Would you pay to be in an anthology?

by guest blogger Elspeth Rushbrook

With many writing competitions expecting an entry fee of £2-10 [$4-20] (pay into your own prize pot), it’s gladdening to see one which is free. And which offers a £1000 prize, the largest they claim in the United Kingdom without an entry fee (there are open prizes up to £5000 which do carry a fee, such as Bridport and Cardiff, both open internationally).

United Press run poetry competitions all year with £100-£200 prizes, all without charge (their prose prizes do carry an entry fee). They also offer publishing services from their Admail London address - that in itself alarmed me, that they conceal their real address.

The National Poetry Anthology sounds attractive, like it’s respected and read and stocked all over the country. (You do have to be from the UK to enter). All good bookshops will have it, United Press claim, who run the open comp for its content.

But the rules say that by entering, you automatically allow them to print your work in the anthology if you are chosen. Fine, except for a point I’ll soon come to.

And then, there’s the other book.

 Read letters artists have already submitted via a notice posted by the Illustrators' Partnership of America (found near the end of their notice).

Comments are due on or before THURSDAY: July 23, 2015

Everyone, US or not, can submit their letters online here.

(Note: If you are a non-U.S. citizen, be sure to click the "state" dropdown field in the online form, scroll to the bottom and select "Non-U.S.A. Location ". If you continue to have trouble, email: Catherine Rowland,  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

Read the Copyright Office Notice of Inquiry.
Read the 2015 Orphan Works and Mass Digitization Report.

Everything You Know About Copyright Is About To Change - Brad Holland

The Artists' Bill of Rights is proud to announe our most recent supporter, The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards.

Nowhere are the dangers of social media for artists more dramatically displayed than with recent Richard Prince appropriation of Instagram content for big dollar art market use.

The two most succinct points to remember from the above video are:

"There's a thin line between what he (Prince) is doing and what all social media companies are doing; which is, they're all running restaurants in which we come in and bring the ingredients and cook the food!" ~ Chris Hayes, MSNBC

"(Instagram) could have licensed these images to Richard Prince under the terms of use of their service, but they didn't." ~ Xeni Jardin, Boing Boing, via MSNBC

Pay attention, Flicker users. You have given innumerable numbers of your images a Creative Commons (generic) license. You are wide open to Prince-like exploitation!

Use social media with your eyes wide open: you make the cake, others make the money!