Sunday, November 22, 2009
Gamadin Book Series Classroom Guide
The Gamadin Series Classroom Guide is here! Follow this link to download the complete (pdf) guide here, or if you would like a hard copy, contact Francesca Romero at Fran@gamadin.com, and she will send you one FREE!! It's an exciting resource for your classroom.
Mowgi Sculpture
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Having an Effect
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Happy 234th Birthday U.S. Marine Corps!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Life Magazine on Google
Google Books has done it again! They've published every LIFE magazine from 1936 to 1972. Students, if you want to add a lot of WOW to your paper, check this archive out. The pictures are incredible, not to mention the ads. You won't believe what things cost back in the 40's, 50's and beyond. Check out your parents, or better yet, your grandparents' birthdays and see what was going on in the world when they were born. Amazing!
Here's a link for the August, 1969 special edition (pic above) on the first moon walk: http://tinyurl.com/ykndxal
The April 7, 1952 edition has movie star Marilyn Monroe on the cover, but if you look carefully up in the right-hand corner is an article: "The Case for Interplanetary Saucers" That was over 60 years ago! How cool is that? http://tinyurl.com/yfron3r
Put Google Books in your Favorites. It's a great resource for any time.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Book II, Gamadin:Mons available!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Can You Copyright a Title?
A: Copyrights cover works fixed in a tangible format, but because titles are typically short, they don't fall under copyright protection. So no, you can't copyright a title to a book, song or movie. But you can trademark a title, which may give you the protection you seek.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states that a trademark protects words, phrases, symbols or designs identifying the source of the goods or services of one party and distinguishing them from those of others. Brand names like Pepsi, Xerox and Band-Aid are all protected. So is the Nike "swoosh." But more relevant to us, book titles such as The Da Vinci Code and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone are trademarked.
Unlike copyright protection, which is granted the minute your work is written down, trademarks aren't handed out so freely. In fact, if the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office doesn't consider your title (or brand) a distinctive mark that is indisputably distinguishable from others, you will not be granted trademark protection. This is why you see so many books with the same—or very similar—titles. Many of the terms are considered too generic or arbitrary to warrant protection.
Trademarks are not only intended to protect the creator, but also the consumer. Trademarks keep others from confusing a well-known work on the bookstore shelves with others. For example, Harry Potter is such a popular, distinguishable character by J.K. Rowling that you'd expect any title with his name in it to be written by her (or, at least, a book approved by her). It's not only her work, but it's become her brand.
So if you use the title of your book as the title of your blog, column, etc., it could be considered your brand identifier. And if you find success, you could qualify for trademark protection.
Brian A. Klems is the online community editor of Writer’s Digest magazine.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Leonardtown Middleschool Writer's Club
I had the privilege of speaking to the Leonardtown Middle School Writer's Club two weeks ago and spoke to over a 1,000 students while I was in Maryland, two weeks ago. Go to the link here to see the news article the local paper wrote about my recent visit.
Getting Back to Blogging
It's been a long time since I last blogged. I apologize for that. The problem for me is that I've been so busy keeping up my website, writing Book III this summer, Twittering and Facebook, speaking to over a 6,000 students so far this year, that keeping up with my blog has had to take a back seat. When you wear a lot of hats, something has to give, and my blog was it. To my pleasant surprise, many of my fans loved the blog, which I didn't know until recently. Now that I have been slapped on the hand for neglecting part of the Gamadin experience, I will do my best to keep up with my blog. The goal will be to post at least once a week or Mowgi will take over the discipline. Thanks for your understanding. Tom.