L.J. Diva

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My Thoughts on Taylor Swift, Copyrights and Master Files.

02/08/2019 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Business & Legalities, L.J. Diva, Music & Radio, TIARA KING Leave a Comment

 

Let’s talk about Taylor Swift, copyrights and master files, shall we.

 

I’ve been sitting on this post for two reasons.

1 – Because I had a writing holiday coming up, and

2 – Because I wanted to see how it would play out.

Pretty much how one would suspect anything to do with Taylor Swift these days would turn out.

You had those defending her, and her right to own her own masters. And those who bitched that she was causing trouble once more because she’s such a troublemaker.

Apparently, any woman standing up for her right to own her own work is a troublemaker.

Well, fuck you!

She stood up for her rights with not allowing her songs on Spotify, and called out Apple music for not paying enough.

There are two issues here. Copyright, and the master files.

When it comes to copyright, one MUST own it. Sadly, musicians, just like authors, are so desperate to get that deal that they bypass the clause that states how many years the company will own your product for.

Sadly, people are that desperate for a record or book deal. And even more sadly, none of them are willing to talk about it because of what? Their guilt, shame, stupidity will show the world how stupid they were for taking a deal that did them out of their work. Many mid-list authors are dudded out of their work, just google authors and their horror stories.

This sort of thing has been going on for decades, so is nothing new. This Vanity Fair article mentions several other artists who managed to do deals to get their masters back. But here are a couple more stories about artists dudded out of their own work.

The Beatles lost their catalogue, and years later, Michael Jackson bought them all, completely pissing off Paul McCartney who he’d worked with on several hit songs.

Murray Wilson, father of Beach Boy Brian Wilson sold off their catalogue for $700,000. If you saw the movie from a few years ago where John Cusak played the older Brian, it was mentioned in the movie that the father sold them off because they “wouldn’t amount to much”.

Authors have been fighting for their copyrights for years. In many contracts, the publishing house keeps the book for thirty-five years and even then you may not get the rights reverted if they can still sell the book in reprints. If they can claim sales, they can claim ownership.

Many smaller trad pub houses can revert rights back to authors, but only if the author asks for, or fights for, their rights to their books. And even then, there may be conditions. Many indie authors are smart, if approached with a publishing deal, they have clauses put in their contract that states the pub house will only get the print rights (or foreign, audio, or electronic) for a small number of years, such as five or seven, as sadly, many books just don’t sell and publishers don’t do anything with them, especially publicise them.

In the Vanity Fair article it states – “It’s also not uncommon to see indie acts talk about the importance of owning one’s masters, usually to avoid a fate that isn’t as discussed: older albums languishing in the vaults of labels that no longer care to promote them. In theory, labels say they can’t be profitable without owning the masters. In practice, they aren’t doing all they can to either marshall profit from the rights they do own, or shepherd their collections usefully.”

So, if indie authors can own their own books, then musicians can own their own masters.

For people, mainly Taylor Swift haters who hate on her for standing up for her rights to own her work, clearly they are uneducated. They’re possibly the type who would rather steal the songs online than buy them, just as some people would rather steal a book from an illegal website and then whinge about the author complaining about not making any money. Some people are just ungrateful, uneducated, entitled, ignorant, arrogant arseholes who think the world owes them and so steal where they can, meanwhile, like authors who write their own books; Taylor Swift worked her arse off for what she has and is more than entitled to defend her personal property rights. Yes, she still owns the copyright, just not the masters, and that, to me, is no different from the originally handwritten stories I write. They are my master files, the master manuscript, the copyrighted master that I personally own.

As an author, I will never sell them unless it’s under my contract. I will never give them away; I would rather burn them and let no one have them.

And this is what many just don’t understand. They do not understand the legalities of copyright, intellectual property rights, and owning your own masters. Many celebrities are on Taylor’s side, cheering her on for standing up for her ownership rights, while others try and knock her down as a woman and an artist by calling her a troublemaker. Because, again, any woman standing up for her right to own her own work is a troublemaker.

