At what point does fan fiction cross the line into copyright infringement?
You might’ve seen in the news that Netflix is suing “The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical” creators Barlow & Bear for copyright infringement.
Short summary: Two women (Barlow & Bear) went viral on TikTok for their musical adaptation of Bridgerton, and they went on to win a Grammy for their work.
Apparently, they had been in contact with Netflix and established as long as their work was for non-profit, they could continue with their musical adaptation.
However, a few weeks ago, B&B staffed a musical production and sold out an international tour of their “Unofficial Bridgerton Musical” (definitely for a profit) after turning down Netflix’s offer for a non-profit licensing deal.
B&B did exactly what Netflix said they could NOT do, and Netflix replied with a big, “Oh, no, you don’t…” and has issued a copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit on the indie musical composers.
The outcome of the Bridgerton lawsuit can determine how fan fiction, fan art, and derivative works are published.
This entire situation raises an interesting thought experiment for what constitutes fair use derivative work and what crosses the line into copyright infringement.
But first, let’s get into some details about copyright, derivative work, and fair use
Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer; this is not legal advice, just my opinion.
So, copyright laws protect the creator of the work as soon as anything is publicly available. That means that Julia Quinn’s copyright is protected and the main reason why Netflix purchased the rights to adapt her books into a Netflix series.
Netflix owns the copyright to the original work and all derivatives of said work.
However, some derivative work falls under Fair Use, which means that it is unique enough to become a stand-alone work separate from the original and, therefore, falls under the creator’s copyright.
It is said that B&B are confident that their musical falls under fair use and, therefore, does not need to be licensed.
What are the four factors of Fair Use claimed under the Bridgerton Lawsuit?
1. The purpose of the use and if it is transformative from the original – is it commercial or for nonprofit educational purpose?
2. The nature of the copyrighted work
If you’re using factual work in the public domain, it’s more likely to be considered fair use than fictional works.
3. The amount of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
4. Does your version harm the value or potential market of the copyrighted work
You can see how these four factors of fair use are completely subject to interpretation and could be argued either way.
This will be an interesting intellectual property/copyright infringement case that will affect fan fiction and writers, so I’ll be following it closely and will report on the outcome when it’s all over.
How does this affect you as a writer?
The outcome of this lawsuit WILL affect everyone in this space — creators of original works, whether they be derivative and fair use or original original.
It will be interesting to see how a huge content producer like Netflix defends their copyright, and I’m interested to hear B&B’s justification for why they feel the musical falls under fair use.
Also, as writers, we want to ensure we don’t infringe on anyone’s copyright and that nobody else infringes on OUR copyright.
If someone wants to take your story and turn it into something else, you deserve to be paid for others adapting your work.
If someone wants to read your book aloud on YouTube, they need your permission (or your publisher’s permission) before doing so.
Be sure to defend your copyright if you feel people are infringing upon your hard work.
Alternatively, if you want to retell an existing story, you can skip the fair use debacle and adapt works already in the public domain (see Project Gutenberg linked below).
What are your thoughts?
Do you think B&B are infringing on Netflix’s copyright and trademark with their musical?
What would you do if you found your book turned into a musical adaptation?
What crosses the line for you between free promotion by a fan and exploitation of your work?
Reply to this email and let me know your thoughts.
Side quest: if you want to launch your book on Kickstarter this year:
If you’re planning to launch your Kickstarter/IndieGoGo campaign in 2022, we are running out of time on the clock.
My schedule is limited for new clients, so if you’re interested, please book a free discovery call ASAP and complete the questionnaire so we can have a great call!
Tuesday: This Bridgerton fan-fiction/IP stuff is crazy. Do you think web3 could change things?
Wednesday: A huge crypto-centric venture capital fund just released a report on CC0-based NFTs (no copyrights reserved)
Thursday: One of the hottest “traditional” NFT projects out there just announced that they were converting to the CC0 model.
…..
Welcome to CC0 summer everyone! Now that we are here, the first step is to figure out what this means.
(Note – as always, this is new and we are figuring this out at the same time. None of this is legal or financial advice. We are not lawyers nor IP experts, so please do your research!)
What is CC0?
This is explained in much more detail in other places on the internet – notably this a16z report from earlier this week.
But, instead of releasing creative work with “All Rights Reserved” like we normally expect to see, CC0 work is released with “No Rights Reserved.” Notably, this means that creators waive their COPYRIGHT, but NOT the TRADEMARK or PATENTS.
This means that anyone – NFT holder or not – is immediately allowed to build on top of the original creative work. For visual art NFTs, that can mean that a project’s distinctive style can be used for new NFT collections or other types of products.
Creators of the NFT proactively choose this legal framework (it is a strategic choice) because they believe that more people using their art or their story can build brand awareness and add value to the original creation.
This means that NFT creators are skipping the “95 years after your death” IP protection and going straight to converting their work into the creative commons domain.
At a high level, this is kind of weird and counter-intuitive to the “make sure creators get paid” ethos of web3, but it’s a choice that teams are making currently.
So let’s see how authors can take advantage of this new experiment.
(Note – these are NOT all recommended and benefits can change based on each author’s situation)
1) Release a Story NFT as CC0
We are starting with the BOLDEST choice.
This is for authors with a full novel with immersive world-building or a children’s story with lots of fun characters.
By releasing as CC0, you would be allowing anyone (including non-NFT holders) to create fan-fiction based on the world you have created.
