Author Archives: Guy Anthony De Marco

Most professional authors have attended conventions as a fan before they were bitten by their muse. Some attend to sell books, sit on panels, and even do a reading or two. I’ve been asked numerous times how a new author can learn the secret handshake to get behind the table or podium instead of getting stuck in the back row of a crowded room.

The answer is: It depends on the convention.

Getting panel time is easier for the local conventions, and it is a good place to start. The budget for a 150-attendee convention can’t sustain bringing in a lot of headliners, so they usually focus on a big name or two to draw the crowds. This leaves plenty of room for a newly published author to get in front of an audience and polish their presentation. Smaller cons can also allow you to interact with folks who inspire you as a writer. When I started going to conventions again after a 23-year gap, I found myself sitting next to luminaries like Kevin J. Anderson, Connie Willis, Peter J. Wacks, C.J. Henderson, Carrie Vaughn, and Eytan Kollin.

Your attitude will help determine how far you’ll get. Approach a potential panel opportunity from the perspective that you will be glad to help the Con Panel Chair in any capacity. Never act like you’re doing the convention a favor by appearing in their midst. If you sold one pro short story or over fifty novels, remain humble and helpful.

Now that you’ve been invited to the other side of the table, here are a few things I’ve learned:

Be on time. You can be fashionably late when you’ve won a Bram Stoker Award®, an Edgar®, and a Hugo® or two. If you’ve won those awards, you’d probably be too professional to be late anyway.
Look the part. Be clean, wear reasonably decent clothes, and try to avoid the controversial t-shirts. If it’s part of your persona to be a smelly bum with less than three square feet of ripped t-shirt covering a beer gut, understand you won’t be looked upon with favor for the next convention.
Pay attention. When another author is talking, follow the conversation so you can contribute without repeating points others have made five minutes ago. When an audience member is talking, look at them and nod your understanding of their question. When a luminary is talking, pay close attention to how they interact with the audience. They’ve been doing the panel gig for a while, and you can learn quite a bit just by using your senses instead of using your smartphone to update your Facebook status.
Panels are not a competition. There is no need to one-up the previous panelist, and you are not getting paid by how many seconds you can keep the microphone in your hot little hands. Share with others, allow the other panelists to complete their thoughts or stories, and don’t forget to keep yourself on the topic of the moment.
Be appreciative. Always thank the other panelists and, most especially, the audience. Remember, the folks who are buying the books are the ones you want to make a good impression on, and you want to be remembered.
Be prepared. Unless you’re a last-minute addition to the panel, you should at least know who the other panelists are, what they’ve written, and you should make yourself familiar with the topic. Don’t forget to memorize a quick blurb about yourself for your introduction. I also like to bring a nameplate, some cards or treats, several pens, and a few copies of my latest work.
Be positive. Unless you have the funniest goth schtick going, you want to be remembered as someone who is fun, someone who compliments others, and an author who is professional. If you can contribute something funny, do so unless it is at someone else’s expense. Above all, never insult an audience member or the guest of honor.
Be yourself. Relax (as best as you can.) I like to imagine I invited a bunch of friends over to my back yard for a barbecue. If you have a phobia about public speaking, I would suggest taking a class, joining Toastmasters, or just focusing everything down to the person you are talking to and ignoring the rest. I find that making eye contact and smiling works best for both my nerves and the audience member stammering out a question.

Eventually, word of mouth will spread that you “give good panel”, and you will be asked to come back next year. Since there are usually several conventions in a geographic region every year, you may find yourself talking to volunteers from other events. For example, I attended Constellation Nebraska one year, and I met the chairwoman for a larger convention in Omaha. I was invited to attend OSFest, and they asked me to bring a few more authors from the Denver area. Along with Promethius Award winner Eytan Kollin, Peter Wacks, and Quincy Allen, I ended up on 13 panels, met two artists who I hired to do some book covers, and I made a lot of new friends.

If you are attending a convention as an audience member, take the time to seek out the panel chairperson. Let them know who you are, give them a professional business card with links for further information, and tell them that you are available if there are any last-minute panel cancellations. Make sure you give them your cell phone number and keep your phone with you (on vibrate only during events, of course!) I was on three panels at MileHiCon in Denver, and I made sure to tell the panel chair I was available for more if needed. Sure enough, an author had to cancel and I was the person she called to fill the open slot. They remembered I was accomodating, professional, polite, and that I helped them out of a jam. I was invited back the following year.

As for the larger conventions, it may take a while to get your foot in the door. It helps if you were on panels with solid authors who remember you in a positive light. Send in a request for a reading or panel suggestions to the panel chairperson, along with your writing credentials and group affiliations. I usually include a link to the panels I sat on within the last year (http://guyanthonydemarco.com/panels/), and note the name-brand authors who were on some of the panels. If you keep in touch with other panelists, you can always ask if there are any open slots for upcoming panels. Sometimes it takes one person to remember you so you can get your foot in the door. Thanks to Peter Wacks and David Boop, two gents from the Colorado writing scene, I was able to get on panels at StarFest in Denver, which is a notoriously difficult con to crack.

The more panels and readings you do, the more people will remember your name and your face. If they enjoyed your events, they are more prone to read your latest book, especially if they can get it signed. That’s the difficult task…getting something published that shows off your talent. If you did your writing job well, the rest will follow.

About the Author:

Guy Anthony De Marco is a speculative fiction author; a Graphic Novel Bram Stoker Award^®; winner of the HWA Silver Hammer Award; a prolific short story and flash fiction crafter; a novelist; an invisible man with superhero powers; a game writer (Sojourner Tales modules, Interface Zero 2.0 core team, D&D modules); and a coffee addict. One of these is false.

