I have always loved Harper Lee. Many claim To Kill A Mockingbird was written by Truman Capote, but after reading it and In Cold Blood (and Breakfast at Tiffany's) I claim In Cold Blood was ghost written by Harper Lee. Capote had no legal background. Lee's father was a lawyer who defended cases similar to the one presented in To Kill a Mockingbird (and In Cold Blood). Lee vowed to never write another book again--in part because of the snub and insinuations she had not written her own book. Capote promised another novel that was even better than the previous one, but never produced anything but drivel. Why would Lee need to go with Capote when he was interviewing the criminals for In Cold Blood if she was not involved in writing the book? Truman was a jealous person as reflected in the biographies of him. He admittedly wanted to be in the spotlight. Alice (Lee's sister) stated he started the rumor, and I have no doubt he did. He probably thought by bringing Lee to write for him that he would get an award for writing a semi-true crime account (I have no doubt that idea was his). Instead, his book was interesting but not revolutionary enough to get him a prize.
Fast forward to 2007-- Harper Lee had a stroke and was moved in to a retirement facility. Her sister who was approaching 100 began having trouble being the gatekeeper any longer. In 2011, Alice Lee stopped practicing law and her only partner got unlimited control of Harper Lee. Tonja Carter, who had earlier allowed Harper Lee to confirm signing over her rights to Pinkus (a seedy, fly-by-night literary agent), suddenly decided the deal was not in Harper Lee's best interest and initiated a suit against Pinkus with one of the top literary lawyers in the country. Ironically, 2011 was the first time Tonja could have possibly come across Go Set a Watchman (the rough draft of to Kill a Mockingbird). However, at the trial in 2011, Harper Lee was basically declared incompetent of signing anything. This did not stop her new lawyer, Carter, from starting to give her a slew of papers to sign.
My theory is that Tonja had no problems with Pinkus holding the rights to To Kill a Mockingbird, until she found Go Set a Watchman. Upon the retirement of Alice from the law firm, Carter was now the sole lawyer in a firm who had one primary client, who was older and infirm. I am sure it did not take Carter long to figure out that she needed to secure a more stable income. Being a rough draft, if Carter published Go Set a Watchman it would be too close to To Kill a Mockingbird to qualify for its own copyright. Therefore, in order to publish the "new" novel, she had to get those rights back.
The trial deemed that Harper Lee was too infirm to make her own decisions in 2011 when she initially signed the agreement with Pinkus. How could she then be competent to make any decisions afterward?
Immediately after the court case, Lee started allowing things that she had never before allowed--her book is made digital, despite constantly stating she would never write again, she writes another book and wants to publish it! The problem is that it was Carter people were talking with--not Harper Lee. However, Carter made Lee more inaccessible than Alice did. No one was allowed to interview her and even friends were turned away. The state of Alabama was called in to investigate if Lee's rights were being abused. The problem is that the state of Alabama was not a uninterested party. If To Kill a Mockingbird brought tourism to their humble state, imagine what a sequel would do!
The state determined that Ms. Lee was aware her book Go Set a Watchman was going to be published and had agreed to it. The problem is that the publisher and Carter were promoting Go Set a Watchman as a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird and not as the rough draft. And that was not how Harper Lee would have seen it. Of course Harper Lee agreed that To Kill a Mockingbird could be published!!! It already was. She probably couldn't figure out why people were making such a fuss. In her mind, Go Set a Watchman and To Kill a Mockingbird were one and the same--as a rough draft and final book would be in any author's mind. Add to this her infirmities, and I have no doubt she was not aware of the full extent of what HarperCollins and Carter schemed behind her back.
While I can forgive Carter for allowing the book to be published (if she was truly ignorant enough to think it was a sequel), I cannot forgive HarperCollins for promoting it as a sequel. They should have known it was the rough draft. I also cannot forgive Carter for creating a "foundation," naming herself one of two trustees of that foundation and then having Lee sign a will 8 days before her death (keeping in mind she had been declared infirm years earlier) that gives all her assets to that foundation. If Carter wanted to validate the will, it seems she would have had someone who was a long-time friend of Lee be the witness instead of a nursing home employee.
This sad story shows that no matter what you do during your lifetime as an author, someone will always be there to try to take advantage of you and steal your copyrights upon your death. Look at "Happy Birthday to You" or "Kookaburra." The copyright law is a good thing, but in many cases it harms authors. What happens to your work after you die should be your decision and not the decision of people around you when you are infirm. Personally, I want my children and descendants to benefit from any copyrights held at my death or I want my work to enter public domain if I have no descendants to benefit. Authors need to have both the right to their work and the right to push their work into public domain early if they desire, but publishing corporations hate that.