If Julia Quinn, the original Bridgerton author had done this, there wouldn’t be any lawsuit between Netflix and the Musical right now.
On the flip side, if she had done this, she wouldn’t have gotten all of the licensing revenue that Netflix paid her for the film rights. She would be hoping that fans of the show went out and bought the books as well.
But, what if instead of looking at the traditional successes like Bridgerton, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, etc., we imagined the stories that NEVER made it?
The stories that were pretty similar in quality or style to those famous works, but never got on a Bestseller List or were optioned for a show. What if, by releasing the IP to the world, they were able to foster a community of fan fiction and branding that propelled them into that top tier?
It is a gamble – not necessarily one we endorse – but a gamble that could pay off big for a risky author.
(Side note: Lisa doesn’t see this is a great model for stories, but could be a source of writing prompts, novel ideas, movie ideas, outlines, etc.)
2) Release a Story NFT with “Licensed Commerical Rights”
Technically, this isn’t CC0, but this might be more palatable to authors. This is the model that Bored Ape Yacht Club (another leading NFT project) used to strong success.
In this example, if you own a particular NFT, you can commercialize that particular NFT.
E.g., if JK Rowling originally sold NFTs for lesser-known characters from Hogwarts, people could create their own back stories and fan fiction around the characters they own.
Or if Pokemon sold NFTs for each animal, the owners could monetize any that they owned.
This is more similar to a traditional licensing deal, and the success of the monetization could drive interest in the projects, raising the value of any resales (a portion of which goes back to the original creator).
3) Writing a story using CC0 NFT characters
We THINK this should work (but each contract is different, so please verify) and could be a really interesting way to start exploring the space.
Here, a writer could find an already launched CC0 NFT project that they like – i.e., GoblinTown, Nouns, or Tiny Dinos and create a story around it.
Whether it was a children’s book or a full-fledged novel, the art would be available to use and has an existing community that would likely support the book. Piggy-backing on the existing community could help a story stand-out in this competitive industry.
Overall
The NFT space is a playground of experimentation, and CC0 models are the latest iteration of that.
Any author with existing IP will need to think long and hard about the tradeoffs of giving up IP rights, but it COULD be worth the gamble.
Writing on top of a CC0 project could be a fun, interesting way to explore the space and stand out from the crowd.
Either way, enjoy your #CC0summer!!!
********
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Like a kid on Christmas morning, I clicked the “Get Started” button on my invitation email from OpenAI DALL-E 2.
Months ago, I joined their waitlist to beta test their powerful AI platform. For the past year, I’ve been experimenting with NightCafe Studio (NC), another AI art generator, with exciting but varied results.
Both AI art generators use text or keyword prompts to create visuals.
So, entering something like, “A wise owl wearing glasses, digital illustration” will result in a wide array of illustrations.
The more specific you are with the text prompts, the more control you can exert over the AI tool, provided you’ve trained the tool using multiple iterations.
After a few attempts, DALL-E 2 created a wide array of beautiful characters — something I couldn’t do with nearly as much ease in NightCafe Studio.
I entered the same prompt in DALL-E 2 and NC to see what both tools provided.
DALLE-2
NightCafe Studio
WOW! Right?
The DALL-E 2 illustration was one of 9 illustrations generated by the tool.
I spent 6 (!!) credits on NightCafe to get an illustration of bizarre-looking vegetables.
In order to get the NC version to look anything like the DALL-E 2 version, I would need to spend a lot more time and credits experimenting with various start images and prompts.
DALL-E 2 is incredibly, incredibly powerful.
More results from DALL-E 2
DALL-E 2 In the News
As I was experimenting with DALL-E 2, Cosmopolitan Magazine published its first cover using a DALL-E 2 generated image.
Source: Cosmopolitan.com
I tried the same prompt myself and the results were not as striking — proving that AI-generated artwork is revolutionary, but still inconsistent.
The inability to duplicate the same image from the same prompt proves 2 things:
1 – Nobody can really “copy” someone else, even if using the same text prompts
2 – Creating consistent images or visuals is extremely hard
The best combination, in my opinion, is leveraging all of the tools in your toolbox.
Use AI to generate a start image and then manipulate further in another editing tool like Photoshop.
Combining DALL-E 2 and NightCafe Studio
My favorite combination is to use DALL-E 2-created images as starter images for my NightCafe Studio prompts where I have greater control over the style and output.
Perhaps it is because I’m more familiar with NightCafe Studio, but I really love how I can control the finished result using my tested prompts.
Here are a few examples:
DALL-E 2
Post NightCafe Studio Edits
DALL-E 2
Post NightCafe Studio Edits
DALL-E 2
Post NightCafe Studio Edits
Ethical Considerations of AI Artwork
A lot of people are seeing the power of DALL-E 2 and freaking out saying that this software will replace artists.
AI can be used to improve our lives, but we are really uncomfortable when it starts replacing artistic creativity.
Employment, privacy, and AI becoming self-aware, are usually always cited as the top concerns for artificial intelligence (and rightly so!).
Sure, we are ok with AI in our cars braking for us in case a child runs into the street.
We are even ok with AI in healthcare to improve health outcomes.
But using AI to generate art?? Now we are in murky waters.
As someone who has been in the AI Artwork space for the past year and interacted with artists using Midjourney, NightCafe Studio, I can say with confidence that it does take a lot of experimentation, time, and effort to figure out how to use text prompts correctly.
