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A Question about Posting Book Outlines

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
I've read a lot of books about writing. For a couple of them, I've outlined the book so that I could refer to it as a quick reference. A fellow forum member suggested that posting these outlines could be benefitial to the community.

My immediate question was whether this would present some kind of legal, moral, or ethical problem. I would basically be taking all the advice from the book and presenting it free in distilled form. Of course, I would obviously refer back to the book, which might increase its profile.

What do you think? Would posting a couple of these outlines be okay?

Thanks.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
I don't know about moral or ethical problems. There are "potential" copyright issues, though I deem the risk to be relatively small. It would be interesting to see a list of them. I read more books on writing than I care to think about when I was younger, and then got to a point where I decided they were no longer of value. There are certainly a number of good ones out there for the beginning writer, and many also have useful content for more experienced writers.
 

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
I have Swain's Technique's of a Selling Writer and Rosenfield's Make a Scene. I intend to also outline Self Editing for Fiction Writers when I get around to it.
 

Ankari

Hero Breaker
Moderator
Steer,

What if BWFoster78 explicitly gives the author of the book credit, links back to the Amazon and Nook product pages, and encourages everyone to buy the book if they find the distilled information beneficial?
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is excellent.

The other ones I've read (or at least the ones I can think of off the top of my head):

On Writing, Stephen King
How to Write Fantasy and Science Fiction, Orson Scott Card
The First Five Pages, Noah Lukeman (excellent book).
How to Write a Damn Good Novel, James Frey
(something), by John Gardner
Writing Fiction, by Janet Burroway (excellent book).
A handful of others on specific things like dialogue, characterization and so on, and one old one on writing science fiction that I think was by L. Sprague deCamp. I've read a few others, but those stand out in my mind.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
Steer,

What if BWFoster78 explicitly gives the author of the book credit, links back to the Amazon and Nook product pages, and encourages everyone to buy the book if they find the distilled information beneficial?

None of that has any bearing on copyright issues, but as I said I think the risk is very small here that the author could make a case, or would even bother to do so, and then there is always a potential Fair Use defense.
 

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
I"ve read the first two of those, as well as a stack more. The three I mentioned helped me the most. On Writing was excellent to read, but I'm not sure how much concrete advice I got out of it.
 

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
None of that has any bearing on copyright issues, but as I said I think the risk is very small here that the author could make a case, or would even bother to do so, and then there is always a potential Fair Use defense.

I think I'm more concerned with moral/ethical issues. Does it seem right to do this? If I give you all the information from the book, albeit in distilled form, why do you need to buy the book?
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
There is no clear policy. Fair Use is highly fact specific. You have a few things in your favor here. Also, as a general rule the less of the original you use the better.
 

Black Dragon

Staff
Administrator
I'm not comfortable with this. I'm working on a writing book myself, and it's a ton of work to do it right. If someone were to distill all the key points into a detailed outline and share it with the world, I wouldn't particularly appreciate it. I imagine that other authors would feel the same way.

What you could do is, though, is review some of these books, and highlight several key points in each review. That would be helpful to the community, and could help get the word out about the best books to buy.
 

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
I'm not comfortable with this. I'm working on a writing book myself, and it's a ton of work to do it right. If someone were to distill all the key points into a detailed outline and share it with the world, I wouldn't particularly appreciate it. I imagine that other authors would feel the same way.

What you could do is, though, is review some of these books, and highlight several key points in each review. That would be helpful to the community, and could help get the word out about the best books to buy.

Okay. I'll think about doing that. Thanks for the response.
 
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