Writers and Editors

• Barcoding Guidelines for the U.S. Book Industry (Book Industry Study Group, BISG) Barcodes are the machine-readable codes found on the packaging of almost every product we buy. They consist of a series of numbers and patterns that allow for easy and quick retrieval of information about a particular item. For a book to be sold by large retailers and brick-and-mortar stores, it must have a barcode. This barcode includes the book’s unique ISBN (International Standard Book Number) and often its retail price.
      Barcodes assigned to books can be classified into two types; those that incorporate prices and those that don’t. The price, when included, is represented by a five-digit code. The initial digit of this code signifies the currency in which the book is priced. Bowker.com is the only official source for ISBNs in the US, and having one from them will make your book searchable by the big retailers.
• Barcodes for Books: What They Are and Why They’re Important (The Book Designer, 9-21-23)
• Frequently Asked Questions About Barcodes (Bowker)
• Identifier services for publishers (Bowker) Whether you're a self-publishing author or general trade publisher maintaining a backlist of thousands of titles, Bowker offers critical resources to satisfy your needs, including assignment of unique identifiers, collection and distribution of metadata, and related publishing services. MyIdentifiers.com – also available for the Australasian market (myidentifiers.com.au) – makes it easy to purchase ISBNs, barcodes, QR codes and the full range of other services Bowker offers to help connect publishers with book buyers.
• FAQs about barcodes (IDAutomation.com, Your source for quality symbology)
• 2D barcodes launch in 2027 (GS1 Digital Link, Bar Code Graphics: US Barcode Authority) More change ahead! The venerable UPC barcode will be replaced by QR codes.
• Placing an ISBN barcode block on your book cover (Yaquin Press) Never buy a barcode. You can generate them for free.
• Barcodes for Books (Wendy J Woudstra, Publishing Central). Answers basic questions: What Is a Bookland EAN Barcode? Where can I get one? Where Can I Get a Bookland EAN? Do I Also Need a UPC Code? Where Can I Get a UPC Code? Don't Barcodes Contain the Mark of the Beast?
• Barcodes for Books: Labels for Book Publishing (Electronic Imaging Materials) “The barcodes found on the back of books are called Bookland EAN or EAN-13 bar code symbols. The EAN barcode is created from the ISBN for the book. Although the EAN barcode is much like that used for general retail merchandise, the numbering system used to generate the bar code for books is different.”
• Barcoding Guidelines for the United States (Book Industry Study Group, BISC)
• Register Your Book: The Essential Guide to ISBNs, Barcodes, Copyright, and LCCNs, a book by David Wogahn. See his post on Jane Friedman's blog, Why Self-Publishing Authors Should Consider Establishing Their Own Imprint.

---

Guest post by William H. Reid

 

Small group presentations are sometimes best served by good mic/speaker combinations, not just a mic.

(1) SIMPLE, EFFECTIVE, CHEAP.

Consider a "teacher's microphone" (also used by tour guides) with a small speaker worn around the neck or clipped to a pocket. Check them out on Amazon & elsewhere for $25 to $75. The mic is usually a "head mic" with a light headset and a little microphone placed near the side of the mouth, connected (sometimes wirelessly) to a small speaker worn around your neck. Battery operated (usually rechargeable), hands-free, self-contained, easy to walk around. ZOWEETEK makes several and sells one with very good ratings on Amazon for $35.80. There are many others.

(2) LESS SIMPLE, NOT SELF-CONTAINED, MORE VOLUME, BETTER SOUND.

If you're planning to stand in one place, such as at a podium, you'll need a mic (and maybe a mic stand if you don't want to hold the mic), a simple speaker/amplifier, and a cable to connect them (there are also wireless systems) and bring an extension cord for those times when the electrical outlet is far away. (Tape to secure the cord is a good idea if people are walking by). That sounds like a lot, and may often be overkill. The simplest version, bare-bones, should cost about $100-125.

(3) SIMPLE, NOT SELF-CONTAINED, WALK-AROUND.

If you're not speaking from a lectern, it's great to be able to walk around. A hand-held mic is fine, either with a cable (though that limits mobility) or with a wireless connection to the speaker/amp. Wireless mic/speaker combinations are great, and not very expensive (probably starting under $100, but check the ratings for quality) for book club/readings purposes. If you already have a non-wireless mic or speaker/amp, consider a wireless adapter on each (starting at about $50 per set) to free you up.