A lot of artists say they use AI as their digital paintbrush.
Despite that, innovation and new technology should be approached with caution.
DALL-E 2 has strict limitations on creating artwork that resembles real people like celebrities and political figures.
Currently, DALL-E 2-generated art is for personal use only and cannot be commercialized.
AI can be a visual tool similar to how Billie Eilish and Kanye West experiment with autotune.
Remove the tool from the talented artists and they are still amazing.
Remove the tool from the amateur and they can’t produce the art.
Current limitations of AI Artwork
Currently, one major limitation of DALL-E 2, is that the AI generates completely different images every time.
One may struggle to create a cohesive narrative story with a main character using DALL-E 2 as it is not possible to replicate similar characters or scenes.
At the moment, the tool can be used for one-off visuals, inspiration, designing mood boards, or brainstorming ideas.
While DALL-E 2 is incredibly powerful, the novice user will have a hard time getting repeated results.
If one uses CLIP-guided diffusion tools and has sets of prompts that produce a similar style of artwork, it is very possible to create a book using only AI-generated artwork.
The Future of AI Artwork
DALL-E 2 is the most powerful AI-generator currently available and the results are stunning.
AI-artwork platforms are just finding their footing and they are becoming more powerful every day as users train the AI.
I don’t think AI-artwork will disappear and if anything, we will see more and more AI-generated artwork in our illustrated books, cookbooks, fairytales, magazines, and media.
What I love most about AI artwork is that it allows us all to play in the visual world.
Marketing is cited as the #1 pain in the rump for most writers, which is funny because…
1) marketing and then selling our books is the only way we can continue to write and do what we love,
2) marketing is a great way to creatively express your ideas, and
3) you’re a writer so you are already skilled in the best marketing tool there is—more writing.
But, I totally get it because I often feel the same way. We are selling books, literature, art! We aren’t marketing gadgets or gizmos.
Our stories came from our hearts and it feels wrong to “push” them onto people. We want people to love them just like we do.
Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.
If people don’t see your books, they won’t know they are available for purchase.
As writers, writing should be easy, non?
Facebook ads and Amazon ads, etc., are all great but you gain external credibility when another website publishes your personal essays or articles that are tangentially related to your book(s).
Is it slower and more work to market in this way?
Perhaps, but it should be part of your marketing toolkit and you’d be remiss in not trying it.
Non-annoying strategy #1 – write and publish personal essays
Here’s an example of how to market your book in a personal essay
At the end of the personal essay, the author mentions,
“She wanted to travel the globe, and she did. Because of my mom, I decided to work in food media after college, even though I had zero connections in that world and all my peers were going into finance. I wrote a cookbook while working as a full-time journalist.”
The author bio at the bottom linked to the woman’s cookbook and voilá! This author is effectively marketing her book to a very warm audience.
In fact, she is providing entertainment value and making herself relatable to the audience before inviting them to buy her book.
That’s how you market your book without being annoying.
Do you think readers are more or less likely to share an article about a moving emotional essay about interpersonal relationships than they are an Instagram graphic that says, “Buy my cookbook!”?
Readers are more likely to share writing that speaks to them on an emotional level than they will a clear advertisement.
You have to wine and dine your readers before you ask them to buy. It’s how it works.
Write essays and publish them everywhere
Once you write a killer personal essay with your audience in mind, start pitching it to external outlets.
The bigger the outlet, the tougher it’ll be, but the sweeter the credibility and ultimate reward (more readers).
Research the tone of the articles featured by the publication and match your personal essay to their audience.
This approach gets your book in front of a lot of people all at once without annoying anyone.
You can (and should) feel proud pushing the article on all of your platforms because it’s not screaming, “BUY MY BOOK!”
The downside is that it’s not easy to (successfully) pitch third-party websites your essays and it requires a lot of lead time.
There is a ton of rejection involved in freelance writing and if you’re not experienced, you’re going to become quickly frustrated.
Alternatives to publishing on third-party websites
Don’t have time to pitch and get rejected over and over again?
Here are some alternatives to third-party exposure:
—Publish your essays on Medium —Publish your writing on LinkedIn —Publish your writing on your own website (you should have an author platform, hello!)
—Publish your personal essays directly on Facebook itself. Facebook loves long reads because it keeps readers scrolling and scrolling. End with a strong call to action and link to buy. —Coordinate with other bloggers who might have smaller-than-Conde-Naste-size audiences and see if they take guest posts
Follow the example above—offer authentic, genuine writing that is attractive to your intended audience and weave in the fact that you’ve written a book toward the end of your essay with a link in your bio.
Non-annoying strategy #2 – Optimize your homepage
If the website doesn’t allow links to books/products, then definitely ask for a link to your homepage and make sure your homepage is optimized to send people to your book.
For my current children’s book Kickstarter campaign, I optimized my homepage to be a landing page.
My homepage sent people directly to my Kickstarter campaignthat way if any third-party website articles take off and link to my homepage, readers will be clearly directed to my book’s campaign.
So, in conclusion, forget the ‘Buy my book!” messaging and write another story. Write a behind-the-scenes story. Write something emotional or transformative.
Write your best work and when readers love your essay, they’ll rush out to buy your book when given the opportunity.
Keep your homepage simple and clean, and when in doubt, add a big button to direct people to your crowdfunding campaign.
Don’t lose that traffic that you worked so hard for!
