Copyright, Part Two

We are a litigious society; lawyers, lawyers everywhere! Makes my head hurt, but I guess we need them to make sure the big and powerful don't trample on the little people. Yes, I've had to hire lawyers to look at the very complicated contracts I was given from publishers.

The first Block a Day calendar I created was with a company called Accord Publishing. I received the 2004 calendar from my youngest daughter for Christmas and I was horrified at how primitive the work was. Cute designs but the execution was horrible. There were NO cutting instructions. You were supposed to just print the pages and cut the templates out!!

2004 Accord Block a Day Calendar

I called the publisher and told him, "I can do better than that! I can do this the way it should be." He said, "OK. Prove it." This would involve 320 unique pages of art, patterns, instructions, etc! I sent him some sample files and then he said, "Can you supply a year's worth of files by our deadline (a few months away)?" I said, "Sure." and the rest is history.

My first (of 18) Quilting Calendars: 2006

I knew what I was doing design-wise. I work in Adobe Illustrator (Electric Quilt was so primitive then). I knew how to calculate yardage ACCURATELY. I knew how to step out the cutting and stitching for blocks, sashings and borders. You get it. I worked furiously for a few months and boy were they pleased!

What I did not have experience in was CONTRACT WORDING! And I really messed up on that first calendar. Do you know what "WORK FOR HIRE" means? To put it simply:

A work for hire, or work made for hire, refers to works whose ownership belongs to a third party rather than the creator.

And that was the type of contract I signed with them. What did I know? I thought EVERYONE was as honest and respectful of my design rights as Harris Publications was with my work published in their magazines. Their contracts stated that they were only asking for "First North American Publishing Rights" and that I owned the rights after that. No questions asked. No restrictions.

One of 24 magazine covers in my 14 year magazine editor career

I got paid for my quilt photo (which they took). I got paid for the pattern (which I wrote and drew the art with Adobe Illustrator). And I got a $300 bonus for each quilt that appeared on the cover.

Other magazines (Fons and Porter, McCall's, Quilter's World)? Oh, we'll give you an extra magazine copy for having your quilt make the cover.

And boy did they try to weasel out of me all sorts of extras, and lowball me on my fee. Sometimes I gave in, but others I said - "Sorry. No go."

2007 calendar with my rights protected

Well, more on contracts later. It's a dark and scary world at times. I had to hire a lawyer to review that "work for hire" contract and he said - "There's no way to salvage that. Toss it. We write up a NEW contract that limits THEIR rights and protects all of yours." We did and when I presented it to Accord Publishing while holding back ALL the files for the 2007 calendar, they had a fit. Little did I know that they had SOLD their company to the Big Kahuna Calendar publisher in the world. They had to take and honor it or they would be in default with Andrews McMeel (my new publisher).

I went on to renegotiate the fee (it got tripled). My husband and daughters were happy (it paid for 2 weddings). I felt relief that my work got the respect it deserved.

More on copyright again when it comes to books. I'll include more quilt photos, too!