(4) HANDS-FREE, NOT SELF-CONTAINED.

If you need both hands away from the lectern or mic stand, consider a "head mic" (similar to what singers often wear on TV, but without the earpiece), clip-on or lavalier (old-school). Those generally come with a little transmitter pack that clips onto a belt or pocket, and the simplest ones transmit to a wireless receiver on the speaker/amp. Sets, including a simple speaker/amp, suitable for small-group speaking may start under $100, a little more with better sound. For any of the above, be sure the system is clear enough and loud enough for your purpose, and that any wireless version works within the distance you anticipate (usually "Bluetooth" distances of 20 to 100 feet).

(5) MIC ONLY.

If the venue is large or professional enough to have its own public address (PA) system, they probably have a mic for you, but you may want to bring your own. (Be sure yours will plug into—or communicate wirelessly with—the venue's PA).

 

Forensic psychiatrist William H. Reid is the author most recently of A Dark Night in Aurora: Inside James Holmes and the Colorado Mass Shootings, which draws on 23 hours of unredacted interview transcripts never seen by the public and Reid's own research to bring the reader inside the mind of a mass murderer. The result is a chilling, gripping study of abnormal psychology and how a lovely boy named Jimmy became a killer.

 

See also Public Speaking, PA Systems, and You (The Small Venue Survivalist)

---

Useful for journalists and the sources they need to find.

• Anewstip: Connect with global media influentials. A one-stop PR platform that helps entrepreneurs, PR professionals and marketers search for relevant media contacts (journalists, editors, etc.)
• Cision (formerly PR Newswire): Offers a media database and journalist query service.(formerly PR Newswire)
• ExpertClick (slightly different format) Connecting experts with the news media
• Expertise Finder Search engine to help journalists find university-based subject experts and sources for interviews and articles.
• Gorkana (Cision One) Provides media intelligence, including journalist queries and alerts.

• Media Kitty (disappeared on me)
• Muck Rack Combines journalist queries along with media monitoring and analytics. Optimize your media relations with easy-to-use PR software
• PitchRate Free PR leads. A free PR tool that connects journalists and the highest rated experts.
• Qwoted  Connects journalists with expert sources for media requests. "Suddenly, Connected."
• ResponseSource A media database and journalist request service that makes it easy to connect with the media in the UK and Ireland.
• SourceBottle Find a source. Be a source.
• Yearbook of Experts Experts, authorities, and spokespersons.

Any more to list (with links)?

 

Source: Jmcolbert at aol dot com (on ASJA discussion group)

A pre-election reform plan for the media

 

You can read the full Media & Democracy article here.

The following are just the headlines.

 

COVER ELECTIONS LIKE THEY MATTER MORE THAN SPORTS SCORES

Prioritize substantive coverage of the issues that matter to voters' lives.
Make headlines accurate and informative, not clickbait.
Stop making predictions and pushing polls at the expense of issues coverage.
Celebrate and uplift election workers, voters, and the election process.
Don't set aside moral judgment when covering obvious lies and bigotry.
Hold politicians to account for their positions, statements, and behavior, as well as those of their party's leader.
 

MAKE THREATS TO DEMOCRACY CLEAR

Inform voters of the freedoms they will lose if the MAGA movement wins.
Abandon false equivalence between traditional and fascistic candidates. 
Expose candidates who foment political violence.
Call out lies and bad behavior in every piece of reporting.
Prominently cover the Big Lie-fueled attack on election legitimacy and voting rights.
 

PROTECT AMERICANS FROM DISINFORMATION

Avoid euphemisms that conceal and normalize extremism.
Explain that disinformation by MAGA is a strategy.
Don't platform liars or act as stenographers for strategic MAGA lies.
Include a public figure's history of coup participation when quoting them.
Inoculate Americans against a repeat of the Big Lie strategy.
Build public trust by explaining the newsroom decisions you make about elections.
Have a plan for handling deepfakes.

 

You can read the full article here:

A non-partisan, grassroots organization called the Media and Democracy Project has just published an open letter to executives, publishers and union leaders of major media organizations.

