A CRASH COURSE IN COPYRIGHT FOR WRITERS
COPYRIGHTS – In the modern era, literally every artist and writer lives and dies on their copyrights. But what exactly is copyright? Where does it come from? Who created it and how? What does it mean? What exactly do you own when you have a copyright? What are your rights to your own work? How do you prove or register your rights? Do you even need to? How long does it last? How do you market it, what are you selling? Where is the line between your copyrights and someone else’s? When is copyright infringed? What about reviews?
A basic understanding of copyright is a fundamental, critical need for any writer or artist to navigate through life. This presentation is intended to provide the tools to appreciate and explore rights. Enclosed are my presentation notes for When Words Collide, 2026.
CRASH COURSE IN CONTRACTS FOR WRITERS
A CRASH COURSE IN CONTRACTS FOR WRITERS – D.G. Valdron
CONTRACTS FOR WRITERS
Used to be Book and Publishing Contracts were very simple.
You signed a contract
Someone gave you money
You delivered a product… Preferably on time.
HA! I LIED!
IT WAS NEVER SIMPLE!!
BUT IT HAS GOTTEN A LOT MORE COMPLICATED!!!
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – COMING AT YOU
We are literally at ground zero of the potentially transformative explosion. There’s so much discussion of AI and so much of it is bad, so much is emotional. Literally every aspect of AI is just… insane! I thought maybe to do a really good panel, we should start bouncing ideas and positions around in advance, take some time to think about things. It’s a huge amount of ground. People feel strongly about this topic, and rightly so. This is not business as usual.
BANNER
BANNER – Commissioned from VistaPrint. Designed myself modifying the templates – so no snark please.
The image is from a photograph of mine from my home town. Fossil Cove is just on the edge of town, Dalhousie, a cove just off the Inch Arran beach (it’s a terrible beach, a field of rocks, but go figure, it’s the tourist site). This is one of the ‘flowerpot’ rocks, exotic shapes carved by ferocious tides. This rock is so big you can literally walk right underneath it.
Apart from it being a relic of home, it resonates with me in a bunch of ways – Fossil Cove, I was always fascinated by fossils, archeology, paleantology. In another life I ight have followed these. It also, from this angle looks sort of like a Bison, a symbol of my current province, Manitoba, and my vocation as an Aboriginal Rights lawyer. The tree growing from the top symbolizes my commitment. When I set up my press, it was the natural choice for an image.
I picked red to set it off as a background. And then I chose different fonts for Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror, just trying to set it out. Made sure my name was on it, and a website. I didn’t put a QR code on. But maybe the next iteration.
I’ve also bought a couple of book stands – Four levels each, 18 inches and 30 inches. I think the 30 incher was a mistake, its too big to transport easily in a suitcase. So I can only use it locally.
Obviously, doing tables. I’m going to try it for a while, see how it goes. It’s a matter of getting out into the world, actually being around people. We’ll see how it goes.
CREATING A COVER
OKAY – Here goes. You need a cover. You have no money. You can’t pay an artist. You have no talent, you can’t draw or do artwork. What do you do?
Well, you get sneaky. I was doing a book, B-Movie Monsters in Love! It’s just a personal project, it’s a fun book and I want it to be out there in the world. But I’m a quirky eccentric guy, and this is a really quirky eccentric book. So while I want it to be available, I don’t know that it will sell. At all. But I need a cover.
The Book’s theme is mainly deconstructing movie monsters. So that’s where I’m heading. I need a picture of a monster. Preferably a public domain picture, one without copyright issues. You can find public domain images if you keep your head around you and look around. Anything from the 19th or early 20th century can be fair game. We’re up to 1931 in the United States. Any image you can find that’s earlier than that is reliably public domain. Some of the stuff after that – from say Night of the Living Dead, or the Hideous Sun Demon is in Public Domain because the registrations got screwed up – you can get a screen capture from those. Or outside the US, the limitation period is 70 years after the death of the creator.
You can also buy ‘stock photo’ images with a legal license to use, from places like Alamy and Adobe. Some cover artists use them. I haven’t.
I poked around and poked around, and I found a really nice poster for the original Lost World, the 1926, Willis O’Brien stop motion animated film. Due to copyright registration issues, the film and its materials had gone into public domain long ago. This was safe.
COMING SOON!!!
Just a little relaxation project, while I’ve been working on other stuff. This is another collection in the same vein of Dawn of Cthulhu, Fall of Atlantis and Murder Chickens on Mars.
