Combating Unauthorized YouTube Videos of Children’s Books

By Janet Ruth Heller

In late March 2022, I was googling my fiction picture book about bullying How the Moon Regained Her Shape to get the ISBN to fill out an important form. I expected the first Google listing to be my publisher Arbordale’s webpage. However, I was startled to discover that the first site listed was a YouTube video of a woman reading aloud my award-winning book for children and showing all of the book’s illustrations.

Continuing my search, I found three more different YouTube videos of unauthorized people reading my book aloud and showing all of the artwork. While I liked knowing that these people enjoyed my book, I strongly disapproved of their plagiarism.

Copyright law in the United States allows “fair use” of a published book. For example, when I taught college courses about literature for children, I would bring various kids’ books to class to show my students. But posting a video online requires permission from the author, artist, or publisher. The YouTube plagiarists violated my book’s copyright. I was shocked that people would post such a video without permission.

I immediately e-mailed Arbordale Publishing, and editor Donna German asked YouTube to take all four videos down. YouTube quickly complied.

I also posted about this plagiarism on the Michigan SCBWI’s listserv to let my brother and sister writers and artists know that this is happening so that they could check YouTube and other social media, protect their copyrights, and not allow this infringement to continue.

Terry Hojnacki, who also writes for children, is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Sterling Heights Public Library, and is a member of SCBWI-Michigan, saw my post and e-mailed me the following questions: “Do you know anything about librarians reading books and posting online? Would this also be considered a copyright violation?”

The next three paragraphs are my answers to Terry’s questions. 

I have no objection to librarians or teachers reading my seven books aloud to children and adults at a library or school and showing the audience the illustrations. However, I do not think that librarians or teachers or anyone else has the right to post a video or podcast or any other online message copying words or illustrations in my books. The only exception would be if the author, artist, and publisher all approve such a video or other posting of such material. Any legal posting should have a line reading “recorded with permission from Arbordale Publishing” or a similar acknowledgment.

Some of my books exist in many forms, including hardback, paperback, online, English, Spanish, and audio versions. When people post my books online on YouTube and other media, people can access free copies. That cuts into the royalties that I earn from sales of my books in all of their formats. Plagiarism also makes people less likely to ask me to come to a school or library to read my books and discuss them, which is another way that writers and artists earn money.

As you know, we writers and illustrators benefit from sales of our books. Illegal posts and videos of our works hurt our income and our right to decide who gets to show pages or read our books to the public.

Also, I e-mailed the national offices of the SCBWI and requested that the leaders of our organization contact YouTube and other social media to ask for a better policy when individuals want to post material from books or a video of a person reading aloud copyrighted material. People should have to prove that they have permission from holders of copyrights to post pages from books or read books aloud.

However, the national SCBWI Advisory Council has declined to pursue social media who violate copyright protection. The Advisory Council stated that many publishers and countries like Australia have allowed more sharing of book material due to COVID. Writers’ and artists’ contracts with publishers vary in restrictions about how much from each book may be posted for publicity purposes. In general, the Advisory Council felt that this issue is too complex to litigate.

I’m disappointed that the Advisory Council will not insist that social media exclude plagiarists. Most schools have returned to in-person classes in 2022, so I see less need for online posting of books. I would like to see all social media platforms clearly inform users that no one may post copyrighted books without written permission and that individuals who do so will get suspended from that platform.

 

Janet Ruth Heller is president of the Michigan College English Association. She has published four poetry books: Nature’s Olympics (Wipf and Stock, 2021), Exodus (WordTech, 2014), Folk Concert: Changing Times (Anaphora, 2012), and Traffic Stop (Finishing Line, 2011). The University of Missouri Press published her scholarly book, Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, and the Reader of Drama (1990). Fictive Press published Heller’s middle-grade chapter book about sibling rivalry, The Passover Surprise (2015, 2016). Her children’s book about bullying, How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Arbordale, 2006; 6^th ed. 2018), has won four national awards. Her website is https://www.janetruthheller.com.

 

Nine Tips for a Successful Book Signing Event by Janet Ruth Heller

Kathie Allen and Rhonda Gowler Green at Book Beat

August was a busy month for our SCBWI-MI authors and illustrators. Book Beat's 35th Anniversary Party was a day long event featuring authors and books of all genres for children through adults. PAL coordinator, Jodi McKay, organized two events at Barnes & Noble, one for younger readers and one for teens, and then moved on to planning a full day at the Kerrytown Book Festival.