    You might recognize the names of some of the nearly 4,000 letter signers: Norman Ornstein, Mark Jacob and Ruth Ben-Ghiat. I have respect for each one of them and their perspectives, and have quoted them all in my own work. -- Margaret Sullivan

https://www.mediaanddemocracyproject.org/2024-election-coverage

 

Margaret M. Sullivan is an American journalist who is the former media columnist for The Washington Post. She was the fifth public editor of The New York Times and the first woman to hold the position. On Nov. 2, 2023, Sullivan was named the executive director for the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security at the Columbia Journalism School. ~

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Sullivan_(journalist)

 

---

Originally published 5-7-24

As you may recall, law enforcement officers in a rural Kansas county raided the offices and homes of the editors of a local newspaper, seizing electronic newsgathering equipment and reporting materials -- resulting in a nationwide uproar over the threats to our First Amendment principles of a free press. Following are some articles about the incident.

---A conversation with the newspaper owner raided by cops (Marisa Kabas, The Handbasket, 8-12-23) Eric Meyer says his paper had been investigating the police chief, Gideon Cody, prior to the raids on his office and home. They did so because of a complaint by a local restaurant owner named Kari Newell. [This is the piece that took the story viral.]

---How a small-town feud in Kansas sent a shock through American journalism  Read More 

Notes from an interactive New York Times Opinion piece

See it for specific dates, photos, and fuller copy

 

"For Americans who may have forgotten that time, or pushed it from memory, we offer this timeline of his presidency. Mr. Trump's first term was a warning about what he will do with the power of his office — unless American voters reject him."

 

Check out the article, click on headlines there for full copy, and see abundant photos here: Donald Trump's First Term (NY Times, 7-18-24). As you read, picture what was happening when he says or does the following (lines from the Times article, my bolds added):

 

(2017) What Trump does or says...
Jan.     "This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period."

           Tries to defund sanctuary cities in an effort to ramp up deportations.

           The Muslim ban. In an executive order, Mr. Trump, without warning, closes the Read More 

"Democracy is a team sport, we are all in the starting lineup, & every day is game day." ~ Indivisible

 

• Trump lost the election, but he won the online disinformation war (Peter Geoghegan, openDemocracy, 11-9-2020) "Social media platforms have allowed US conservatives to delegitimise the election and sow mistrust of democracy. Posts by far-right news site Breitbart had been shared three times as often as posts from the official pages of every Democratic member of the US senate combined in the previous 30 days....As Tuesday night moved into Wednesday morning, Trump held the Sunshine State comfortably, mainly thanks to Latino voters in the state's most populous county, Miami-Dade, shifting in huge numbers from Clinton in 2016 to Trump this time around. Why? One reason is the months of YouTube videos and Facebook posts that led many in Miami to believe that Biden was a stalking horse for socialism, anathema to the city's large Cuban ex-pat population. These conspiracy theories were shared widely and then repeated incessantly on Spanish-language radio."

• Special Counsel Asks Supreme Court to Decide If Trump Is Immune From Prosecution (Adam Liptak and Alan Feuer, NY Times, 12-11-23) Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting former President Donald J. Trump on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, asked the Supreme Court on Monday to rule on Mr. Trump’s argument that he is immune from prosecution. The justices quickly agreed to fast-track the first phase of the case.
      “This case presents a fundamental question at the heart of our democracy: whether a former president is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution when he has been impeached but not convicted before the criminal proceedings begin,” Mr. Smith wrote.
      The trial judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, rejected Mr. Trump’s sweeping claims that he enjoyed “absolute immunity” from the election interference indictment because it was based on actions he took while in office. In her ruling two weeks ago, she condemned his attempts to “usurp the reins of government” and said there was nothing in the Constitution or American history supporting the proposition that a former president should not be bound by the federal criminal law.

 

---Does the president have immunity from prosecution? ~"The President is not above the law. But under our system of separated powers, the President may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for his official acts."