An optimized homepage is the LEAST annoying thing you can do.
You remember – the group of people who agreed to give you their contact information, but you never send them emails because you’re afraid of annoying them?
Here’s how to send emails to your newsletter list without fear of annoying anyone at all:
1 – Send an automated welcome email that is human, casual, and simple.
This lets your readers know that A) you received their information, B) they can learn more about you, and C) they can respond to the email and feel reassured that a real human being is behind the computer.
2 – Test out different headlines.
If someone doesn’t open your email, it means that they didn’t see your message/content OR call-to-action (like ‘Check out my campaign on Kickstarter!”).
Monitoring your email open rates is really important and super informative on what email headlines are grabbing people’s attention and which ones are being ignored.
When you retarget people with a new headline, send the new email ONLY to those people who never opened your first email.
You’re NOT sending them too many emails because they already aren’t reading them and you KNOW IT.
So many authors have this hang up about unsubscribe rates or “bothering people” — I mean, you don’t want people on your newsletter list to just sit there and collect dust, right?
Isn’t the entire point to generate a conversation? Add value to their lives? Get feedback from beta readers?
How can you do any of that if you aren’t regularly engaging with them?
Let’s look at it this way — if you have ZERO issues putting out content on Instagram and responding to comments there, then you should have ZERO issues sending emails to your subscribers.
It’s the same exact concept. They gave you permission to email them, so be sure to email them!
If they don’t like your content, they’ll unsubscribe and be on their merry way — no stress, no drama.
So, test out those headlines and stop worrying about emailing “too often” – there’s no such thing as long as you’re sending them quality content that is engaging, educational, or inspirational.
Want 25 Creative Ideas to get your book in front of readers?
Whether you are launching your book on Amazon, your website, or on Kickstarter, you need to put your book in front of readers 7 different times before they’ll take action.
Do you want to launch your book’s Kickstarter campaign without annoying anyone?
If you’re interested in learning HOW to create a marketing strategy for your book’s Kickstarter campaign that doesn’t annoy your readers, then you are invited to book a 60-minute discovery call.
Serious inquiries only — you must have big goals ($10k or more) and be ready to work hard and invest in your own success.
Last week, we heard from children’s book author Nikki Filippone about why she canceled her book’s Kickstarter campaign after reaching 50% funding in 13 days.
This week, we’ll learn from children’s book author and wildlife photographer, Dennis Glennon, about why he’s continuing with his all-or-nothing Kickstarter campaign for his book, Buddy’s Magic Window.
Below, you’ll find Dennis’ reasoning for why it’s important for writers to not give up on their dreams even in times of economic uncertainty.
Reasons to Continue Marketing Your Books During the Coronavirus Pandemic
Well, there are a lot of reasons. The most important being is that I believe my book is worth fighting for.
I believe it will bring smiles and inspiration to both children and adults. I know it will inspire children to read and want to help animals and the environment.
Despite the current circumstances, I believe that positivity, inspiration, and smiles are needed now more than ever. This book has all of that.
I also believe that when you put enough force and drive behind something that is good, and you work extremely hard to make it happen, it will find the right people to support it.
I also know this will be tough work, and it might fail to reach its funding goal. This is a calculated risk, but I still believe it will get funded.
“Despite the current circumstances, I believe that positivity, inspiration, and smiles are needed now more than ever. This book has all of that.”
Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs Need to Fight Extra Hard
Another reason I kept the campaign going is that I want more than anything to be a full-time children’s book author. It has been a dream of mine for a long time.
This book has been just about ready for over six years. I had health setbacks, which forced me to put the whole project on the back burner.
Whatever the next few weeks or months forces me to deal with will pale in comparison to what I went through to get healthy.
I also believe that when you own a small business, you must be creative, fight, and be persistent to succeed.
Owning a small business and running it full time is no easy task. By continuing a Kickstarter campaign at this time, I will need to fight and scrape for every dollar.
See it as a Learning Opportunity
I am learning new things every day. This campaign is forcing me way out of my comfort zone. The things I am learning will be invaluable as I go forward on my goal to be a full-time author.
The biggest take away is that you will always need to be thinking creatively to sell and market yourself. There are endless opportunities to market, even under the worst circumstances.
Just imagine, if I succeed in bad times, how much better it will be when the economy gets back to normal.
No certainty when that will be, but I will have books and be ready to go.
In the meantime, I will be building an online store and start branding my book. I am going to offer a whole merchandising line.
I will start offering puzzles later on today because they are in high demand since everyone is stuck at home.
With Amazon currently only delivering necessities, it is the perfect time to drive sales to your website where the profit margins are higher.
On a more philosophical note, we are artists, authors, and creatives. We take the time to pour our lifetime of thoughts into a book.
To me, it is a higher calling that we must get our stories, which we are so passionate about out into the world.
Keep in mind that this is a business, and you need an excellent book, a solid following, and a great plan to make this happen.
Competition is more fierce than ever.
To that end, we must work even harder and smarter to get people to buy our books and fund our creative projects, no easy task at the moment.
Advice if You Plan to Crowdfund Right Now
Here’s my advice if you are going to launch a campaign soon: Get professional help!!!
This is no time to play around and try to figure this out on your own. You need a solid plan and following to make this happen.
I hired Lisa Ferland to help me. Her expertise is priceless.
She will put you in the best position to succeed. She has a ton of knowledge and is super generous in helping her clients succeed.