Jodi will be here next week to share more about what goes on behind the scenes to plan these events, using Kerrytown as an example, but today, Janet Ruth Heller is here with tips for a successful book signing event. She's been doing signings since 2006 when her first book for children was published, and she participated in the Barnes & Noble event for young readers last month. Here are her tips:

1) Advance Planning
Because most organizers plan signing events months or years in advance, we writers and artists need to start early, doing research about local events and contacting venues to ask whether the staff members want us to participate. For example, many places have pre-Christmas/Chanukah book fairs and signings. Libraries and bookstores often present authors and illustrators reading their work to children on Saturday mornings or afternoons. We need to find out who coordinates these events and ask to be included.

2) Work Closely with the People Who Staff the Venue
If we are selected for a speaking engagement, we should find out all of the details. Here are some questions to ask:
How old are the children who come?
How long will I have to read my book and/or talk about it?
Am I the only visiting writer/artist, or are there others coming?
Will I have a microphone?
Will you announce the reading/signing over your public address system?
Is this event indoors or outdoors or both?
Will you provide a table and chairs for me, or do I need to bring these myself?

3) Practice How to Read Your Book Creatively
Although authors and artists are busy people, we need to find time to practice reading our work aloud in a way that gets the attention of children. Youngsters have trouble focusing and sitting still, so we should offer them a very entertaining presentation to keep their attention. If we get invited to participate on a panel discussion for adults, we need to prepare at least an outline of our major ideas and to practice our talk. We should make eye contact with every member of our audience and speak loudly enough to be heard.

Art activity from Shmulik Paints the Town by Lisa Rose

4) Bring a Craft or Other Activity for Children
Some writers bring an illustrated page from their books without any color so that youngsters can use crayons to fill in the picture. Because my book How the Moon Regained Her Shape has a scene in which the characters exchange gifts, including a beaded necklace, I often bring beads and nice strings for the children to make their own necklaces or bracelets. At some events, I have led the audience in singing some funny songs.

5) Cooperate with Other Authors or Illustrators at the Event
Group signing events can often draw a larger audience than an event featuring one person. For example, Jodi McKay of the SCBWI-Michigan chapter organized a signing at the Barnes & Noble in Brighton, Michigan, on Saturday, August 5, 2017. Kathie Allen, Deborah Aronson, Jack Cheng, Kim Childress, Jodi McKay, Amy Nielander, Jordan Scavone, Maria Dismondy, J. A. Eaton, and I participated. Of course, all eight of us told our friends and relatives about this event, which increased the number of people who came to the bookstore. Many customers stopped to look at one book and wound up purchasing books from the other writers and artists at the same table. Also, we SCBWI-MI members bought books from one another. I purchased six books for my great-nieces and -nephews from my colleagues.

6) Proudly Hawk Your Merchandise
My father was a businessman, and he taught me to be proud of good merchandise and to hawk it to potential customers. So when I go to signings, I boast, “I/ We have great books for children here!” Or I proclaim, “I’ve got an award-winning book about bullying!” These verbal appeals bring curious people over to a table to look at books.

Jordan J. Scavone

7) Make a Display Attractive
Authors and artists can draw people to their book tables by dressing up like characters in their books, bringing a large poster of the book cover, and using stands and other devices that display books attractively.

8) Bring Promotional Materials
I recommend that writers and artists also bring fliers, business cards, or bookmarks about their books to signings. Some people are not ready to purchase a book immediately, but they often order it later, using the information on my fliers. My handouts also have details about how to contact me for school visits and other speaking events. So one speaking event may result in several more engagements.

9) Personalize Your Autograph
Customers like writers and artists who find a way to personalize autographs. For example, Ruth McNally Barshaw draws sketches next to her autographs. I don’t have her artistic talent, but I try to write something about the child or adult who is purchasing my book, such as “I enjoyed meeting you and visiting your class at Amberly School today.” Such autographs make people feel special.

Janet Ruth Heller has taught literature, linguistics, creative writing, and women’s studies at various colleges. She has published the poetry books EXODUS, FOLK CONCERT, and TRAFFIC STOP; the scholarly book COLERIDGE, LAMB, HAZLITT AND THE READER OF DRAMA. Fictive Press published her middle-grade chapter book about sibling rivalry, THE PASSOVER SURPRISE (2015).  Her picture book about bullying, HOW THE MOON REGAINED HER SHAPE (Arbordale, 2006), has won four national awards.. Learn more at www.janetruthheller.com.




