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Finishing a Masterpiece and Getting it on the Shelves
(how to get a book published)
Writing a book is a monumental task in itself. The process is long, drawn out and grueling. Even if you thoroughly enjoy writing and writing on the same subject for an extended period of time, you will no doubt be exhausted by the writing of a book. Getting that book published, however, will take even more time and effort than producing the thing in the first place. Are you thinking about writing a book? Have you already written one and now are just wondering how to get a book published? If you are, read on. Here are a few tips on how to get from the starting line to triumphantly crossing the finish line.
Writing that Book
When starting out writing your book, before you are ready to consider how to get a book published, you may already feel daunted. To write a successful book you need to start out with some original thought. You probably have plenty of originality, but you may have trouble getting your ideas into a coherent flow of information that will be digestible by the general public. The first step is to create a book skeleton. You need to organize your thoughts into a progression of chapters.
If your book will be non-fiction, start with a table of contents. Write chapter headings and sub-headings. You will automatically know that you’ll need an introductory chapter, but you should probably leave the content of your introduction for the last step. Organize your chapters so that they build upon one another. The more headings that you can brainstorm to begin with, the easier it will be to fill in your book with a series of short articles that flow into one another.
If your writing will be fiction, you will need more of a storyboard. You will need to create cause and effect as well as character sketches. To make your story coherent your characters will need events to react to. Their reactions should become predictable as your readers get into the story. You may need to create some situations for your characters just for the purpose of introducing their traits to the reader.
These are very general guidelines about how to begin constructing your book. The actual process will be much more involved as you move closer to finding out how to get a book published. Even after you are finished with the bulk of the content, your goal is still a ways off into the future.
Getting to Print
The next step in how to get a book published is finding a publisher. There are resources at your local library that will let you know who will be the best candidate for publishing the kind of writing that you do. After a series of queries and correspondence with the potential publishers you may get an invitation to send your manuscript. Then the work begins.
A publisher is very experienced in finding books that are marketable. He knows what it will take to get your book to sell. Don’t be offended when his editors tears your writing apart. If they are doing that, you can enjoy the fact that you are on the road to a published book. Expect to enter into a close relationship of compromise and change with the editor as you rework and rework what you have already so painstakingly written. When you are finished you will have a readable and clean and correct manuscript ready for print.
The road to getting a book published is a long one, but well worth the effort. Trust yourself, and trust the publisher to create a beautiful masterpiece. Don’t be discouraged if several publishers are not interested in your book. You may have to just keep the first few for yourself, and then again, they may eventually get accepted. Good luck and enjoy the process.
How to copyright software How to Copyright Software Sanely If you're wondering how to copyright software the good news is you've probably already done it. At least you have if you have ever written software. Most people however get confused over exactly what having a copyright for their software means and this is the trickier question to answer. First of all, thinking it isn't going to do it and you can't really copyright the things you think. Second, only those things that can be seen (when it comes to software) can be copyrighted. If you want to protect the abstract, look into patents. Otherwise if it is original, fixed, and tangible you can copyright it. Essentially you already know how to copyright software if you've put it into a finished form. Once you've written the source code the copyright belongs to you. Copyrighting software doesn't offer the protection that many people hope it will. The idea of the software and anything about the finished product that wasn't available in a tangible (visible) form isn't protected by the copyright. In fact the only thing that is undeniably protected by copyright when it comes to software is the source code. The question you should be asking is now how to copyright software, it is how to patent your software and that requires a much more involved and prolonged explanation. To obtain a patent for your software you must apply for a patent in each country that offers patents for software and in which you wish to have the protection a patent can offer. I warned you this was much trickier than how to copyright software. Then it gets trickier still. There is no universal legal definition of what a software patent is so each country that offers patents also has a different definition for what is protected by that patent as well as for why a patent will be granted. If you want to add to the confusion a little more while wondering how to copyright software, also consider the fact that your software may be given a patent in one of the countries where you applied and none of the others. Of course, if this is not enough fun for you, you can try to deal with the red tape involved in dealing with multiple governments in order to resolve any issues or disputes that may have arisen from the result of the software patents you hold. If you've forgotten the original question it was: how to copyright software? I told you that one was much easier. The main thing you need to do if you're going for international patents (which can secure a profitable future for you and your business) is to get a really good patent lawyer and have him walk you through and hold your hand for the entire process. In fact, I would say that's probably the best advice you can get. Patents are complicated and when you're not exactly sure of what you're doing, whom you need to talk to, and what the next step is you stand to waste a lot of time while taking a bigger risk. It is much easier to deal with how to copyright software on your own than it is to work out the complicated world of software patents. If this is your first time designing your own software you have every right to be nervous and excited and scared to death at the same time. Remember lawyers went to school much longer than you in order to know what to do in this situation so you should not be expected to know how to copyright software when you've never done it before. Software copyright sample Software Copyright Sample Builds Loyal Customer Bases When choosing software copyright sample many before focusing on one or two. It is impossible to try every piece of software that exists in the world of software today. There are so many pieces of software currently on the market and new software being created as I type this. With so many new and different, competing and interesting software programs so widely available you might find something wonderful and unique available at a wonderful price or better yet, for free in the open source arena. Open source software isn't exactly software copyright sample material. This software is occasionally used as a testing ground for unproven versions of software, for software testing, or simply to determine the demand for a particular type of software. Chances are pretty good however; that if you've ever thought, "I wish I could find a program that did (insert whatever here)" someone else has had the same thought and created a program that will do just that. Perhaps the greatest beauty of a software copyright sample is that you get a taste of what the software can do without the expense of purchasing to find out whether it is right for you or your needs. There are actually many ways that companies both for profit and open source companies allow potential customers or converts to sample their products. Linux is a great example of this. They have gone from an open source nuisance to a viable competitor to many larger software companies by providing free software or a software copyright sample to consumers in order to whet their appetites for future offerings designed with profit in mind. What has developed is a viable (and growing) source of competition for Microsoft. Many open source developers are operating very much like Linux and starting out by offering a free software copyright sample to those who will try them out and give them feedback. They use the feedback to make improvements and build better products while making a name for themselves, their customer service, and the quality of the products they build. It's a win-win situation for many consumers and businesses that are just starting out and operating on a shoestring on both the part of those that offer the software copyright sample and those that are benefiting from the sample. Other companies are not as altruistic or are not as willing to wait for the payoffs. Instead of offering a completely free software copyright sample, they will offer you a free trial to their software that will either end at the end of the trial period and require a new subscription or automatically begin charging your credit card. Both of these practices have proven themselves to be highly effective methods of winning not only new customers but also seemingly unshakeable customer loyalty on the part of those that purchase software from these developers or companies. If you do an Internet search for open source software I think you will be astounded at the quality and selection that exists. There are programs that exist to do almost anything. My favorite (I must admit) are the game, but there are also many wonderful programs that can do amazing things like track your golf score, convert currency, help you organize your kitchen more effectively, figure out how much tile you need in a room. Almost anything that needs to be done, there is a piece of software that can do it-open source. The important thing to remember is that you won't find these programs in your local software store but you may find something similar to your copyright software sample that will cost considerably more money than the finished and polished version of the software that you are able to sample free. |