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Monday, August 27, 2018
I Need a Translator!
Sometimes people amaze me at how vague they can be when posting a job. For example, someone today showed up in my feed and basically the post read like this:
I need help translating technical documents. I will give you further details when hired.
For those of you who don't know Guru has a free 10 bids per month service, but most established professional freelancers pay for our bids. That means we only bid on jobs that are good fits for our skill set because we don't want to waste a bid on something that doesn't match.
When someone posts a vague description, most of the good freelancers will not apply. Placing "keywords" that further the description is not a good idea, but in this case the only keyword was "translation."
Translators, as you might guess, specialize in certain languages. What you also might not guess is that many translators only translate one direction. In other words, I translate Latin> English but not the other way. Usually translators do not know every language in the world. This is why if you want your book translated you need to be specific:
"I want a translator for my book. The book is currently written in English. I need it translated into Portuguese, Hindi, and German."
You will probably not find one person who can do this because you specified multiple languages. Once a book has been translated you should find someone who is a native speaker of the language to edit it. Editing a translation is an entirely different job than editing a book normally.
When someone gives you a translation to edit, you need to be able to first tell the person if the translator did a good job or put it through Google translate. Note: If a translator states they can translate any language in the world- they are using Google translate. Most translators use software to improve the speed of the translation, but these translations are still dynamic and readable.
Second, a translation edit needs to maintain all the qualities of the original text as best it can. This means you cannot do any developmental editing. The keys to a translation edit is (1) does it read smoothly or does it read like a translation and (2) are all the words used correctly? In some cases, something might not have come through correctly. Unless the editor is also familiar with the language, these should go back to the translator to fix.
You can find many freelancers to translate your work, but you need to have it checked by others. Good translations usually cost $0.10 per word or more.
I need help translating technical documents. I will give you further details when hired.
For those of you who don't know Guru has a free 10 bids per month service, but most established professional freelancers pay for our bids. That means we only bid on jobs that are good fits for our skill set because we don't want to waste a bid on something that doesn't match.
When someone posts a vague description, most of the good freelancers will not apply. Placing "keywords" that further the description is not a good idea, but in this case the only keyword was "translation."
Translators, as you might guess, specialize in certain languages. What you also might not guess is that many translators only translate one direction. In other words, I translate Latin> English but not the other way. Usually translators do not know every language in the world. This is why if you want your book translated you need to be specific:
"I want a translator for my book. The book is currently written in English. I need it translated into Portuguese, Hindi, and German."
You will probably not find one person who can do this because you specified multiple languages. Once a book has been translated you should find someone who is a native speaker of the language to edit it. Editing a translation is an entirely different job than editing a book normally.
When someone gives you a translation to edit, you need to be able to first tell the person if the translator did a good job or put it through Google translate. Note: If a translator states they can translate any language in the world- they are using Google translate. Most translators use software to improve the speed of the translation, but these translations are still dynamic and readable.
Second, a translation edit needs to maintain all the qualities of the original text as best it can. This means you cannot do any developmental editing. The keys to a translation edit is (1) does it read smoothly or does it read like a translation and (2) are all the words used correctly? In some cases, something might not have come through correctly. Unless the editor is also familiar with the language, these should go back to the translator to fix.
You can find many freelancers to translate your work, but you need to have it checked by others. Good translations usually cost $0.10 per word or more.
Monday, August 20, 2018
Do Writers Make Good Editors?
I was reading another profile on Guru, and this person said they were an excellent editor because they had written so many articles that were published. This doesn't make sense. If writers were such good editors, there would not be editors for every traditional publishing company and magazine and pretty much anything in print.
As a writer, if you submit a work that is riddled with the errors that many people make, your manuscript will be rejected. An occasional misspelled word here and there will be overlooked as well as will more intense grammar points- did you use a comma splice, oh well.
Capitals at the beginning of a sentence and punctuation at the end of sentences will not be tolerated. As an adult you should know better. If you consistently misuse to and too, that will probably get you rejected as well. But editors overlook a lot because they know the nuances of grammar escape the general public. If you are a really good story writer, they can fix those problems. Writers are not expected to know style manuals, but it is hoped the writer will be consistent in using things like serial commas (or not using them).
If you are self-publishing and the only credentials an editor has is that he or she has been published (especially with only articles or a long list of self-published tomes), you are probably throwing your money down the drain. Why? Because these people will only be able to get your book in enough shape for a real editor to look at it. They will probably charge real editor prices to do it, too.