For more tips for successful author events, see these posts from SCBWI-MI members:
Breaking Out of Your Circle by Melanie Hooyenga
Jordan J. Scavone's Tips for a MightE Signing Event

Coming up on the Mitten blog: Hugs and Hurrahs! We want to trumpet your success. Please send your writing/illustrating/publishing good news to Patti Richards by September 25th to be included. Plus, take-aways from our fall conference, and a new Featured Illustrator!

Janet Ruth Heller, Grammar Guru: Sentence Fragments in Fiction and Poetry for Children

Janet Ruth Heller is back for her second Grammar Guru post! In this ongoing column, she addresses common grammar problems and questions that she frequently encountered during her thirty-five years as a college professor of English literature, composition, creative writing, and linguistics. Here's Janet:          

Fragments are clauses or phrases that lack a subject, lack a verb, or lack both a subject and verb. Although most teachers ban sentence fragments in formal argumentative or informational writing, fragments add realism, develop characters, and create emphasis in fiction and poetry for children. However, overuse of fragments weakens literature.

Very young children often speak in short fragments. For example, in Judy Blume’s novel TALES OF A FOURTH GRADE NOTHING, two-and-a-half-year-old Fudge uses many incomplete sentences that include the word no. When he does not want to eat lamb chops, Fudge tells his parents, “No chops!” (chapter 3, p. 23). Later in the same scene, he also turns down corn flakes and shouts, “NO EAT!” (p. 24). These negative fragments show readers how uncooperative and rebellious Fudge can be.

Ordinary informal conversations of both adults and children are full of fragments. In Robert Kimmel Smith’s novel THE WAR WITH GRANDPA, the main character Peter resents having his grandfather take over Peter’s bedroom. The ten-year-old boy wants Grandpa to move out, so Peter commits hostile acts designed to get his room back. Here is dialogue between Peter and his grandfather that includes fragments (in bold).

“You think you’re one slippery customer, don’t you?” he [Grandpa] asked.  “Lots of tricks.”

“Not tricks,” I said.

“Oh, no? What would you call stealing my slippers then?”

“Gorilla warfare.” (chapter 20, p. 65)

Here, two family members argue about their relationship using several incomplete sentences. Note that Peter’s spelling mistake in using gorilla instead of guerilla emphasizes his immaturity.

When adults and children experience traumatic events, our lives often seem shattered. Sentence fragments can reflect this disintegration. In Kathryn Erskine’s novel MOCKINGBIRD (mok′ ing-bûrd), the first-person narrator is a ten-year-old girl with Asperger’s syndrome named Caitlin Ann Smith. Caitlin is a talented young artist, but her life is very difficult. Caitlin’s mother died of cancer, and her older brother Devon has just died after a shooting at his high school. Erskine uses many fragments (in bold below) to reflect the girl’s grief and confusion. “The gray of outside is inside. Inside the living room. Inside the chest. Inside me” (chapter 1, p. 2).

Similarly, teenaged Matt (short for Matilda) in Erskine’s novel QUAKING loses her mother due to an abusive father. A warmongering teacher gives her an F on her pacifist essay and causes her Quaker foster father Sam to lose his job. Toward the end of the novel, violent classmates beat up Matt, and the thugs have just firebombed the local Quaker meeting house, injuring her foster parent Sam. Matt does not know whether he will survive. Although she previously did not consider herself religious, Matt finds herself praying in fragments (in bold).

For Rory’s sake, let him live.

Jessica sobs.

For Jessica’s sake.

The sirens are louder.

For my sake. (Chapter 34, p. 234)

At this moment, Matt realizes that she feels like an integral part of this family, and when Sam hugs her, Matt brings her foster brother Rory and her foster mother Jessica into the hug. This moving scene marks a turning point in Matt’s life that brings the teenager out of her fear and isolation.

Because fragments create special emphasis, we writers need to use them sparingly. Having many incomplete sentences strung together weakens the special effect. If a speaker occasionally thumps the podium to highlight a statement, that is effective. However, if the speaker pounds the podium with every sentence, the pounding will lose its impact. Similarly, a paragraph with too many arbitrary fragments alienates readers. I recommend that writers check to make sure that every incomplete sentence in their fiction or poetry serves a clear and important function.

