Re: Publishing date etc for 'The Well of Shadows', my memoirs of the London Underground

eddie Wed Dec 05, 2012 1:26 am

soʎnʇ sol ʎ sǝıʇuɐd sıɯ wrote:I thought old paintings or writings didn't charge for reproduction

Unfortunately, with much damage to my wallet, you'd be wrong- about most visual images (except, apparently, engravings), at any rate. Literary copyright expires after 70 years, but this is not true, it appears, of 'old master' paintings. Copyright law is very strict. If I screw up on just one reference/lyric/image, I'll be dragged through the courts, and whatever meagre profit I might make on this enterprise would be wiped out- in spades. You've got to be VERY careful.

this and that Wed Dec 05, 2012 2:00 am

Doc Watson wrote:
pinhedz wrote:And--first priority (since ER has the numbers ATU lacks)--we have to keep the "Well of Shadows" thread on ER bumped up until everyone is done with their Christmas shopping.
Christmas 2013 judging by the publication date of February next year.

then it'll have to be everybody's valentine's present

this and that Wed Dec 05, 2012 7:56 am

and if eddie included a photograph of it he or someone not claiming money had taken he wouldn't have to pay? shouldn't it be in any case they should have charged the photographer directly? or if they charge the photographer the money to be paid varies depending on its last use?

eddie Wed Dec 05, 2012 9:06 am

pinhedz wrote:I think the situation is that the copyright expires--which means no money is due to the original artist--but a copy still has to be obtained from a party that already has a copy, so you have to pay the owner of the copy to get a copy of the copy.

Yes, that's more or less the position. Mad, isn't it?

I'm publishing this book on a limited budget, so I'm just going to have to drastically reduce the number of visual images I'd like to use. Shame really: some good joke-captions will have to be cut.

But anyway, it's the quality of the actual writing that counts. I think mine is (mostly) good enough.

eddie Wed Dec 05, 2012 9:10 am

soʎnʇ sol ʎ sǝıʇuɐd sıɯ wrote:and if eddie included a photograph of it he or someone not claiming money had taken he wouldn't have to pay? shouldn't it be in any case they should have charged the photographer directly? or if they charge the photographer the money to be paid varies depending on its last use?

As I understand it, if I took a photo of the Mona Lisa, I would own the copyright on that image. But sadly, the Louvre know this all too well, so they don't allow photographs of any quality to be taken of the painting. Cleft stick.

blue moon Fri Dec 07, 2012 9:13 am

eddie wrote:Hi, Moony. Long time...How's things?

It's great to see you posting again eeddie. Things are good.
I've been in remission from posting for a while.
I went south to visit my youngest daughter for 3 weeks, then east to visit my eldest.
Then back to work. The season's over, the fleet's in and the trawlers unloaded. I've got a dodgy elbow and 2 damaged fingers from wayward prawn cartons, but I think time'll heal all.
The Wet season is in full swing...the heat is toxic and the deluge is about to begin, and the threat of a cyclone won't be far away.
Not great to be refitting boats at the moment...under the blistering sun.
But I'll have a break soon. Some of the trawlers are going to go to New Guinea to be slipped, and I'll be doing the delivery on one of them...a nice cruisy job. The trawlers have extreme air-conditioning!

Publishing...who knew the rigours?

eddie Fri Dec 07, 2012 9:30 am

blue moon wrote:2 damaged fingers from wayward prawn cartons, but I think time'll heal all.

A sentiment the like of which is rarely encountered in Bow Common Lane, E3.

eddie Fri Dec 07, 2012 9:32 am

pinhedz wrote:" ... so there ain’t nothing more to write about, and I am rotten glad of it, because if I’d a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn’t a tackled it, and ain’t a-going to no more."

Precisely. Thank God it'll all be done and dusted by February.

blue moon Fri Dec 07, 2012 9:35 am

I'm still in the stone age about online books and publishing.
But I'll download your book and print it...I've some lovely paper I bought in Vietnam that should do it justice.

blue moon Fri Dec 07, 2012 11:41 am

um...how do I go about accessing it when it's available (stone-age, remember).

eddie Fri Dec 07, 2012 6:21 pm

blue moon wrote:um...how do I go about accessing it when it's available (stone-age, remember).

I'm told by the boffins that you download a free Kindle reader onto your pc.

eddie Fri Dec 07, 2012 6:22 pm

blue moon wrote:I'm still in the stone age about online books and publishing.

Ha ha. You and me both, but recently I've been dragged kicking and screaming into the Bronze Age.

eddie Fri Dec 07, 2012 10:37 pm

Here's the illustration for the front cover of 'The Well of Shadows' (imagine this in b/w):

Pieter Bruegel the Elder 'Tower of Babel'. (detail from right side of tower).

Nah Ville Sky Chick Sun Dec 09, 2012 6:47 am

Eddie, I have only just seen this, what great news. I can't wait to read it, well done you. Publishing date etc for 'The Well of Shadows', my memoirs of the London Underground - Page 2 1247806006

Publishing date etc for 'The Well of Shadows', my memoirs of the London Underground - Page 2 1247806006

I haven't been here much lately either, I have been studying John Ruskin, just for pleasure Publishing date etc for 'The Well of Shadows', my memoirs of the London Underground - Page 2 4242516590

Publishing date etc for 'The Well of Shadows', my memoirs of the London Underground - Page 2 4242516590

eddie Sun Dec 09, 2012 9:35 am

Hi, Nash. Long time....