Scooter Braun has his ingrates defending him. But, quite frankly, having the likes Bieber and Lovato, two very mentally unhealthy and unstable people, defending you, doesn’t make you look good.

As for Scott Borchetta, former owner of Big Machine Records, claiming that her dad should have told her as he’s a shareholder of Big Machine when her father could not legally tell her anything due to contracts he’d signed, was a lame excuse. Offering to give Taylor one album back for every album she made for him was a shit deal all round, and he knows it. She’s been his biggest money earner, and he just didn’t want to let her have them back.

I’m glad she’s standing up for herself, and it really pisses me off as a forty-five year old woman that women are still treated intolerably, by men and women, when standing up for their intellectual rights.

I remember years back when Taylor had her squad and she’d made a statement about knowing who she wanted around her, and if you couldn’t be her friend, and just wanted to be a user, then she wasn’t interested.

Many women abused her for that, yet ironically, that was what Oprah and Dr Phil had talked about many a decade before, getting rid of the toxic people and users out of your life. Well, that’s all Taylor was doing, and she was slammed for it, seemingly, by females her age that were clearly a long way off learning that lesson that was already decades old. But then, many people, women especially, never seem to learn that lesson until well into their 30s, 40s or 50s plus. Taylor learned it in her mid-20s.

Good for her, I say. And good for her for standing up for her rights when it comes to her ownership of her product. Music, lyrics, plays, books, screenplays, whatever it is, owners need to stand up for their rights when it comes to ownership and take charge, otherwise, you get used, abused, and dudded out of a deal.

Taylor is standing up for her rights, and the rights of those coming behind, and for some reason, some people are just too blind to see that.

 

 

A.J. Finn issues an apology to The New Yorker

22/02/2019 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Authors & Books, Business & Legalities, L.J. Diva, TIARA KING Leave a Comment

Last week I discussed author A.J. Finn’s notoriously bad behaviour in publishing circles and how far it had gotten him.

This week, he issued an apology to The New Yorker magazine via a PR firm.

Yep, he used a PR firm!

The story in The New Yorker is doing the rounds. Multiple websites have stories, read here, read here, read here, he even made it into a Reddit discussion. And I’m sure many more people and blogged, and done news stories on it because it was a fascinating piece to read.

However…

The narcissism is still riding high. He’s blaming everything on the stress of having bipolar, his mother actually having cancer at one stage, and the stress of his life.

I’m calling bullshit on all of that too.

What happens to you in your childhood, may affect your adulthood, but as an adult YOU choose how to behave and live.

Nothing else.

He CHOSE to lie and manipulate everything for his own benefit, and I still hope his little house of cards comes a tumblin’ down.

 

The meteoric rise of A.J. Finn, and the fall that’s bound to come with it.

15/02/2019 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Authors & Books, Business & Legalities, L.J. Diva, TIARA KING Leave a Comment

Last year, on Aussie tv, I saw an interview with author A.J. Finn. I didn’t know who he/she was, had never heard of, or seen he/she before, so had no idea whether he/she was a man or woman.

Turns out, he was a man.

The book he was flogging, The Woman in the Window, seemed interesting, and I borrowed it from my local library.

I didn’t give it a flattering review, but you can read it here…

I found him to be very hyper, always talking, moving frenetically. I wondered if he was on drugs. He mentioned his mother was with him on the tour and in the audience. He mentioned he had bipolar. I thought, huh, okay, maybe that’s why he’s so hyper.

Little did I know…

This week The New Yorker magazine has come out with a blasting expose on A.J. Finn, also known as Dan Mallory and you can read it here…

It goes in depth into his life, his past, his family. Interviews have been conducted, people have been spoken to, and the lies that came out about his life and career are more than telling. It really makes you wonder how liars get away with so much.

From his lies about the death of his mother, the suicide of his brother (both are supposedly still alive), to claiming he had cancer, to social climbing his way through publishing houses and claiming to have discovered authors, to lying about another publishing house wanting him to gain a raise with the house he was already with.