Janet Ruth Heller, President of the Michigan College English Association, wrote the poetry books EXODUS, FOLK CONCERT, and TRAFFIC STOP; the scholarly book COLERIDGE, LAMB, HAZLITT AND THE READER OF DRAMA; the middle-grade fiction chapter book THE PASSOVER SURPRISE; and the award-winning children’s book about bullying HOW THE MOON REGAINED HER SHAPE. Learn more at www.janetruthheller.com.











Coming up on the Mitten blog: Vacation! There will be no post next Friday. I'm taking one last summer vacation, and since I'm a #PitchWars mentor, my edits are due on my mentee's manuscript. Lots of reading and thinking and discussing over the next two weeks. Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Don't forget:
We want to celebrate with you! Patti Richards is gathering good news for the next round of Hugs and Hurrahs. Please email her your writing, illustrating, and publishing news by Monday, September 25th to be included. And send along your congrats: Patti's picture book manuscript, CUPINE'S PERFECT DANCE PARTNER, won an honorable mention in the 86th Annual Writer's Digest Contest in the children's/young adult fiction category!

Cheers!
Kristin Lenz

Janet Ruth Heller, Grammar Guru: Agreement of Subjects and Verbs

Introducing Janet Ruth Heller in her first Grammar Guru post! Janet will address common grammar problems and questions that she frequently encountered during her thirty-five years as a college professor of English literature, composition, creative writing, and linguistics. Today's post is a back-to-the-basics lesson as Janet explains the agreement of subjects and verbs in fiction. Here's Janet:

In most English sentences, the subject and verb are right next to one another, so it is easy to make them agree. If the subject is singular, the verb should be singular; if the subject is plural, the verb should also be plural. For example, in the sentence “Molly likes pizza,” the subject “Molly” is singular, so the verb “likes” is also singular.  In the sentence “Molly and Jack like pizza,” the subject “Molly and Jack” is plural, so the verb “like” is also plural.

Note that people who have not grown up speaking English find it confusing that this language uses an s to make nouns plural but also uses an s to make present tense verbs singular. So if a character in your story is just learning English, he or she will probably have trouble with subject-verb agreement, and you may reflect that in your dialogue. Also, young children who are just learning English will not make subjects and verbs agree perfectly, so you do not need to make toddlers sound like college professors.

Similarly, the United States, England, South Africa, India, and other English-speaking countries have dialects that make subjects and verbs agree differently. Each dialect has its own subject-verb agreement rules. When you portray a character who knows a nonstandard dialect, such as Cockney English, Chicano English, or African American English, you should do research on the rules of that dialect. Also, be consistent in having that character not add s to singular present tense verbs, for instance.

Even native speakers of English have trouble with what we linguists call “blind agreement.” In about thirty percent of sentences, the subject and verb get separated by other words. When this happens, a writer has to work harder to determine what the real subject is. For example, in the sentence “The playground of the children has flooded,” the adjective prepositional phrase “of the children” comes between the subject “playground” and the verb “has flooded.” Although the plural word “children” comes right next to the verb, “children” is not the subject, so the verb needs to be singular. Similarly, in the sentence “Any student who talks back to teachers gets expelled from school,” the adjective relative clause “who talks back to teachers” separates the singular subject “student” and the singular verb “gets expelled.” Despite the fact that the plural word “teachers” is right next to the verb, “teachers” is not the sentence’s subject. In standard English, a verb must agree with its subject, not any nearby word.

Of course, if your story has characters who are learning English, who speak a nonstandard dialect, or who are very young, their conversation or monologues need to reflect their struggle with blind agreement. For example, a child, vernacular speaker, or immigrant might say or write in a journal, “My friends from Detroit comes with me to the State Fair” or “My friend from Detroit come with me to the State Fair.” Flawed subject-verb agreement adds realism in fiction for children.

Janet Ruth Heller, President of the Michigan College English Association, wrote the poetry books EXODUS, FOLK CONCERT, and TRAFFIC STOP; the scholarly book COLERIDGE, LAMB, HAZLITT AND THE READER OF DRAMA; the middle-grade fiction chapter book THE PASSOVER SURPRISE; and the award-winning children’s book about bullying HOW THE MOON REGAINED HER SHAPE. Learn more at www.janetruthheller.com.











