's ownership had now been transferred to me, along with the responsibilities of trying to get better and not sharing the germ with others.
Here are a few examples of how a writer can take ownership:
- A writer needs to own up to mistakes. It would be wonderful to believe every word we write is perfect, but, actually, that's not really the case. We need to own up to our mistakes, learn from them, and polish our prose. We can do this by either hiring an editor, or at least by submitting our work to some darn good beta writers.
- Okay, the book is done. Before it's released, although in the U.S. original works have been automatically copyrighted since 1978, it doesn't hurt to also take ownership of your printed and/or electronic book by placing the copyright symbol on one of its first pages to tell the world you own the rights to the amazing words you've written. To see some exceptions, check Wikipedia.
- Be careful not to be too exclusive. The strange thing about taking ownership of our books is that often in order to do so, we need to share blurbs, descriptions, and excerpts with others in order to entice readers to read our books. Sometimes, it may even mean giving away free copies for advertisement purposes. My thriller, Two Wrongs, is currently perma-free, and you're welcome to nab your free copy.
Can you think of other ways authors take ownership, or maybe you'd like to expand on something I've mentioned.
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Experience Morgan Mandel's diversity and versatility. Check Out Her Standalone Romantic Comedy, Girl of My Dreams, the romantic comedy series, Her Handyman, and A Perfect Angel. For Mystery/Suspense, try Killer Career or Two Wrongs. For the small town of Deerview series: Hailey's Chance: Will Baby Make 3? and Christmas Carol.Websites:Morgan Mandel.Com Morgan Does Chick Lit.Com. Twitter:@MorganMandel
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Good points, Morgan. The copyright symbol is a good idea. Think I'll do that to all my books.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't hurt to add it, though most readers don'the bother to look for it.
ReplyDeleteConsider adding a watermark to take ownership of your publicly shared images to keep them from being hacked!
ReplyDeleteAnother good approach
DeletePart of owning our mistakes involves listening to what our editors and beta readers say. If we've trusted them enough to make them part of our team, we owe them (and ourselves) the dignity of listening to their criticisms and suggestions, as well as the courtesy of seriously considering what they tell us.
ReplyDeleteExactly.
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