When his book, The Woman in the Window was being auctioned, it created a publishing frenzy. And then those houses found out who the author was and dropped out of the running. William Morrow, who employed Mallory at the time, scored the book and a second in a deal that one New Yorker joked, “The call was coming from inside the house!” Of course they wanted to keep him in house, they would have known he was trouble. 

Fox 2000 bought the rights to the movie which is coming out this year. It was reported he’d earned about two million out of it and no longer had to work. But as we all know, if you don’t work and blow through the money you have, you eventually end up with none. So, I wonder what he’s coming up with next?

The Stylist website have also done a story on him, but in a rather weird twist, made the article all about female authors and how publishing houses treat them, with the damning title of – “This exposé of a crime writer is a damning indictment of the way publishing treats women”.

Seriously!?

The story is not about female authors, it’s about a highly narcissistic male and the lies he told to get where and what he wanted. It ISN’T about female authors, but there will always be one who has to turn everything around to be about them. They sampled twitter replies about the article and Dan Mallory, and all of them turned the story around to be about female authors.

AGAIN, NOT ABOUT FEMALE AUTHORS!

I get really sick and tired of seeing women constantly make everything about them, and yes, I am a woman. For once in your freakin’ lives, read, see, hear what the actual story is about, and not what you WANT IT to be about. IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU AND FEMALE AUTHORS!

It’s about a man who has lied his way through life and used everybody and everything to get what he wanted, and the people who allowed it to happen and turned a blind eye to his revoltingly nasty ways.

I certainly won’t be watching the movie. To quote myself from my book review, “I know this is being made into a movie with Amy Adams, but I have no need to watch it since I’ve read it, and don’t want to see the stupidity of this character on the screen”.

I really hope that Dan Mallory falls from his pedestal, or burns his wings on the sun, because egotistical narcissists like him just don’t need to have their egos stroked.

 

Royal Star Publishing

15/11/2018 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Business & Legalities, L.J. Diva, Publishing, TIARA KING, Websites & Social Media Leave a Comment

Two weeks ago I teased about my publishing house, and now, here she is.



About two years ago, I toiled with the idea of setting up my own publishing house. 

It was 2016, I was writing under three names, about to release a plethora of books, and thought about a name to publish them all under.

So, in 2017, I bought a business name, set up a website, and then decided to change the name and the website. Check it out here.

I went from Royal Crown Press to Royal Star Publishing. You can see the website here.

It’s a basic website with a header, front page, and some social media apps. It has pages for series, kids, adult and non fiction.

It is updated every six months with the release of a new book, and generally sits there and is for show. 

Now, every time I publish a book, I can use the name on the sales site so it looks more professional. Because that’s the whole point as an independent author/publisher. Having something that looks professional on your sale page and not the names Amazon or CreateSpace.

So Royal Star Publishing was born, and is growing.

I’ve surpassed 50 stories, non fiction, novellas and novels and there’s more to come. So, why not have my own publishing house? We currently have five in house imprints.

Chances is the fiction imprint for sexy and adult novels for women. Covering romance, it’s for more in depth genres, such as drama and lgbt, and features more sex, and mature adult themes.

Chances was named in honour of Jackie Collins’ book Chances. It suits this imprint perfectly as it’s about women and men taking chances on life and love.

Love Beats is the fiction imprint for light and lovely romance novels. Whether they be sweet, comedic, fun or lightweight, these romances will make you laugh before they make you cry. With more love than sex, these will get you through a wintry day in front of the fire, or a lazy day on the beach. (Will be for light romances)

 

Skull & Bone is the fiction imprint for children, tweens & young adults. Covering horror, paranormal, occult, fantasy, myths, folklore and all other genres with a slightly twisted edge. (All of the T.K. Wrathbone stuff so far)

 

Dream Star is the fiction imprint for children, tweens & young adults. Covering light and bright themes across all genres, it brings a little fun into their lives. (#teenblogger)

Notes on Life is our imprint that covers poetry and song lyrics. (Poems Of A Musical Flavour) 


So, that’s Royal Star Publishing. We are not open for submissions, purely a name only business for myself at this stage. But who knows, maybe when I’m rich and famous and can afford to turn it into a company and publish other people…it might happen.