Coming up on the Mitten Blog: Frequent contributor Charlie Barshaw has officially joined the Mitten Blog editorial team! Come back next Friday for our quarterly Writer Spotlight feature where Charlie will shine the spotlight on one of our SCBWI-MI members. Who will it be?

Registration is now open for the SCBWI-MI Fall Conference with early-bird pricing until August 5th. Don't delay - spots are filling up fast and the conference is expected to sell-out. Learn more and register here.

Hugs and Hurrahs!

Sarah Perry aka S.J. Lomas is celebrating the release of DREAM FREQUENCY, the sequel and conclusion to the DREAM GIRL duology. What a gorgeous cover! 

Neal Levin's poem BROTHER FOR SALE was published in the April 2017 issue of SPIDER. Cheers, Neal!

Monica Harris continues her steady sales (16 pieces!) to Data Recognition Corporation in various states which provide content for school state wide assessments. The specific topics are confidential, but here's a sample from her Wisconsin work:
*  Grade 4 Listening assessment - kids listen to the passage and then answer questions concerning the topic.

*  Grade 3 Informational assessment - students read about the nonfiction topic and then answer questions concerning their understanding. 
Congrats on your steady work, Monica!

Rebecca Grabil signed a contract with Eerdmans Books for Young Readers for the picture book, MAMA EARTH'S NEW YEAR, to be published early 2019.

Plus, her picture book with Atheneum, HALLOWEEN GOOD NIGHT, will be released July 25th! AND, it earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly!

Jean Alicia Elster has been selected to receive a 2017 Kresge Artist Fellowship in Literary Arts, awarded by Kresge Arts in Detroit, a program of The Kresge Foundation. We're so proud of you, Jean Alicia!

Shutta Crum, Jean Alicia Elster, Jack Cheng

On May 3rd, SCBWI-MI members Shutta Crum, Jean Alicia Elster and Jack Cheng joined fellow-author Ruth Behar at Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor for a special Children’s Book Week middle-grade authors panel. Shutta served as panel moderator and guided the authors in a discussion on a wide range of topics from diversity to character motivation. What a great event!

Buffy Silverman wrote four titles for Lerner Publishing's SHARK WORLD series. TIGER SHARKS IN ACTION, ANGELS SHARKS IN ACTION, GREAT WHITE SHARKS IN ACTION, and MAKO SHARKS IN ACTION are swimming out this month. Way to go, Buffy!

On June 24th, Kazoo Books in Kalamazoo hosted a reception for the Oakwood Neighborhood Association’s annual Oakwood Neighborhood Reunion. Local writers attending this reunion and autographing their books for children included SCBWI-MI members Janet Ruth Heller and Kate Seifert.  

Plus, Janet Ruth Heller was interviewed about her books and advice for writers on author Mindy McGinnis's website. 

Mary Vee's junior fiction book for elementary readers, WILLIAM WORTHINGTON WATKINS III, featuring a boy main character, veterans, and mystery with humor was published in May and is available on Amazon.

Amy Nielander

Amy Nielander's picture book THE LADYBUG RACE earned a Bronze Medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards, Children's Picture Books category. See all of the winners here. We're thrilled to see your book and artwork continuing to earn accolades!

Kristin Bartley Lenz's article, THE POWER OF CONTESTS: CREATE YOUR OWN LUCK, was published on the Writer's Digest Guide to Literary Agents Blog.

YARN (Young Adult Review Network) published Heather Smith Meloche's short story, TRIFLES, about complicated sisterly love and tough choices. Bravo, Heather! Read the story HERE.


Kirbi Fagan won the Jack Gaughan Award for Best Emerging Artist 2017 (Presented by the New England Science Fiction Association) and she's a Muddy Color Rising Star 2017! She's also our 2017-2018 SCBWI-MI Illustrator Mentor!

And we saved the best news for last: Charlie Barshaw has officially joined the Mitten blog team! Charlie has been a frequent contributor for some time, and now he's taking over the quarterly Writer Spotlight feature for Patti Richards. Stay tuned - he might be reaching out to interview YOU!

Coming up on the Mitten Blog: Nina Goebel unveils our new summer blog banner and introduces our next Featured Illustrator!