Maybe those with more knowledge of the law can help me out with this, but I recently became aware that some of my work for the San Diego Business Journal is now available for purchase on Amazon.com – my articles for $6 a pop!!
My first thought upon this discovery was, “Wow, my boss would never let me use ‘plethora’ is one of my letters now. At least I got to exercise my vocabulary at the Journal.”
My second thought was, “I wrote these for free, and now they’re on Amazon!?”
My third thought was a sense of loss that these stellar works of art have yet to make it on the bestseller list; I’m sure they’re flying like hotcakes. (That was sarcasm, people.)
Check out three of said articles here (I’ve found 29 on sale):
The embossing lady who gave me really cool stencils I still use for homemade cards.
San Diego chefs.
I didn’t get to cover politics too much as an intern, so I loved writing this story.
I guess I’m excited to be a bona fide twenty-first century published author… and sort of an out-of-body experience to see my byline for something on sale (even if it’s an article written while I was a junior or senior in high school – oh, if only the unwitting public knew!)… but I’m wondering who is profiting doubly for my free two years of labor: once to actually get the articles in for the weekly, and now with them on sale online.
Oh, if only constituent letters were marketable… *wry grin* Back to work for me.
7 comments:
I removed the post because I was stupid :-p. Saying things that you already said . . . *grin* go figure my government major friend is the first to get published. . . even if they don't give her proper credit (and payment)!
The SDBJ maintains their articles "© [year] San Diego Business Journal Associates. All rights reserved.
San Diego Business Journal, San Diego, CA 92123, USA." In the abstract, this means that any articles are theirs to do with as they wish, subject only to whatever agreement they have with the author.
It seems they have offered your articles for sale on their own site for some time now, though. SDBJ Search
I am duly put in my place for, once again, being too high-strung to read the fine print. Thanks, The Brain! :-P
And I want everyone to know what Ash actually said in the first post, verbatim, in spite of her protestations to the contrary: “*grin* shouldn't you be getting some royalties or something?”
The Brain also succeeds in making me feel old -- the SDBJ link has a "Celebrating 25 Years!" banner or something of the like, and I worked on (and have a hard copy at home) of the 20th Anniversary edition. Eek.
And yes, Brianna, that is completely acceptable... but why, pray tell, is Miss Manners asking me these things?!
Thank you Leeann - in case anyone wonders yes I DID graduate from college
That's exciting, Leeann! Even if you aren't getting any roalties. :-)
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