Writerly Ways
Jan. 12th, 2014 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cornerofmadnessThe annoying pain in the ass side of writing: copyright registration.
I've not been through this unpleasantness before. I suppose I should have for my novella The Darkest Midnight in December but I didn't. It came up on my author's list today including a few horror stories from some of the people on the list. I decided I DID have a lot to lose if someone stole my novel. I was told to send it in before publication so we can use an Ecopy.
And here is where it enters the freaking 20th century. OMG. Talk about your governmental nightmare. Why in the name of god do we STILL have to send the 'best copy' of our work (i.e. print)? and then give us rules upon rules on how it's to be mailed since it will get the living fuck radiated out of it? You would think it would be a much better use of the library of congress's time to just take an ecopy. Think of the storage. If we're worried about executable files, don't open that kind. Hell isolate the damn computer from everything else so hackers and viruses are less of an issue.
And it gets worse from there. It's only really supportable on IE and even then you have to shut off the pop up blocker (thought I did, apparently didn't more on that later). It's not supported on Chrome or ANY Apple browser that I know of (there's probably one in there I'm sure). You have to do 100 different things to make firefox usable. You also can't have a google or yahoo toolbar! WTF? Why is this so goddamn difficult. Oh right, it's the GOVERNMENT.
I try to register and nowhere does it say hey by the way your password has to have one number and one special character. No it doesn't even say that when I hit continue. No it doesn't say that until you get to the end and have to start again. Bangs head. I finally get registered and I start the paperwork. The very first step doesn't show up at the end. Can't fix it. You have to fill in your address no less than four times (and it doesn't remember or autofill). I get to the payment and about weep. It's pay.gov, the same site I have to give 500$ a month in defaulted student loan money to. It's 35$ btw for this miserable pleasure. I pay. I got to submit.
Pop up blocked. ARGH. There is NO WAY to go back and submit a second time. I emailed the tech branch. And I know even if I DO get to send in the PDF I will be asked for the hard copy anyhow since the authors on the group have. Apparently the idea of an ebook is unheard of to the Library of Congress. I THINK I can send it cd-rom. And if it comes to it, I will. They can stuff the best copy. It'll be months before I see my certification (I'll do this next time the moment I get a contract).
I don't see why this is so archaic. I don't even want to know what they do to artists trying to register artwork.
Some days being a grown up or a writer sucks.
Yearly Word Count. I went modest this time because I DO want to both finish stuff and EDIT other stuff. I especially want to edit Soldiers of the Sun and my non-erotica YA, Splinters of Silver and Cold Iron. If you don't see me making progress come kick my butt.
Soldiers - up to chapter 7
Splinters - let's call it ch 3. I have SO many Link (the writers group) files for this and I have yet to use them. I am a lazy ass.
I've not been through this unpleasantness before. I suppose I should have for my novella The Darkest Midnight in December but I didn't. It came up on my author's list today including a few horror stories from some of the people on the list. I decided I DID have a lot to lose if someone stole my novel. I was told to send it in before publication so we can use an Ecopy.
And here is where it enters the freaking 20th century. OMG. Talk about your governmental nightmare. Why in the name of god do we STILL have to send the 'best copy' of our work (i.e. print)? and then give us rules upon rules on how it's to be mailed since it will get the living fuck radiated out of it? You would think it would be a much better use of the library of congress's time to just take an ecopy. Think of the storage. If we're worried about executable files, don't open that kind. Hell isolate the damn computer from everything else so hackers and viruses are less of an issue.
And it gets worse from there. It's only really supportable on IE and even then you have to shut off the pop up blocker (thought I did, apparently didn't more on that later). It's not supported on Chrome or ANY Apple browser that I know of (there's probably one in there I'm sure). You have to do 100 different things to make firefox usable. You also can't have a google or yahoo toolbar! WTF? Why is this so goddamn difficult. Oh right, it's the GOVERNMENT.
I try to register and nowhere does it say hey by the way your password has to have one number and one special character. No it doesn't even say that when I hit continue. No it doesn't say that until you get to the end and have to start again. Bangs head. I finally get registered and I start the paperwork. The very first step doesn't show up at the end. Can't fix it. You have to fill in your address no less than four times (and it doesn't remember or autofill). I get to the payment and about weep. It's pay.gov, the same site I have to give 500$ a month in defaulted student loan money to. It's 35$ btw for this miserable pleasure. I pay. I got to submit.
Pop up blocked. ARGH. There is NO WAY to go back and submit a second time. I emailed the tech branch. And I know even if I DO get to send in the PDF I will be asked for the hard copy anyhow since the authors on the group have. Apparently the idea of an ebook is unheard of to the Library of Congress. I THINK I can send it cd-rom. And if it comes to it, I will. They can stuff the best copy. It'll be months before I see my certification (I'll do this next time the moment I get a contract).
I don't see why this is so archaic. I don't even want to know what they do to artists trying to register artwork.
Some days being a grown up or a writer sucks.
Yearly Word Count. I went modest this time because I DO want to both finish stuff and EDIT other stuff. I especially want to edit Soldiers of the Sun and my non-erotica YA, Splinters of Silver and Cold Iron. If you don't see me making progress come kick my butt.
1247 / 100000
(1.25%)
(1.25%)
Soldiers - up to chapter 7
Splinters - let's call it ch 3. I have SO many Link (the writers group) files for this and I have yet to use them. I am a lazy ass.
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