      "A sitting president of the United States has both civil and criminal immunity for their official acts. Neither civil nor criminal immunity is explicitly granted in the Constitution or any federal statute."
---TRUMP v. UNITED STATES (U.S.Supreme Court decision, July 1, 2024)
---Are Former Presidents Immune From Criminal Prosecution? We’re Still Not Sure (Anna Bower, Quinta Jurecic, Lee Kovarsky, Natalie K. Orpett, Roger Parloff, Benjamin Wittes, Lawfare, 7-2-24) On the very last day of the Supreme Court’s 2023 term, the Court handed down its ruling in Trump v. United States, concerning the former president’s potential immunity from prosecution over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Rather than resolving the issue clearly, a 6-3 conservative majority found that presidents enjoy some immunity from criminal prosecution in some circumstances—a ruling that will likely create significant problems for the case against Trump. Scroll down on that site for further articles:
---A Decision of Surpassing Recklessness in Dangerous Times (Quinta Jurecic, Benjamin Wittes, Lawfare, 7-2-24) The Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States would have been wrong and dangerous at any time. It’s uncommonly so with Trump poised to retake power.
---Broad Reflections on Trump v. United States (Jack Goldsmith, Lawfare, 7-2-24) As Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent emphasized, the decision could give an unscrupulous president wide scope for corrupt behavior. The dissent exaggerates when it says that the Court’s decision makes the president “a king above the law” and “empower[s]” the president “to violate federal criminal law.”
---A Rule for the Ages, or a Rule for Trump? ( Trevor W. Morrison, Lawfare, 7-8-24) The majority opinion in Trump v. United States badly misstates principles of separation of powers to immunize hypothetical future presidents—in service of immunity for Trump himself. 'As Justice Sonia Sotomayor put it in her dissenting opinion in the case (which Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined), the indictment against Trump “paints a stark portrait of a President desperate to stay in power.” Do read this article.

• People Power: Revisiting the origins of American democracy. (Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 10-24-2005) Both an essay on what democracy is (how it is defined) and a review of The Rise of American Democracy by Sean Wilentz

     "Sean Wilentz traces a historical arc from the earliest days of the republic to the opening shots of the Civil War....Wilentz brings to life the era after the American Revolution, when the idea of democracy remained contentious, and Jeffersonians and Federalists clashed over the role of ordinary citizens in government of, by, and for the people. The triumph of Andrew Jackson soon defined this role on the national level, while city democrats, Anti-Masons, fugitive slaves, and a host of others hewed their own local definitions. In these definitions Wilentz recovers the beginnings of a discontent: two starkly opposed democracies, one in the North and another in the South -- and the wary balance that lasted until the election of Abraham Lincoln sparked its bloody resolution."

• A User’s Guide to Democracy (ProPublica) Congress Works For You. Here’s How to Be a Better Boss. Short guides to understanding political ads, seeing what your representatives are actually doing (or not doing), etc. Sign up for personalized emails from ProPublica, which specializes in investigative reporting.

• How to Follow Your Congressional and Local Elections in 2022 (Karim Doumar and Cynthia Gordy Giwa, ProPublica, 10-23-22) From competitiveness ratings to campaign contributions, there’s a lot to follow in local and down-ballot elections. Learn how to decipher election coverage in this edition of the User’s Guide to Democracy.

--- A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Nick Capodice and Hannah McCarthy with illustrator Tom Toro

• What if a U.S, presidential candidate refuses to concede after an election? (Van Jones, TED Talk about how to stop a coup, October 2020) You can read transcript as you listen. "The president’s litigation strategy is unlikely to succeed, but it’s doing great harm in the meantime." Explaining why the customary concession speech is one of the most important safeguards for democracy, Jones exposes shocking legal loopholes that could enable a candidate to grab power even if they lose both the popular vote and the electoral college.

     Did you know "that under our constitution a presidential candidate could actually lose the popular vote, fail to get a majority in the electoral college, refuse to concede, manipulate hidden mechanisms in our government and still get sworn in as the president of the United States of America? Everyone essentially ignores the elite electoral process...". A concession speech is "the one speech no presidential candidate ever wants to give, and yet, it is that public address that is most important for the health and the well-being of our nation....The best way to stop a coup is to update and strengthen our democratic system as soon as this election is over. Maybe we need to rethink, reimagine or just get rid of this whole electoral college, extra inning thing in the first place.
      "Get informed. A number of progressive organizations are already working hard to warn Americans about this growing threat to our democracy. Some organizations you could look into and research for yourself: choosedemocracy.us, electiontaskforce.org, protectdemocracy.org, mobilize.us, allamericans.org, civicalliance.com and the Fight Back table at demos.org. All these groups are working on this. Now, on the right, if that's your cup of tea, you could also check out The Heritage Foundation or the Government Accountability Institute."
      "Some existing organizations, powerful groups, like the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the ACLU, NAACP, Legal Defense Fund, Indivisible, ColorOfChange.org, these groups are going to be fighting in the courts, fighting in Congress, to try to make sure that we have a fair outcome. Those groups could use your help and your donations."
---How Trump and His Enablers Are Laying the Groundwork For a Coup d'État (Anita Bartholomew, A Pointed View, blog 11-10-2020)

