What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? I live in Iowa
Hi. I have a question about something I've written. I am an author working on getting several of my manuscripts traditionally published. I was approached 4-5 months ago by someone who had seen my writing. She asked if I'd be willing to write a series she had a concept for. She sent me a text, giving me a one paragraph, very generic description of her concept. There was no plot line, no character names or character profiles. It was more a one line concept followed by how she planned to market and promote it. I didn't love the concept because it's not the type of thing I normally write, so I asked her if I could play around with the concept and change some things. I came up with a three page (typed, single spaced) detailed concept with character names and profiles as well as a detailed summary of the progression of the series. She liked it more than her concept and told me to write it. I've written a little over 37,000 words of the series (that equals about 110 double spaced typed pages). Every word I've written is my own. Ever character I've created is my own. I have emails and texts that can prove that I've written everything. I've had beta readers who've read every word I've written as I've been writing it.
I have recently realized that this woman is not someone I want to be in business with and I would like to part ways with her and still legally hold on to my writing. There was never a signed contract between us, and there was never anything in our emails or texts about a formal or informal contract about who owned what. This writing has obviously never been published. I would change the name of the series, because I didn't come up with the name of the series - the other woman did. She also came up with chapter and episode names, so I would change those too.
The one thing I did that might trip me up was doing a mock-up of the first episode to show her what it would look like when we published it. I created a "proof" version of it on CreateSpace, which is much different than actually publishing it. It has no ISBN number and I have since, removed the proof version from CreateSpace. But this woman has a copy of the proof and I put both of our names beside the copyright symbol. I thought it was a professional courtesy since she came up with the series/episode names and the initial concept. Again, none of this was ever officially published and I've never purchased a copyright, so there's nothing on file legally. I've since, removed the proof version from CreateSpace. But I don't know what that means for me legally. Since all of the writing, plot, and characters are mine, can I just change the name of the series and episodes and re-purpose my writing?
Thank you.
Hi. I have a question about something I've written. I am an author working on getting several of my manuscripts traditionally published. I was approached 4-5 months ago by someone who had seen my writing. She asked if I'd be willing to write a series she had a concept for. She sent me a text, giving me a one paragraph, very generic description of her concept. There was no plot line, no character names or character profiles. It was more a one line concept followed by how she planned to market and promote it. I didn't love the concept because it's not the type of thing I normally write, so I asked her if I could play around with the concept and change some things. I came up with a three page (typed, single spaced) detailed concept with character names and profiles as well as a detailed summary of the progression of the series. She liked it more than her concept and told me to write it. I've written a little over 37,000 words of the series (that equals about 110 double spaced typed pages). Every word I've written is my own. Ever character I've created is my own. I have emails and texts that can prove that I've written everything. I've had beta readers who've read every word I've written as I've been writing it.
I have recently realized that this woman is not someone I want to be in business with and I would like to part ways with her and still legally hold on to my writing. There was never a signed contract between us, and there was never anything in our emails or texts about a formal or informal contract about who owned what. This writing has obviously never been published. I would change the name of the series, because I didn't come up with the name of the series - the other woman did. She also came up with chapter and episode names, so I would change those too.
The one thing I did that might trip me up was doing a mock-up of the first episode to show her what it would look like when we published it. I created a "proof" version of it on CreateSpace, which is much different than actually publishing it. It has no ISBN number and I have since, removed the proof version from CreateSpace. But this woman has a copy of the proof and I put both of our names beside the copyright symbol. I thought it was a professional courtesy since she came up with the series/episode names and the initial concept. Again, none of this was ever officially published and I've never purchased a copyright, so there's nothing on file legally. I've since, removed the proof version from CreateSpace. But I don't know what that means for me legally. Since all of the writing, plot, and characters are mine, can I just change the name of the series and episodes and re-purpose my writing?
Thank you.