I could not have done this on my own. An added bonus to having Lisa on your team is that she alleviates a large amount of stress. You’ll know you have proper direction or will be re-directed if things start slipping.
I also talked with and follow children’s book author, Jay Miletsky. His business advice is sound and will put you on a path to profit. His groups are awesome, and there are a lot of resources there to help in your book publishing endeavor.
Keep in mind that running a Kickstarter campaign will be a ton of work and more complicated than you think.
At this point, you might want to consider lowering your original goal (before you launch) a little and aim to go over.
I had no way of knowing this Corona scare would happen, but, in hindsight, I wish I would have gone with my original goal of $6,500 and then gone over to the $9,500 that I really need for the 2,500 copies.
I chose 2,500 copies because there is enough profit margin to be able to get a second print run paid for and sustain an adequate profit margin.
Keep Asking for the Sale
So then there is another question “How do you ask people for money in this time of economic uncertainty? “
Ultimately, it is a personal decision, and there are no wrong answers. However, my response is, “How do you not?”
Keep in mind that this is an unusual period, and we should be diplomatic, sympathetic, empathetic, and know our audience, as we do not want to alienate anyone.
The economic uncertainty is brutal, and people are understandably stressed and holding onto their money.
Imagine that this is your full-time business. What would you do? Would you just fold up? Or would you fight for survival?
I think we are safe if we politely ask for the sale and support. People either can and will support, or they cannot at this time, and they will not, and either way, it is OK.
But without asking, we will fail.
Artists Can Help Others Heal in Times of Crisis
I will give you an example of what happened to me post 9/11 when I had an Art Show shortly afterward that may shed some light on the current situation.
I live in NJ. When 9/11 happened, I had an art show scheduled in Montclair NJ not far from Manhattan. I knew people who died in this tragedy, including the priest who baptized me, Father Mychal Judge, who was the Fire Chaplin and a family friend.
I struggled with a lot of things, and one of them is, “Do I go do this art show? How can I possibly ask people for money at this time of tragedy? I struggled with it. Not an easy decision, but I went. That is what artists do. We show up and support.
My reasoning ended up being I will set up my booth and just be there for anyone who needs the support. I will provide a pleasant distraction for anyone that was there, figuring if they were out, that is what they needed.
I did not push for any sales for those two days but talked about my work and certainly accepted the sales that came my way. I learned that people really appreciated the artists that showed up.
We help heal in a time of crisis.
Yes..sales were probably horrible, but I did make some money and provided some much-needed relief. So with that in mind, I could not give up on my current campaign.
Crowdfunding is Tough No Matter When You Launch
I truly believe I can be there for people in need of something positive, a welcomed distraction, and my book has value and that people will feel good about the purchase.
Then when July rolls around and the books are delivered, they will be thankful they helped support the campaign.
Will it be tough? Absolutely!! I was funded 50% of my $9,500 goal the first week.
The second week, when the pandemic started to become more of a reality, and people started getting sent home from work, I only gained 7%. SCARY.
I will have to gently push harder and be even more creative to get to the finish line. I realize that not all people will agree with me on this, and I respect that.
But if you gained just one bit of wisdom or insight in this article, then I have provided value, and I wish us all success in our book publishing journeys.
It is a tough journey, better traveled with the support of good friends and fellow authors who understand the difficulty.
Would I recommend launching a campaign right now??? I would consult with Lisa and Jay’s group to get a better pulse.
Ask me in 2 weeks.
Best wishes to all. Keep up the fight. Most of all, be safe.
Stay healthy and be kind to yourself and others. These are tough times. We need to come together and support one another.
Keeping it positive!
Dennis Glennon is a professional dog, wildlife, and nature photographer. He has photographed some of the most beautiful places in North America including most of the U.S. National Parks. His focus has been on photographing landscapes and wildlife, but once he started photographing dogs it took on a life of its own.
If your morning work routine looks something like this: —check your email, scroll through Facebook/Instagram, like a few posts, open your email, hop on a conference call, and back to checking email again, etc., then you’re not batching your workday.
Batching relieves the pressure of an overwhelming to-do list.
By breaking down your workflow into discrete tasks and dedicate time to them in your calendar.
Bit by organized bit, you can eat that elephant one scheduled bite at a time.
Way back when I felt overwhelmed in graduate school, I would tighten up my schedule and batch my work into one and two-hour blocks.
Every single hour of my day was assigned to a task, project, or activity from 8 am until 10 pm including time for exercise, breaks, and eating.
If you feel you are battling Shiny Object Syndrome, then consider batching your work for a month and see how it feels.
The Strain of Multitasking
Did you know that it takes your brain 15 minutes to refocus after every interruption?
Saying we are “masters of multitasking” is a lie we tell ourselves to excuse our very distracting work environments.
Constantly switching between tasks is mentally exhausting and ineffective. Neuroscientists say that this constant switching is what causes us to feel more tired than if we stayed focused on one task over a long period of time.
If you want to be more effective in your writing habits, marketing, and build rapport with your readers, you might want to test out the power of batching to help you achieve your goals.
What Does Batching Look Like?
Batching your writing tasks will look different for everyone depending on our maximum workflow and weekly needs.