---The dangerous anti-democracy coalition (Robert Reich, 5-28-24) American oligarchs are joining Trump and his faux working-class MAGA movement. Elon Musk and entrepreneur and investor David Sacks reportedly held a secret billionaire dinner party in Hollywood last month. Its purpose: to defeat Joe Biden and reinstall Donald Trump in the White House.

• American Democracy Was Never Designed to Be Democratic (Louis Menand,New Yorker, 8-22-22) The partisan redistricting tactics of cracking and packing aren’t merely flaws in the system—they are the system.

• Democracy: A Journal of Ideas
---The Most Dangerous Law in America (Joseph Nunn, Democracy Summer 2024, No. 73) The Insurrection Act is a nuclear bomb hidden in the United States code, giving presidents unimaginable emergency power. No President has abused it. Yet.

• The consequences of ‘horse race’ reporting: What the research says (Denise-Marie Ordway, Journalist's Resource, 9-10-19) One of the most common ways reporters cover elections — with a focus on who’s in the lead and who’s behind instead of on policy issues — hurts the public and the news industry. Studies show it is linked to:
---Distrust in politicians
---Distrust of news outlets
---An uninformed electorate
---Inaccurate reporting of opinion poll data.

• Democracy: For Helping Voters Who Can’t Read, She’s Been Criminally Charged — Twice. That Hasn’t Stopped Her. (Mauricio Rodríguez Pons, Aliyya Swaby and Annie Waldman, ProPublica, 9-14-22) Olivia Coley-Pearson offered help to Georgia voters who struggle to read. For taking on one of America’s oldest forms of voter suppression, she got threats, a trip to jail and a reminder of the nation’s long legacy of weaponizing literacy. A ProPublica investigation found that the efforts to block people who have difficulty reading from casting a ballot continue, especially in the South. In fact, today's election system remains a modern-day literacy test. To learn more, check out ProPublica’s investigation of Coley-Pearson’s fight and the persistent suppression of low-literacy voters, read our story about successful voting reforms, and see our guide on how to get help with voting.

 
• Can Our Ballots Be Both Secret and Secure? (Sue Halpern, NY Times, 7-7-2020) A mathematician’s quest to make American elections more trustworthy. “We’ve decided in this country that private venders will play a central role in running our elections and counting our votes."

• How the U.S. election looks to pro-democracy activists around the world (Miriam Berger, Washington Post, 11-3-2020) Anxiety over the state of democracy in the United States is running high as the presidential election unfolds. And beyond America’s borders, pro-democracy activists around the world, already accustomed to following U.S. politics because of its global impact, see echoes of and implications for their own struggles.

• Coup d'État Project (CDP) (University of Illinois’ Cline Center for Advanced Social Research) A dataset detailing more than 900 coups, attempted coups, and coup conspiracies from 1945 to 2019. Each entry indicates the country and date, plus the “type of actor who initiated the coup (i.e. military, palace, rebel, etc.) as well as the fate of the deposed executive (killed, injured, exiled, etc.).” See glossary.

• Congressional Record searchable, at Library of Congress online.

"Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people." ~Abraham Lincoln"
Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters." ~Abraham Lincoln"
Democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."~Winston Churchill

For those catching up on this story:

 

• The WikiLeaks saga (Video report,The Guardian, 6-24-24) Julian Assange returns to Australia a free man after US espionage charge in Saipan court.

Links to many related stories on this website page!

• Julian Assange returns to Australia a free man after US espionage charge – video report  (The Guardian, 6-26-24)

      The WikiLeaks founder has walked free from a court in the US Pacific island territory of Saipan after pleading guilty to violating US espionage law, in a deal that left him free to return home to Australia and brought an end to an extraordinary 14-year legal saga.

      Stella Assange, addressing reporters after her husband's arrival in Canberra, said: 'It took millions of people, people working behind the scenes, people protesting on the streets for days and weeks and months and years ... and we achieved it.' How freedom for Julian Assange is a quiet triumph for Anthony Albanese

     ‘He needs time’: wife pleads for privacy as Julian Assange reunited with family after landing in Australia.

