Electronic Piracy in Publishing

There are websites such as Scribd that scan and make textbooks available on the world wide web. Scribd is a social publishing site, where tens of millions of people share original writings and documents. They do not ask the author's permission to put their books online. For authors who write for royalties from the amount of books they have sold, this means they are losing money. This is not just a concern for Eduational Publishing but for fiction as well.

These sites eventually remove unlicensed content from the web but they have to be petitioned to do so. There is a Copyright Infringement Takedown Notification on the Scribd website and they provide a Takedown Notification Template for authors.

But, surely they should have not put the books available for free download on line in the first place. They should be the ones seeking permissions and paying for licenses not teh authors having to fight for the right to get paid for their hard work.

Advice from the Society of Authors is to be vigiliant and to search for titles online on a regualr basis. If you find anything suspicious it should be reported to the publishers. The Publishers Association has set up a Piracy Portal to share information about copyright infringement. There is also a Copyright Infringement Portal, which targets websites offering infringing copies for free download, and will soon evolve to also target peer-to-peer sharing via torrents.

So check today. See if you work is being pirated.

Wow! My book is in a Top 5 list!

Yes, I was really excited when I found out that my book, Explaining Diabetes, is in the Top 5 Disability and Special Needs Books in the US.

However, maybe this is not as good as I thought? the list is for Borders bookstore in the US. I thought Borders didn't exist anymore. Maybe it hasn't shut down in the US, or maybe they still have an online presence, or maybe my book was in the top five many months ago and I only just found out. Should I feel good about this? So many questions.

Anyway, whatever, I think it is still quite exciting to think I have written a book that made it into a Top five list. To see the list, take a look at: Borders Online.

But, isn't $75.95 a copy kind of a lot of money? The RRP is only £12.99 in the UK.

We're living in a digital world... and I am a digital girl.

At the moment I am writing ICT teacher resources. During my research I came across this UTube video. I think it is amazing what the children can do nowadays.

The problem is... can the adults catch up?

Deadlines

Apologies to all those people that I should have got back to and have not. I have a very busy schedule at the moment. I will get back to you... I promise. And if I don't - send me a reminder.

I like to fool myself I work best to deadlines. But, now another 'Deadline' is looming and hopefully I will get the book finished on time. All I need to do is focus my mind. LOL! It is the first of a series of four books on ICT and will hopefully be out on the shelves by April 2010. I will let you know more soon.

Got a series of pictures books on Shapes due out Feb 2010. Keep a look out for them. When the covers are through I will post them here on my blog.

Meanwhile, this is a picture of me in my new glasses. I need to wear them more and more often nowadays.

Blog Action Day

Today is Blog Action Day against climate change.

This is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. It is one of the largest-ever social change events on the web. It is a chance to let your voice be heard on your opinion of climate change and help sustain the World's future.

In recent years, more and more people have become concerned about the implications our actions are having on the planet. With the threat to the environment by CO² emissions and other greenhouse gases it is more important than ever to consider what things we can do to combat the effects of global warming. One of the main culprits that has been identified is flying, whether on a business trip or even just going on holiday.

But, it is good to know that green Travel is fast becoming a fashionable option. Many holidaymakers are aware it is possible to enjoy a leisurely time away on holiday and be green at the same time. The first thing to do when booking a holiday, is to look for cities that have made a commitment to going green and have eco-friendly hotels, restaurants and businesses.

Also, when planning your holiday, offsetting your carbon emissions is a good way of compensating for the amount of CO² you will generate. When flying, this can usually be done when you book your flights, ask your tour operator for details. Or you could join an offsetting service like Climate Care, which will use your money for projects that cut greenhouse gases. http://www.jpmorganclimatecare.com/

Another way you can combat the effects of climate change is to plant a tree. Trees convert CO² into Oxygen. Get involved in a local tree planting project. Carbon Footprint runs a service where they will organise the planting of the tree for you. You can also select the region you would like your tree to be planted. www.carbonfootprint.com/plantingtrees.html

There are other things you can do yourself to make your air travel greener, such as booking a non-stop flight to reduce carbon emissions and taking public transportation to and from the airport.

Ensure you book flights with airlines that recycle the waste created when serving food and beverages to passengers. By using electronic tickets you are helping to cut down on paper waste. Electronic tickets are also much more convenient and usually quicker when booking in at the airport.

Probably the most important thing you could do and the easiest, is to keep within the baggage allowance limit, because the fewer things you take, the less fuel is needed to carry it over.

You can also let your voice be heard too. So why not go to: http://www.blogactionday.org/ and sign the global petition and then blog about it. Stand up and be counted.

Undiscovered Voices Winners

Today is a very exciting day. Many of my friends have won places in the new Undiscovered Voices anthology or have received honorary mention. A very proud moment.

For a list of the winners see: http://britishscbwi.ning.com/profiles/blogs/winners-of-undiscovered-voices

Twitter

After resisting the urge to Twitter for a long, long time, I have finally succumbed. Yes. I am Twittering and you can follow me at: http://twitter.com/amloughrey


There are many quite exciting things happening on Twitter at the moment. Many YA novelists are twittering as their characters, such as Kathleen Duey http://twitter.com/kathleenduey and Melvin Burgess http://twitter.com/MelvinBurgess.


Sarwat Chadda twitters quotes from his book Devil Kiss at: http://twitter.com/devilskissbook and Julia Golding is running a competition to help her character, Catherine Royal, solve riddles at: http://twitter.com/CatherineRoyal.


Authors like Katie Fforde http://twitter.com/KatieFforde, Jill Mansell http://twitter.com/JillMansell and Mary Hoffman http://twitter.com/MARYMHOFFMAN prefer to Twitter than use Facebook. I always wondered how come their status updated loads everyday on Facebook. I suppose it is very quick and easy.


You can also follow publishers, newspapers and magazines. So it really was about time I joined the bandwagon - better late than never.