For me, after years of figuring out my who, what, why, and how for my business, my batching looks something like this:
Annual batching
January—plan out six months of themed content that will be helpful for my clients; strategize my book publications; plan out my books’ marketing strategies and overall budget allocation based on projected annual revenue by project
June—plan out the next six months of content and marketing strategies for my consulting, courses, and books based on the last year’s baseline sales revenue
Review these plans on a quarterly basis or adjust as needed
Monthly Batching
On the first day of each month, I do the following:
Mondays: plan out my website’s content for the month and write out every blog article
Tuesdays—design social media graphics for each article
Wednesdays—upload, and schedule; keyword research, optimize SEO
Thursdays—plan out email newsletter content
Fridays—open
Weekly Batching
Block out my time for my clients for the week—every one hour-session takes me three hours in total—one to prepare, one for the session, and one for the wrap-up and deliverables
Schedule one hour/day for writing
Write down my priorities for the week
I also try to squeeze as much juice from every activity as possible and leverage it across platforms.
For example, If I am feeling in a creative video mood, I will write do the following:
write the script, create, edit, and upload the video
use the same script to create a blog post and embed the video into my blog
share across platforms, my newsletter, etc.,
By focusing on one project at a time, I’m really creating multiple forms of content to be optimized on each platform.
Batching Creates Consistency
When asked why McDonald’s is so popular, it’s not the taste or quality of the food, but the consistencyof the restaurant.
Travelers worldwide know what to expect when they walk into a McDonald’s anywhere in the world. The restaurants all look the same, the uniforms are similar, and the entire experience is consistent.
We all need consistency in our writing, social media presence, and performance if we want to be effective in our writing careers.
Consistency is tough without a system in place to keep things running if we fall ill or want to head off to an island retreat.
To keep things consistent, create a schedule that you can commit to.
Batching Leaves Space for Creativity
“Lisa, that schedule looks very Type A. Where’s the freewheeling space for creativity?”
We all have our most productive times during our days, but sometimes, we get a surge of creativity at odd hours and simply must write.
Surprisingly, batching your work can lead to more time for creativity.
Your brain isn’t constantly overworked with task switching and interruptions are minimized.
When you can cross off those pesky tasks that you’ve been avoiding, you create more space for writing.
Batching Improves Action
When we take consistent action in our work, we will make progress toward our goals. The more goals we achieve, the more goals we can set.
It’s really easy to get stuck in Research/Learn Mode where we feel we must learn all about this new tool or software before we can begin to write.
By batching your work and protecting time on your calendar for your creative writing, you will end up taking more action.
It can become addicting to take course after course and listen to webinars on loop in an effort to continue learning and mastering your craft without ever putting it into practice.
Yes, learning is essential to growing as a writer and not wasting your money on Amazon ads, but you’ll learn just as much, if not more, when you start doing the work.
If you keep finding yourself in Research/Learn Mode, turn it into a reward after you’ve finished the thing you’ve been putting off.
“I can only watch this really cool TedX talk after I’ve written 2500 words.”
Win, win.
Hierarchy of Tasks
It’s important to remember that not all tasks are created equal—there is a hierarchy of tasks not all tasks deserve your immediate attention.
While it’s fun to tackle the low-hanging fruit like checking our email, we should always focus on the most important and most urgent tasks first. I know one freelancer who only checks her email once a week!
In conclusion, batching can help you organize your tasks, identify priorities, and help you focus on achieving your goals.
How do you organize your tasks?
Over to you: what systems do you have in place to keep yourself focused?
Do you have dedicated writing time? Dedicated creation time for blogging or podcasting? How do you schedule your work?
Or purchase the Kindle version of each book at a discounted price from the physical books
Kindle Unlimited is $9.99/mth and there is even a 30-day free trial if you’ve never tried it before
Nearly all of the books below are also available on Kindle Unlimited
To create an ebook Advent calendar for kids:
download all of the ebooks beforehand to your Kindle-reading device and place the title of the book on a slip of paper in an envelope so your kids have something to open.
Reading the ebooks are also a great way to see if your kids love the books before you invest in buying physical copies.
The authors will still get a small royalty for your Kindle Unlimited read.
Be sure to leave a review!
Blend old and new books into your Advent calendar for kids
Select some of the books on the list below that interest you the most and wrap some existing books from your children’s bookshelves into your Advent calendar collection.
Borrow books from the library to supplement your Advent calendar
If you can’t find the books below in your local library, then supplement them with another Christmas title. Your librarians will be happy to help you find a favorite.
Children’s book recommendations the 2019 Advent Calendar for kids 3-8 years
1—A Silly Milly Christmas by Sheri Wall
Is Milly naughty or nice? Does she get a glimpse of Santa Claus?
With just two more days till Christmas, will an invite for Christmas coffee be enough to melt Farm Tomten’s grumpy heart so Farm and Yule Tomte can save Christmas together?
While baking holiday cookies, Lulu and Grand-mère amuse themselves by singing a clever rendition of the beloved Christmas carol using knitted items as the gifts.
Year after year, Wilma and Parker nurture their trees, keeping careful count of how many they plant, how many perish, and how many grow to become fine, full Christmas trees.
A sweet rhyming story in which a group of animals recounts the events surrounding Jesus’ birth in the manger, and the parts some of their ancestors played in it.
There is a new snowman in town! Or is he a bully? This charming story will teach your little ones that bullies do not always win and force is not the only way to settle disputes.
Bo just wants to fall asleep before Santa comes, but when the sheep he’s counting rebel and wreak havoc around the house, Christmas Eve starts to go baa-dly wrong.
Maartje Blijleven knows how to organize communities and is an expert at helping businesses maximize their social reach.