Yes, you can have good writers who are also good editors, but this takes two different skill sets. A good editor will be familiar with a style guide, will have a style guide they prefer and will own a copy of any style guides they use. For fiction, this is usually Strunk & White. Every fiction author should also own and use this book.
A good writer and editor will never say, "I write these great articles so I am obviously a good editor." No one can self-edit well. In fact, I frequently say that no one should use fewer than two editors and a proofreader.
If you send stuff to an editor and it comes back with only a few errors marked- you probably have a MS Word editor. Spell check is a great feature but it misses almost everything, unless you frequently forget to capitalize and punctuate your sentences. Then it will fix all of that and leave the other 70 errors per page alone. Yes, when I edit, it is not uncommon on a first pass to find 70 things wrong per page. By the third pass, the proofreader should be picking up almost nothing, but there will still be things wrong. The main job of a proofreader is to ensure everything is formatted correctly, which is why spelling and grammar should be pretty clean at that point.
Teachers usually make great editors (but not necessarily good writers). They have been editing tons of papers for years. The higher the grade they taught, the more likely you are going to find a good editor.
So, I always talk about editors I would recommend (aside from myself): Pam Pieroni and Joy McCullough (not on Guru anymore). Without having used them but based on their solid Guru profiles, I would give Visual Writing Communication and Paul Words a shot. What makes these two stand out? Their profiles are well developed, and Paul Words even goes to the effort of using a semi-colon appropriately on his.
I will not link to bad freelancers nor will I post their names. If you are hiring an editor, you should be able to spot poorly filled out profiles, misspelled profile words (if you don't know how to spell a word when you are reading someone's profile, you should look it up to make sure they are not only spelling it correctly but also using it correctly), glaring errors such as using ALL CAPS!!! Do not hire someone who uses all caps. That tells me they are uncertain which words they should capitalize or they don't realize no one wants to be screamed at on a webpage.
As a writer, if you submit a work that is riddled with the errors that many people make, your manuscript will be rejected. An occasional misspelled word here and there will be overlooked as well as will more intense grammar points- did you use a comma splice, oh well.
Capitals at the beginning of a sentence and punctuation at the end of sentences will not be tolerated. As an adult you should know better. If you consistently misuse to and too, that will probably get you rejected as well. But editors overlook a lot because they know the nuances of grammar escape the general public. If you are a really good story writer, they can fix those problems. Writers are not expected to know style manuals, but it is hoped the writer will be consistent in using things like serial commas (or not using them).
If you are self-publishing and the only credentials an editor has is that he or she has been published (especially with only articles or a long list of self-published tomes), you are probably throwing your money down the drain. Why? Because these people will only be able to get your book in enough shape for a real editor to look at it. They will probably charge real editor prices to do it, too.
Yes, you can have good writers who are also good editors, but this takes two different skill sets. A good editor will be familiar with a style guide, will have a style guide they prefer and will own a copy of any style guides they use. For fiction, this is usually Strunk & White. Every fiction author should also own and use this book.
A good writer and editor will never say, "I write these great articles so I am obviously a good editor." No one can self-edit well. In fact, I frequently say that no one should use fewer than two editors and a proofreader.
If you send stuff to an editor and it comes back with only a few errors marked- you probably have a MS Word editor. Spell check is a great feature but it misses almost everything, unless you frequently forget to capitalize and punctuate your sentences. Then it will fix all of that and leave the other 70 errors per page alone. Yes, when I edit, it is not uncommon on a first pass to find 70 things wrong per page. By the third pass, the proofreader should be picking up almost nothing, but there will still be things wrong. The main job of a proofreader is to ensure everything is formatted correctly, which is why spelling and grammar should be pretty clean at that point.
Teachers usually make great editors (but not necessarily good writers). They have been editing tons of papers for years. The higher the grade they taught, the more likely you are going to find a good editor.
So, I always talk about editors I would recommend (aside from myself): Pam Pieroni and Joy McCullough (not on Guru anymore). Without having used them but based on their solid Guru profiles, I would give Visual Writing Communication and Paul Words a shot. What makes these two stand out? Their profiles are well developed, and Paul Words even goes to the effort of using a semi-colon appropriately on his.
I will not link to bad freelancers nor will I post their names. If you are hiring an editor, you should be able to spot poorly filled out profiles, misspelled profile words (if you don't know how to spell a word when you are reading someone's profile, you should look it up to make sure they are not only spelling it correctly but also using it correctly), glaring errors such as using ALL CAPS!!! Do not hire someone who uses all caps. That tells me they are uncertain which words they should capitalize or they don't realize no one wants to be screamed at on a webpage.
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