One day I'll have to look into Ruskin. Right now, he's simply one of those names that swims into your 'ken' every once in a while.

I'll be glad when this book's finally out. More time for other things.

eddie Tue Dec 11, 2012 2:11 am

J.K. Rowling- or, rather, her agents- just agreed to the inclusion of this quote in 'The Well of Shadows':

He stopped a passing guard, but didn’t dare mention platform nine and three-quarters. The guard had never heard of Hogwarts and when Harry couldn’t even tell him what part of the country it was in, he started to get annoyed, as though Harry was being stupid on purpose. Getting desperate, Harry asked for the train that left at eleven o’clock, but the guard said there wasn’t one. In the end the guard strode away, muttering about time-wasters.
(Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Copyright J.K. Rowling 1997.)

What a nice woman! Only about another 30 'permissions' to get!

eddie Fri Dec 14, 2012 9:43 am

The late Samuel Beckett's agents said, 'Yes', and passed my request on, with their basic endorsement- subject to contract- to his publishers, Faber. So far, so good. But Faber takes about 8 weeks to process such requests, it seems, so this is cutting things a bit fine. Still, it's better than a 'No'.

eddie Fri Dec 28, 2012 4:04 pm

The department for near Eastern Antiquities at the Louvre said 'Yes' to my use of an illustration of a winged sphinx. A Madrid museum wanted money to reproduce Goya's 'Witches' Sabbath', so I've cut that illustration.

The major edits are done. There'll be a few more cuts as I receive more extortionate demands for money and/or copyright refusals, I expect.

The plan is that I make a trip to Wales in January to get some help on the IT stuff from my friend, if it ever stops raining and train services westbound from Paddington ever start running again.

Constance Sat Dec 29, 2012 2:10 am

eddie wrote:The department for near Eastern Antiquities at the Louvre said 'Yes' to my use of an illustration of a winged sphinx. A Madrid museum wanted money to reproduce Goya's 'Witches' Sabbath', so I've cut that illustration.

The major edits are done. There'll be a few more cuts as I receive more extortionate demands for money and/or copyright refusals, I expect.

The plan is that I make a trip to Wales in January to get some help on the IT stuff from my friend, if it ever stops raining and train services westbound from Paddington ever start running again.

Eddie, so much work for the permissions! You are doing a great job.

My sister sent me a Kindle for my birthday. I read Amy Tan's new essay Rules for Virgins on it and am reading a cute book called Loving the Sensitive Dog written by a friend of my sister. I'm not so sure about the Kindle. As you know I'm addicted to the library and the books are free. I won't be able to get used to paying for books. I looked up the price of the new bio of Keats and his brother George in Kentucky and it was over $15. I was even able to get Tempest from the library without too long a wait.

To bad about the rain. We had sleet the other day and it has left a slippery mess. We are expecting a couple of inches of snow tomorrow.

eddie Sat Dec 29, 2012 5:42 am

Constance wrote:I'm not so sure about the Kindle.

You and me both, Constance. I've always regarded this Kindle lark as a necessary evil- a half-way house towards generating enough interest in the book from 'traditional' publishers to eventually arrive at a 'hard copy' of the kind that our generation would recognise as a 'proper' book. But it's always possible that this is the future. I rather hope not.

More importantly, Happy New Year to you, Tom & the kids. I haven't forgotten your encouragement in the early stages of this project.

eddie Wed Jan 02, 2013 7:42 pm

With the New Year hangover comes the reluctant decision to limit the 14th Feb 2013 Kindle publication of 'The Well of Shadows' (first edition) to UK readers only. Potential punters in Europe, the US and Australia, disappointingly, will have to await the second edition.

This decision has been dictated by the cost of obtaining the necessary copyright permissions & licences, which rises according to the number of countries covered. In some cases, where I've been granted permisssion to use material gratis, this has been accompanied by a rider limiting the readership to the UK. The upshot of this is that I'm going to have to set a limit to expenditure on this aspect of publication and recoup some of my already quite considerable outgoings before I can consider worldwide publication.

Sincere apologies to friends outside these shores, but you'll get to read the book eventually. A pleasure deferred is a pleasure magnified. Kiss kiss.

Ed x.

blue moon Wed Jan 02, 2013 10:03 pm

eddie wrote:...punters in Europe, the US and Australia, disappointingly, will have to await the second edition.

Publishing date etc for 'The Well of Shadows', my memoirs of the London Underground - Page 2 Cry_baby

eddie Wed Jan 02, 2013 11:26 pm

You're breaking my heart, moony. PM me with your postal address, if you want an early photocopy. That goes for you too, Pinz. I'd value your opinion. I'm afraid all other non-UK residents will have to wait a bit. Apologies. x

blue moon Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:12 pm

O thank you. Cool

I'll investigate how/when I can arrange an international postal-order (or equivalent) for the purchase price of "Well", then we can swap details and we're in business. cheers

I wouldn't dream of accepting a free copy, eddie.
You are a struggling author, you know!
...do you want to go back to the underground?

eddie Fri Jan 04, 2013 3:30 am

Payment won't be necessary, moony. All you'll be getting, at this stage, is a tatty, dog-eared photocopy of the ms. You're more than welcome to spend money on the real thing when it gets a worldwide publication. If you're interested, PM your postal address. x

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