 
• What to Know About Julian Assange and His Plea Deal (gift link, Glenn Thrush, NY Times, 6-25-24) The deal ends a period of confinement that lasted about a dozen years, first in the self-exile of the Ecuadorean embassy in London, then in prison.

 

• A Timeline of Julian Assange’s Legal Saga (gift link, Charlie Savage, NY Times, 6-24-24) A plea deal brought an abrupt end to an extraordinary legal saga that has raised novel issues of national security, press freedoms, politics and diplomacy.

 

• What Does Julian Assange's Indictment Under the Espionage Act Mean for Journalism? (Ofer Raban, Pacific Standard, 5-28-19) Originally published in The Conversation (5-25-19) as Assange’s new indictment: Espionage and the First Amendment What goes for Assange may also go for any person who obtains or discloses classified information—even journalists.

• The Constitutional Rubicon of an Assange Prosecution (Elizabeth Goitein, Just Security, 5-9-17) 'In general, an employee who signs a non-disclosure agreement in order to gain access to classified government information may be prosecuted for leaking that information. Drawing the line between those who leak classified information and those who publish it thus makes constitutional sense in a way that drawing the line between “good” publishers and “bad” publishers does not....Allowing the FBI to determine who is allowed to publish leaked information based on the bureau’s assessment of their patriotism would cross a constitutional Rubicon. If that giant step were to become a precedent, it could very well spell the end of independent, objective national security reporting.'

• Inchoate Liability and the Espionage Act: The Statutory Framework and the Freedom of the Press (Stephen Vladeck, Harvard Law and Policy Review, 2007, via Digital Commons) Parsing of the statutory text, and why it raises a First Amendment issue in cases like Julian Assange and Wikileaks.

• Julian Assange (Wikipedia)

• Assange's arrest was designed to make sure he didn't press a mysterious panic button he said would bring dire consequences for Ecuador ( Alexandra Ma, Business Insider, 4-12-19) WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange was dramatically arrested and carried out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on Thursday. British and Ecuadorian authorities engineered the timing and nature of the raid to stop Assange from accessing a panic button he mentioned in the past, Ecuador's foreign minister said. Specifics on the button — or what it might do — are sparse, but the foreign minister said Assange had said it could bring dire consequences for Ecuador. Ecuadorian officials have accused Assange of accessing the government's security files, playing music loudly, and having no regard for personal hygiene during his stay at the embassy.

• Julian Assange: the teen hacker who became insurgent in information war (David Leigh and Luke Harding, The Guardian, 1-30-11) The colourful lives and experiences that shaped underground rebel Julian Assange on the road to WikiLeaks luminary. This story is old (from 2011).

---

• Sixteen Things Writers Should Know About Quoting From Letters (Mark Fowler, Rights of Writers, 2-2011, which discusses various scenarios)
       "Are you the sender of the letter or the recipient? 'If I send you a letter, unless I have an agreement with you to the contrary, I continue to own the copyright. As the recipient of the letter, you own the letter itself -- the paper and ink.'

      "As the recipient of the letter, you cannot publish the entirety of the letter without my consent, with limited exceptions, which he spells out).
      "If the author of a letter dies, an estate or descendant of the letter writer can grant permission to reprint a letter only if it also inherited copyright and not just the physical letter.
      "On the other hand, the philosophy of fair use in the quotation of letters and other source materials is neatly summed up in this quotation from The Chicago Manual of Style:

    "Fair use is use that is fair--simply that....The right of fair use is a valuable one to scholarship, and it should not be allowed to decay through the failure of scholars to employ it boldly."
     "Ultimately in the Wright case, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals clarified that some amount of quotation from unpublished works, such as letters and diaries, can qualify as fair use. Congress then codified this finding by amending Section 107 of the Copyright Act to add this sentence: 'The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.' "

• Don’t Burn Your Family Letters When You Declutter (Amy Johnson Crow)

• To read or not to read? How to handle a deceased family member’s personal letters (Dawn Roode, Modern Heirloom Books, 5-27-24) Discovering a stack of handwritten letters can feel like winning the family history lottery—but is it always the right thing to read (or share) them?

• Are you weighed down by the stuff of your family’s memories? (Dawn Roode, Modern Heirloom Books,5-27-24) Do you have sentimental boxes of family mementos you don’t know what to do with?