It should come as no surprise that she was able to organize her community around her book, We Love Communities, and rocket to the #1 spot for a month on the bestseller charts in the Netherlands by organizing her community.
Over the past 20 years, Maartje has developed thriving communities and has built an incredibly strong network of entrepreneurs, small businesses, and corporate professionals.
Her book, We Love Communities, contains not only her wisdom and experience but the interviews of other experts in the field who share their tips on strengthening communities in business.
Becoming a Chart Topper
Maartje knew how many books it would take for her book to compete with the current bestsellers in her genre.
In order to maximize the number of pre-orders of her book at full retail price, Maartje had to get creative and offer incentives that would appeal to her ideal reader—businesses, entrepreneurs, and conference leaders looking for keynote speakers.
Because Maartje was focused on getting a large quantity of pre-orders prior to her book’s release, her pre-order campaign looked something like this:
—Pre-order 10 books and get the ebook one week before it’s official release (savings of 30.50)
—Pre-order 25 books and get access to her 10-week online training program on building communities (savings of 888.25)
—Pre-order 50 books and get 1:1 VIP strategy coaching from Maartje herself at an incredible discount (savings of 1920)
—Pre-order 100 books and get a remarkable 75% discount on her keynote speaker fees (savings of 3490)
You can see that with each reward level, the savings get greater and greater and appeal directly to her ideal reader.
How did Maartje learn this pre-selling incentivized-rewards selling technique?
She took the self-paced online course, Crowdfunding for Authors, and got tons of feedback on her landing page.
Maartje worked with a traditional Dutch publisher and experienced all of the same writing anxiety and self-doubt every writer faces.
“I felt very vulnerable. Creating something out of nothing feels like you’re asking everyone to take a look inside your head. You cannot hide.”
“At first, I felt insecure to show people my work at an early stage. If I could do it over again, I would’ve involved people sooner in the process so I could have more time to process all of the feedback. The book is so much better with people’s input.”
Tips for your Pre-order Landing Page
1. Know your goals
Do you want a high number of pre-orders like Maartje had or are you trying to raise extra funds to cover the cost of production?
2. Keep it simple
Maartje directed people to pre-order their books on the Dutch equivalent of Amazon.
People who pre-ordered their books then filled out a simple form indicating which reward they ordered.
Maartje offered four (4) reward tiers. Too many options will spoil the soup.
3. Offer rewards your IDEAL READER wants
Maartje was releasing a book around community development so all of her rewards were specifically targeting what people in the community development space needed and wanted.
4. Build your community FIRST
Maartje had 20 years of experience working with businesses, entrepreneurs, and developing a strong network of people who would not only support her book launch campaign but also wanted to employ her services and speaking opportunities.
Without a community of people to whom you launch your book, you’re launching to crickets.
5. Promote your pre-order campaign
Every campaign needs a deadline for people to take action. For Maartje, she started promoting her pre-order campaign on August 3 with a September 24 deadline—so nearly 60 days of promotion.
Would Maartje do it again?
When asked if she’d do it again, Maartje said she would definitely run a pre-order campaign like this again.
With over 1,000 books pre-ordered, future keynote speeches confirmed, and a slew of new clients, the results speak for themselves.
Bio
Maartje Blijleven is a digital community expert and has been building successful online communities since 2000.
As a co-founder of the communities IncludeNow. & WomenTalkTech knows how to start and grow a community.
With We love Communities she helps entrepreneurial professionals and entrepreneurs to be successful with their own online community: for different companies, people and purposes.
At the 2019 Stockholm Writers Festival, Julie Cohen presented on how to learn story structure from Pixar films and it got me analyzing everything in a new light.
Now, I’m much more mindful of the hook of a story and I notice when there is none.
What is it about a movie or book that sucks me in within the first minute of watching/reading?
During her wonderful presentation, Julie went into great detail about story structure and how to create inciting events, climaxes, and resolutions but for this article, I’m going to focus only on the beginning of a story since so many of us (myself included) get it wrong.
Opening scenes should plunge you into the action right away
The scene in Cars starts in all black and you hear the main character giving himself a pep talk before his big race. There are bright lights, the cheers from the crowd, engines revving, and rubber flying.
There’s nothing but action in the first two minutes of the film.
That’s how your book should start—jump straight into the action—hook your reader and get them flipping the pages.
Almost every writers festival has a “first pages competition” where writers submit their first 2-4 pages of the book they are writing for critique.
Make your first lines count
Why are those first pages so crucial?
Those first few pages are what hook your reader and get them to keep reading.
The judges from the Stockholm Writers Festival said that the first line of the story was the most important. They could tell if a story would deliver or not after reading the first line alone.
Since then, I’ve analyzed a lot of first lines of all books in all genres.
Here are a few first lines worth mentioning:
“The two would-be jade thieves sweated in the kitchen of the Twice Lucky restaurant.”
“Jim Gallien had driven four miles out of Fairbanks when he spotted the hitchhiker standing in the snow beside the road, thumb raised high, shivering in the gray Alaska dawn.”
Disney/Pixar movies are pared down, fast-paced, and simplified—that’s why they are so enjoyable.
All authors are competing for our readers’ attention. There is no time to waste because a whole digital world of “whatever I want to explore” is sitting right next to them or is resting in their front pocket.
Jumpstart the beginning of your book—children’s book, nonfiction, or fiction novel—with something magnificent.