 

A Quick Business Post About Taxes!

01/11/2018 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Business & Legalities, Financial Matters, L.J. Diva, TIARA KING Leave a Comment

Now that we’re into November and it’s the last month of blog posts, I thought I’d just touch on a few writerly business things that could help anyone reading them.

When you take on the role of author or writer, there are so many business issues to deal with, such as taxes, do you want to be a business, will you need an ABN and website, do you need ISBNs for your books, will you set up a publishing house for them, etc. 

So today, I thought I’d do a quick post about taxes.

Here in Australia authors come under Special Professional, income averaging for authors. 

Now, something I’ve recently found out while getting my taxes ready, is that if you sell on a book site that’s not your own, and other companies sell your product, Amazon, Kobo etc, then you DO NOT pay GST on royalties earned. You do need to deal with the whole 5% treaty with the US and the IRS however, but if you set that up yourself then you’ll have no issue. Otherwise, your accountant will have to deal with it.

If you DO sell your books on your own website, then yes, you will need to pay the GST on sales over $75,000 AUD. Even if it’s as little as $1.

You just need to make sure you have the right accountant for all of this, and that they know about the income averaging. I had to sort this out with my accountant last week. When I first got my Australian Business Number (ABN) it was for my jewellery company and in that name. But now that I’ve set up a publishing house (more on that in two weeks) I needed to change things around a little.

So, decide what you want to do and make sure you’re doing it right!

 

Exciting times are here for self-publishers!

30/08/2018 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Business & Legalities, L.J. Diva, Publishing, TIARA KING Leave a Comment

 

With the new Porn Star Brothers novel, Stefan: The New Generation, coming next month, I thought I’d do a quick post about the exciting new adventures in self-publishing.

First, Kobo have partnered with Walmart in America to sell e-books and they have an audio book subscription for $9.99 a month as well. This means we authors have one more place to sell our books in, woohoo! You’ll find me under books and L.J. Diva.

Secondly, if anyone’s been publishing under Amazon’s CreateSpace, you would have been reading a tonne of rumours this year about CS merging with KDP’s print division. 

Here and Here for just two articles on it.

Turns out, it’s basically the same thing. I really don’t know why they didn’t just merge the two instead of inventing something else, and have all the hassles of merging, oi, especially when they’ll be using the same printers in the same warehouse…

As it turns out, CS is merging basically as we speak. Which means, all of the Porn Star Brothers paperbacks which I was going to release on the 19th, may not be released. I have emailed CS, but due to the high rate of emails they will be getting, I’m not overly sure if any of it’s going to happen this month. 

But!!!! 

I am also releasing most of my books via Ingram Sparks so they will be available to order in stores hopefully on the 19th, so at least that’s something. In fact, I’ll be uploading them today and hopefully checking proofs next week and then putting them up for sale! 

Yay!

And, the next e-book, Stefan: The New Generation, will be released on the 19th. The pre-sale date may be a little later as I’m still doing the last run through.

I’m also publishing via PublishDrive and Streetlib. It seems to take a while for the books to go through to each individual store, but hopefully by the end of September all of my books will be available on a wider platform and at stores such as Goolge Play, Playster and 24 Symbols.

For self-publishers, it may be trying times, but they are exciting times to find more and more places to sell your books on so you can get them out to the world!

As of next week, I’ll be doing new book posts, showing covers and quotes from Stefan: The New Generation until the sale date of the 19th. After that, I’ll be showing off the paperbacks. Yay!

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LJD OWNERSHIP RIGHTS

The right of L.J. Diva to be identified as the author of her work has been asserted. The author greatly appreciates you taking the time to read her work. Please consider leaving a review wherever you bought the book, or tell your friends about it to help us spread the word.

LJD COPYRIGHT AND CONSENT

2023 AND BEYOND ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, L.J. DIVA.

Requests to publish work from these books should be sent to: authors (at) royalstarpublishing.com.au

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