• What Is the Federal Law for Opening Mail Not Addressed to You? (The Law Dictionary) Most people know that it’s illegal to open mail that is addressed to someone else. In fact, there is a federal law that makes it a crime to do so. However, the law only applies under very specific circumstances. To help determine if it’s lawful, take a look at the reasons listed for opening mail not addressed to you.

 

• Ethics, Etiquette and Old Family Letters (Denise May Levenick, The Family Curator, 4-6-18) When it comes to genealogy and reading other people’s mail, ethics and etiquette are two sides of the same coin. Is it morally correct (ethical) to read other people’s mail? Is it socially acceptable (proper etiquette) to do so?

• How to Preserve Old Letters (Amy Johnson Crow, video, 19 minutes) Denise Levenick, the Family Curator, provides tips on preservation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Collections_of_letters

 

Miscellaneous resources about letters and postcards:
• Letters of Note
• Grandpa's Postcards (Jana Last's Family History and Genealogy blog)

Many writers mistakenly lower-case short words in titles, even verbs (which are often tiny)

General rules (which vary somewhat according to style guides):

---In titles, do capitalize nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, the first and last words in a title and (per most style guides) words with four or more letters.

---In titles, don't capitalize (do lowercase) articles, conjunctions, short prepositions, and many words with three or fewer words.

---Major style guides: MLA Style and Chicago Manual of Style (for books), AP Style (for newspapers, etc.), and various other specialty style guides

Mind you, some publications use mostly lower-case in their titles (e.g.,

 

• How I Found Out I had Pancreatic Cancer   [problem words are highlighted in red--they should be capitalized]

     Good video, but "had," a verb, should be capitalized.

 

• The Basic Problem for Authors who write More than One Book
• There are Three Ways To Create Evergreen Links 

      "Are" (a verb, the plural of "is") should be capitalized; "to" is one of the short prepositions not capitalized in the middle of a title.

• This is Why Book Marketing Doesn't Work
• What is Memory Care and How Much Should it Cost? (Assisted Living Today)   

• California's Collusion with a Texas Timber Company Let Ancient Redwoods be Clearcut

• What is AI and How Can Writers Use It?

      "Is," a verb, should be capitalized. All forms of "to be" should be capitalized when a title is capitalized.

 

• Top 10 Chronic Conditions in Adults 65+ and What You Can do to Prevent or Manage Them

• What do Anti-Freelancer Laws Mean for Independent Journalists?
     "Do" is as important as "Prevent" or "Manage" -- and it's a verb, so it should be capitalized.

• Your Story is More Important Than You Think You'd be surprised how many organizations get this one wrong.

•  An Air Force Career Held up Because of Debt Owed for Medical Bills

•  Who Calls and Where they are Referred

•  What is the Market Rate?

•  The Secret Donald Trump is No Secret

•  Words and Phrases that Make it Obvious You Used ChatGPT
•  Telling the Stories of Life through Guided Autobiography Groups, a book by James E. Birren and Kathryn N. Cochran.

     Capitalization of ‘through’ in a title follows certain style rules. In Chicago, MLA, and APA styles, ‘through’ should be capitalized as it’s more than four letters. But according to AP style, ‘through’ is considered a preposition and isn’t typically capitalized unless it’s the first or last word. AP style is for journalists, and this is a book, and "through" is more than four letters, so most book publishers would capitalize it in a title. [This is why, when you hire an editor, you should hire one who is familiar with the style for whatever product you want edited--newspaper-style or book-style.]  See Is “through” Capitalized in a Title?

• What is Typesetting and Why Does it Matter? (Michele DeFilippo, Ingram Spark) See Ingram Spark's useful online guide How to Design a Book.

    They should add a paragraph on capitalizing small important words.

• Who Calls and Where they are Referred

   

 

Find explanations here: Capitalization

Including whether to capitalize "black" for Negro.

The rule is NOT "Capitalize all the big words."

Many authors wrongly lower-case "be" and "is" and "are" and "am" and "up" and "do" in titles, but if you are fully capitalizing titles, all verbs, including all forms of the verb "to be"  and "to do" should be capitalized. "Is" and "it" should both be capitalized. Why?

• Capitalize brand names. For example, whiskey and cola but Seagram's and Coca-Cola