Copyright Registration News

Just saw pointed out on a publishing list that the US Copyright Office has a major backlog; so if you register a book now, it will be considered registered as soon as they receive the complete registration, but you may not receive the paperwork for sixteen to eighteen months.

Translation is a Pain

I have two short stories (not so short) by classic (pseudonymous) French writer J.-H. Rosny (sr.), that I'll be including in some future cryptofiction anthologies. One is about an African explorer encountering some strange gorillas, the other involves giant intelligent vampire-bats and other creatures in an underground realm. (There may be a few more stories in this collection I'm using, but as I can't read French, I'll have to translate first and determine later.)

I've started on the gorilla/wild man story, but of course, mechanical translation devices (I'm using Google translator) only give the words, not the sense of what is being expressed. So I'm sure it will take me a little while to figure out how to convey it correctly. I do think it's odd nobody has translated these previously.

Also, I'm going to have to ditch the G. K. Chesterton story that involves a scientist and his bias against sea serpents, which I was planning to use from his posthumous collection The Coloured Lands. Copyright again rears its ugly head, though I'm not convinced that it is copyright here in the states. I've discussed this briefly with the literary agent, and she is not certain whether there was a simultaneous publication in the US and UK in 1938. If there was, then the collection is public domain here in the US, as it was not copyright renewed. If it was published in the UK more than 30 days prior to the US publication, then it is copyright protected here in the US, and will be until 1933. Either way, the collection goes into the public domain in the UK in 2009. (I'll say it again: US copyright rules are absurd.) From book notices in both the London Times and the New York Times, it appears the book may have been published simultaneously in December 1938, but I can't prove it.

I'd really like to include a few more sea monster/ aquatic creature stories in the anthology, so any story suggestions would be of interest.

Something To Look Forward To (In 2019)

Sad to say, but I've postponed my edition of Gould's Case for the Sea-Serpent due to copyright reasons. While going over a last-minute consideration, I ran across mention that when a book is published outside the US more than 30 days before the US edition, the copyright policy must follow the first country's rules. Drat it all. The US edition was published 4 years after the UK edition, with no substantial changes as far as I know. This means my edition can't be published until 2019. (Unless I can track down and make arrangements with the Gould estate; unlikely, but I'll make inquiries.) [To the lucky few who ordered copies prior to my cancellation, you've got a very, very limited edition.] What's killing me is there is a Singing Tree reprint from the 1960s or so, and I'm pretty sure they considered the text public domain. But... that's the way it goes.

UK vs US Copyright

I'm trying to finish up my reprint of Gould's Case for the Sea-Serpent this evening, and after a little investigation realized that I'll only be able to offer US distribution of the title, rather than US/UK as with most of my books. UK copyright is life of author + 70 years, which means this book won't be public domain in the UK until 2018, another ten years. Because it had a US printing in 1934, without copyright renewal, it is public domain here. While my UK sales are trifling, I was expecting to sell at least a few copies over there, so this is a little annoying, but not much I can do about it. (Technically, my books would be "published" in the US, and "printed" in the UK, but I'm too uncertain of legal liability in this instance to take a chance.)

Gould's Loch Ness book would also have the same copyright period in the UK, but it never had a US printing (as far as I know). So, in the US, it won't be in the public domain until 2029, 95 years after publication in the UK. So, we won't be seeing reprints of those (legal ones, at least), unless the Gould estate gives permission.

Similarly, I would love to reprint Gandar-Dower's The Spotted Lion, but it's not in the public domain, and I have no idea how to get hold of his estate.