The cover art, by the way, is taken from the original poster for the 1925 film, The Lost World, now in public domain. I’ve cropped out the poster for everything but the dinosaur, switched to B&W and played with tints, textures and contrasts till I had something representing the old gray-skinned, leathery/rubbery stop motion dino look, slapped a border around and set it in red to make it pop.
KEYCON 2026
I’ll be doing the Dealer’s Room at Keycon 2026,
Hilton Winnipeg Airport Suites, 1800 Wellington Avenue
May 15th – 17th, 2026
I’ll be going in with other Authors of Manitoba, notably Nancy Walker, Rachael Clark, Sandra Terra and V.H. Balaban.
Since the last Keycon, I’ve got several new books – Squad Thirteen, Murder Chickens on Mars, The Time Traveller Chronicles, 1 and 2. And I’ll be bringing back several classics – Starlost Unauthorized, Drunk Slutty Elf and Zombies, Axis of Andes, the Mermaid’s Tale, Lexx Unauthorized, Bear Cavalry and More. It’ll be great. Don’t give money to Amazon, come to Keycon and give money to me directly! Meet the authors! I’ll autograph. We all do autographs. I’ll give bulk discounts! Cash, Interac or Credit card!
Also, I’ll be doing panels and presentations:
Saturday 9:00 AM – Executive 4 – Worldbuilding Panel – Den Valdron & Casia Schreyer
Saturday 12:00 Noon – Executive 4 – A Starter Guide for Self Publishing – Den Valdron
Saturday 4:00 PM – Executive 4 – Comedy and Sci Fi – Den Valdron & Casia Schreyer
Sunday, 12:00 Noon – Main Room – Authors Roundtable, Den Valdron & Others
Drop by!
The Time Traveler’s Chronicle, Season Two
H.G. WELLS NAMELESS TIME TRAVELER IS BACK to save the day, with mixed results. Alongside the superpowered but sarcastic duo, Heart and Diamond, the Time Traveler meets old friends and enemies, travels from the age of piracy to space opera, stumbles over monsters, and tries to do his best with wit, charm, high intelligence and low cunning. Featuring:
The Pirates of Penance – The trouble with being a Time Traveler is you never know if the past is catching up to you, or if it’s coming back around the other way. The secrets of Heart and Diamond are revealed.
Heartbreak – The Time Traveler’s old foe is back, as a tourist? Featuring Morlocks, aliens and more.
Mourning – The Time Traveler, seeking help, looks up an old friend. Maye ‘friend’ is too strong a word.
Toad Warrior – On his own, the Time Traveler visits a sleepy English village which conceals a supernatural guardian. But even the supernatural ages, and things are about to go wrong.
Debts Owed – Shapeshifting aliens invade a golf course, friends are re-united, enemies are back for another round. The fate of Weena, the secret of the Morlocks and the Time Traveler’s true identity are about to be revealed.
The Time Traveler’s Chronicle – Season One
The further adventures of H.G. Wells’ nameless TIME TRAVELER, with his associates, Heart and Diamond, mysterious twins gifted with sarcasm and superpowers. Season One chronicles five adventures of the Traveler, as he encounters an alien blancmange trying to go home, teams up with Sigmund Freud, tries to solve the murder of a giant frog, flees an extra-dimensional parasite and fights Morlocks on an alternate Earth doomed to destruction. With nothing more than keen intelligence, compassion, a dash of humor and his associates superpowers, the Time Traveler arrives to try and save the day, with mixed results. Featuring:
The Monster of Ness– A community is plagued by an invasion of Lizard Men, who turn out to be regular humans in really bad costumes. But this is only the beginning of the confusion, as each new clue creates an even more impossible mystery.
Vienna 1913 – Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky and Josef Tito are all living within a few square miles of each other in the city of Vienna in the summer of 1913. As the Archduke goes about his business, these four men become embroiled in an alien plot to bring on a war to destroy humanity.
The Clone Soldiers– The Traveler is summoned to Citadel Prime, the world of the Clone Troopers, where everyone looks and thinks exactly the same, but somehow, secrets and conspiracies abound. Can the Traveler figure out what’s really going on and save himself and his Associates?
Time Parasite – The Traveler and his associates find themselves on a famous derelict ghost ship of the Clone Troopers, the Emploder, lost in space for centuries. But they’re not alone, something hungry waits, even as the ship teeters on the edge of the universe.
Volcano– Cast into an alternate universe where a fascist government rules England, the Traveler and his friends struggle to save the planet from impending doom and an invasion of Morlocks. Meanwhile, in a mausoleum, a sinister Dracula-like figure watches and plots its escape.