Authors, Publishers and Lawyers
Discover more from Temple of Artists
Authors, Publishers and Lawyers
The endless dance
First edition of Anastasia
Last week's feature, "The Ringing Cedars Series", was a reprint of an article that appears in my book For The Curious (1st edition ©2012, 2nd edition ©2017). Judging by reader comments and private emails there is interest in purchasing these books, but readers report that the books are either priced very high, or unavailable. I apologize for not checking on their availability before I raved about them; I assumed they were readily available either on Amazon or the Ringing Cedars website. But as Monty Python advised us years ago, when you 'assume', you make an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'.
It seems that many people are losing faith in allopathic medicine and are looking for health solutions that insurance won't pay for. They are turning to other sources of information for healing. (I will be publishing an article soon on healing properties of music and sound, but books are also a great resource.) So it's especially disappointing that the "Anastasia" books are mostly not available (other than the first title), since they contain a wealth of information on healing as well as other topics.
But since I have the complete set (that I purchased little by little in 2011) as well as some additional titles by an affiliate publisher called Deep Snows Press, I looked in the books for contact information and came up with a phone number and an email. I called Ringing Cedars Press to see what's up with the books.
I spoke with Valerie, the owner. She was on her cell phone; I think she was driving. Here's the scoop:
There is a legal dispute between Ringing Cedars Press, which owns the trademark on the books, and Vladimir Megré, the author. The lawsuit has been going on for some time and currently appears to be unresolvable. However, Valerie tells me that as soon as she sells out the books she has in stock, she will have no further need of the trademark and this may propel the lawsuit towards a resolution, enabling future editions of the books to be printed. She told me she's been working on the Anastasia project since 2005. She's done.
Now, how to get the books: the last existing shipping palette of books is on its way from Russia to the U.S. as we speak. The books are expected to arrive at the end of August and Valerie welcomes readers to call or email her at that time to make an order. She requests that you NOT contact her right now because she hasn't received the shipment yet. So at the end of August I will provide her contact information to my readers in case they want to pursue obtaining the series, which will surely become a collector's item in the future.
Cynthia, a TOA member, has suggested looking for the books in a public library. Even if you do not live in the U.S., I believe it’s still possible to read digital editions of certain books online through the public library system. I went to Open Library and they sent me to a site called World Cat that lists a number of libraries who have at least some of the books, although I don’t know if they’re in print or digital format, or both. Perhaps one of our members can research this and respond in the comments.
How is it possible that such an incredible book series has fallen out of print? Having had some experience in the glamorous world of publishing, I can illuminate some of its arcane aspects. In 2002 I had my first music instruction book published by Music Sales Corp., one of the top music publishers in the world. It is still in print more than 20 years later and it is distributed by Hal Leonard, another of the leading publishers. The company was so pleased with my book that they contracted me for four more books which became part of their Step One series for beginners. Two of those are still in print.
Saxophone book by Tim Price published by Hal Leonard
In the course of making the books I started to learn the intricacies regarding publishing rights. For example, I wanted to have photographs of famous musicians in my books but I was not able to do this because one publisher owns photography rights, another owns print rights, another owns digital rights, another owns sound recording rights, etc. But since all the publishers are basically in bed together, they make deals with each other, and that's how things get done. Sort of like how governments work. In fact, exactly how governments work. It's a trickle-down situation.
For my Step One books I could only use melodies in the public domain. That's why all beginner books always have the same songs: Hot Cross Buns, Au Clair de la Lune, Frère Jacques, etc.
However my first book, Practice Like the Pros, did not have any rights issues because it's comprised of original exercises by 20 professional saxophonists and features their photos and them demonstrating the exercises on the two accompanying CDs. All the contributors were paid for this.