The authors of the First Pages competition at the Stockholm Writers Festival said that they spent hours rewriting their opening lines.
Make your opening scene hook your reader and move quickly into motion.
Short stories should start fast
Like in a drag race, you don’t have much time to get your story going if you’re writing a short story.
Practicing flash fiction is a great way to exercise your short writing/sprinting muscles.
I subscribe to the Flash Fiction magazine newsletter to see what people are writing.
Testing out your flash fiction chops on Reddit is also a great way to get reader feedback and hone your writing for free.
Ask any kid if they think farts are funny and 99% of them will giggle and say yes.
Despite a clear flashing green light from our target audience (KIDS), many children’s book writers respond with strong negative emotions when confronted with farts in kid lit.
“I will never buy a book like that for my kids. Not ever.”
“We don’t discuss those things in our house. It’s not proper.”
“Literature doesn’t need to stoop to such levels to entertain. We need better kid lit than this.”
Clearly, even talking about books about farts makes people uncomfortable.
If you’re a parent or a writer (or both) who thinks that fart books are gross and inappropriate, please hang in there with me and read until the end.
In this essay, I’m going to present 5 reasons why we need more fart books in our kids’ lives.
1—Laughing about taboo topics opens a dialogue between adult and child
Having frequent conversations about small issues (like farts) paves the way for parents to have future discussions about much more important topics.
Life changing topics like sex, pregnancy, rape, homosexuality, abuse, and other things that are much weightier topics than stinky airy flatulence.
If a parent struggles with talking about natural bodily functions, how do you think future conversations about the darker topics like sex and rape are going to go?
I volunteer with my local women’s shelter and believe me, we need to be having lots of conversations about sex, rape and abuse with our daughters and sons.
Reading books that make your kids laugh about a silly taboo topic (like farts) shows them that you’re open and willing to have these conversations with them.
You become and remain their safe space for these types of things.
By reading to them about all topics, you’re telling your kids that they can come to you about any problem they may be facing.
Reading a book about farts at age 5 can lead to a conversation about teenage pregnancy later one, which might prevent one and wouldn’t that be great?
See? Books about farts may prevent teenage pregnancy albeit, in a very indirect but important way.
Conversation starters about farts may lead to other interesting conversations you didn’t know you needed to discuss.
As a parent, it’s our job to have these difficult conversations with our kids regardless of how uncomfortable we feel.
2—Silly books improve literacy
Stinky things are funny.
Kids like to laugh. Kids like to watch movies and read books that make them laugh.
Do we need poetic books with elegant prose? Of course. But we also need books that kids like to read.
My mother has been an elementary teacher for over 35 years and as soon as I became pregnant, we instantly acquired an extensive children’s library in our house.
Her most consistent advice about developing literacy in children is to first develop a love for reading.
When it comes to books, parents should take the fun job—make reading as fun as possible for your kids and they’ll learn to love to read.
Make the teachers force the boring literature onto our kids.
If your kid will devour books about underpants or farts then stock the library up and watch them read. In my opinion, it’s better that the kids read something, anything than nothing at all.
There will be plenty of time for the classics but without a foundational love of reading, they’re never going to want to read the classics.
3—We need more books that normalize our body images and self-worth
Fart books are really good for girls to read. Why? Because girls aren’t supposed to fart.
Uh huh, riiiight.
The sooner girls accept their bodies as they are, the sooner they stop hating their bodies for how they are made.
We’re not supposed to acknowledge that everybody farts because it’s taboo.
As a result, we have girls thinking it’s wrong and boys thinking girls who fart are gross.
Proud mama moment: My 8 year old son had his friend over to play and they were sitting together when she let an audible toot slip out.
“Oh! I farted. I’m sorry!” she said, embarrassed.
“No problem. Everyone does it.”
And they went back to playing as if nothing happened at all.
There was no body shaming, no guilting, and no weirdness at all. Total acceptance of something totally natural.
We need more books that normalize the human body for kids.
4—There’s a huge gap in the market for funny books
From a writer/business perspective, this should get your attention. There is a huge hole in the market for smart humor that is well done in this genre.
Traditional publishers are looking for high quality work that makes kids laugh.
We’ve already established that kids laugh at fart books and pee jokes are always crowd pleasers.
If you have a smart idea and execute it well, your book on farts should perform really well.
Just look at I Need a New Bum which has 450 5-star reviews on Amazon at the time of this writing.
Every writer knows how difficult it is to get reader reviews on Amazon and there’s no denying that these books are a hit with tons of readers.
While some writers may turn up their noses at fart books, they are overlooking a very viable marketplace that could pay their bills.
Pay the bills with fart books and write your less lucrative high brow literature on the side.
The market is telling you what it wants.
5—There is power in having fun with your kids
The time you have with your child in your lap is limited and precious. Reading a funny book that makes your kid giggle can relieve tensions and stress at the end of a long day.
The time before bed is some of the best parent-child bonding time we have during the day. It’s nice to fill it with books that are fun.
Books represent safe fun—nobody can get hurt reading a book and they’ll learn something new about themselves or others.
Making space in your child’s life for fun at the end of their day is a great way to heal some of the stresses or worries they may have experienced at school or while you were at work.
Don’t underestimate the healing power of laughter.
Takeaway message:
Don’t take farts or books about farts so seriously. They will help you bond and connect with your kids which will help you have rich conversations about important matters later on in life.