Page 29 of Practice Like the Pros
My vision was to present a book* where students could learn from many teachers at once, instead of just one. I did a lot of work editing all the bios and the explanations of the exercises so that it was a uniform presentation. But I made a big mistake. The company wanted me to make Practice Like the Pros books for all the instruments! They wanted to start with rhythm section instruments because that's what sells best. But like an idiot, I insisted on making the woodwind books first because that's what I was comfortable with. My refusal to start with the rhythm section books resulted in no additional Practice Like the Pros books being made. I wish now that I hadn't been so insecure, because now I'd be collecting royalties not just on a couple books, but on a dozen at least. Not that the royalties are much at this point–they don't even hit three figures any more. Which brings me to the next disclosure.
A typical contract gives a 6% royalty for U.S. sales, but only half of that for foreign sales. Payouts are twice yearly. But you have to understand that the publisher will only promote your new book for a few months. After that, you're like that Israeli conductor who couldn't keep time, "Yoron Yorown."
Not that I wasn't warned about this. Because I was a young, cute thing, the older guys took me under their wing and told me stuff about the publishing biz that would otherwise have taken me years to figure out. At my first publisher's convention, one of the older authors told me that if I didn't promote my book myself, or hire someone to promote it, the book's royalties would shortly decline. How right he was.
In retrospect I suppose it's not rocket science, but I'd been under the impression that once you have a publisher (who has a fancy office on Park Avenue in New York as well as London, Paris, Sydney, Copenhagen, Berlin, Tokyo and Madrid) then you were automatically on their promo roster forever. How wrong I was.
So, why didn't I start promoting my books? I guess because I was too busy being a musician. How obsessed I was.
I am planning some future instruction books, but this time I will self-publish them to start. My dear friend and colleague Tim Price used to do that, he published with the big boys but he also had what he referred to as his "underground" books.
Excerpt from Tim Price’s underground book The Prez
So when I heard from the Ringing Cedars publisher that there were legal issues preventing the publication of new books, I was not surprised. Authors and publishers are at odds so often that there's a whole separate category of law called Intellectual Property that deals specifically with copyright, patent and trademark issues. I was one of those naive authors who so believed in her book that when she got a fancy publisher for it she thought she was in like Flynn. Little did she realize that little toehold on the slippery wall of fame and fortune would disintegrate if she didn't bolster it, care for it, lavish attention on it. Sort of like how relationships work. In fact, exactly how relationships work.
Now that Miss Author is older and wiser and sees fit to dispense her worldly advice to readers, one hopes she'll not abandon her creative undertakings because of the overwhelming amount of work involved in seeing them through to the marketplace. Then again, perhaps said undertakings will become as the ancient, mysterious codices carefully inscribed on papyrus rolls and palm leaves and sequestered in remote monasteries, only to be discovered centuries later by curious humans....if any are left.
In any case, the work continues! As my favorite bumper sticker of the 1970s said:
"Go to your studio and make stuff."
* the book is priced high on Amazon for some reason…better to buy it on another site
###
Authors, Publishers and Lawyers
When I lived in London, I worked in a store that specialized in rare, out-of-print and reprints of poetry. At one point the owner re-published some of Ezra Pound's fascist wartime pamphlets. There was an uproar over that and eventually, in his late 60's, went to prison for copywrite infringement. Even though those pamphlets had been out of print and circulation for nearly 20 yrs., and no one else was interested in reprinting them, and the original publishers no longer existed. Don't poke the Lion.
As an aside; Drum books are some of the worst sources for learning to play Jazz. Then there's all that nonsense about "rudiments," and no one ever tells you that there are only 3 rudiments: Single strokes, Double strokes, and Flams. All the others are made up of combinations of those three.
After spending 2 yrs., in high school, going through the Jim Chapin Be-Bop drumming book, I could play all the Max Roach "licks," and new very little about how to create my own phrases, then, one day, while listening to Bird's Now The Time album, it dawned on me that Max was playing off the structure of the melodies. Duh. After that, I just learned the songs and forgot about the exercise books. It's probably different for melodic instruments. IDK.