A writer since 1977, Guy is a member of the following organizations: SFWA, WWA, SFPA, IAMTW, ASCAP, RMFW, NCW, HWA. He hopes to collect the rest of the letters of the alphabet one day. Additional information can be found at Wikipedia, GuyAndTonya.com, and GuyAnthonyDeMarco.com.

Advanced Google-Fu

May 28, 2015

Guy Anthony De Marco

Guy Anthony De Marco Writing Tools 1 Comment

Anyone can go to Google and search for a particular piece of information. Sometimes they luck out and find what they were originally looking for, while other folks end up getting sidetracked by a website full of cute fluffy kittens.

As authors, we tend to have limited resources, particularly time. Using efficient search techniques, our precious time can be spent on writing the next chapter instead of searching for details on how you remove the clip from an AK-47 assault rifle.

Google engineers and coders included many advanced search operators when they built their search engine. Using operators, we can focus our search on very specific terms or files.

Here are a few of the common operators:

+ The plus sign indicates something is required.
– The minus sign indicates something is to be excluded from the search results.
(x|y) Groupings – in this case, “x” OR “y”, are acceptable.
inurl: Something that is part of a website URL.
intitle: Something from the title of the web page
filetype: This indicates the result should be a particular file type.

Going back to our example, I put in the following search term:

filetype:pdf +(ak47|ak-47) remove clip

In English, the search term means:

Find an Adobe PDF file that contains either AK47 or AK-47, plus the words “remove” and “clip”.

On the first page of the results, I discover a PDF document that not only shows how to remove the clip from an AK-47, but how to do a complete teardown for cleaning (with plenty of photographs for those who are not familiar with the rifle.) Excellent! Now your zombie killer can clean her AK-47 properly.

Let’s try something that can be useful for the average author. I want to find pirated copies of a novel. We’ll use Stephen King’s novel, “Under the Dome”, as our test subject.

My very focused search term is:

What this means in English:

Looking on web pages that have “htm”, “html” or “php” in them, make sure the title of the web page is “index of”, and make sure the web page has the terms “parent directory”, “description”, and “size”. Also, make sure there are ebook files on the page (mobi and azw are for Kindle; PDFs; or ePub ebooks for the Nook, Sony or Kobo reader). The specific thing I am looking for has the words “stephen”, “king”, “under” and “dome”.

Most of the pirate dump sites are just a plain automatically generated web page with links to the files. These pages usually contain common terms like “index of”, “parent directory”, and “size”, which makes it easier to find the pirate sites.

Running the above focused search term, I get three results. The second one has a freely downloadable pirated copy of Stephen King’s novel, “Under the Dome”.

Personally, I use the filetype: operator almost daily. I can pick the exact file I want to find, usually a PDF or a Microsoft Word “.docx” file by typing filetype:pdf or filetype:docx in the search window.

Another operator I use all the time is the “-“, or NOT, operator. If I was searching for Rocky Wood, an author and HWA president who passed away last year, and Horror, I may end up with links to all kinds of unusual things, such as Rocky (the boxer), Norwegian Wood, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I can tailor my search like this:

+”rocky wood” -boxer -“rocky horror picture show” +horror

In English:

Find instances where the words Rocky and Wood are together, but ignore any pages that have that goofy musical and any references to boxers. Also, please make sure the word “horror” appears on the page.

Note that it is easy to get so focused that you end up with no results. Running the above query, I get only five pages back. If I wanted more pages, I could try this query:

+”rocky wood” +”horror writers association”

I get seven times more relevant pages using the second query. If your results are too small, try making your query less restrictive, or try using other key words that are apropos to your searching desires.

About the Author:

Computer Spring Cleaning

May 23, 2015

Guy Anthony De Marco

Business Guy Anthony De Marco Writing Tools 1 Comment

It’s the start of a new year, so it’s time to discuss a bit of pre-spring cleaning for your computer. For perspective, my “day job” used to involve working in an Information Technology department for a large corporation with 13,000 users, a field I’ve been working in since I started writing computer programs in 1977. I performed these tasks quarterly at a minimum on my personal equipment, and twice daily on the 983 servers I was responsible for.

1. Back Up Your Data

In the IT field, there’s an old saying: “There are two kinds of people, those who back up their data, and those who wish they did.”

Yes, everyone knows they should back up their data, but most forget to do it if the task isn’t automated. In the past, I was guilty of forgetting to do this on my laptop, and I’ve lost works in progress. So, like changing your smoke alarm battery every time there is a change to Daylight Savings Time in the United States, at the very least you should make a concerted effort to back up the data from the previous year.

I back up all of my fiction, articles, and poems onto a CD, then put it in a safe place. I also archive it on my website in case I need copies when I’m traveling. Make sure you label the disc and put it in a sleeve or CD case. Use a permanent marker, put on a sticker label (use the round ones so the CD isn’t unbalanced when spinning), or write the label directly on the CD if you happen to have LightScribe. Do not use ballpoint ink pens on the CD — use permanent markers like the Sharpie brand. Most people think the underside of a CD is the most sensitive to damage, but it’s actually the top portion that is fragile. Once the thin layer of laquer is damaged, such as from writing on a CD with a ballpoint pen, the reflective backing starts flaking off, destroying the CD. The underside may get scratches, but the CD writing process includes error correction, which is why many scratched CDs still work for data.

If you have a large amount of data, such as your story files, ebook files, audio files, and images, use a DVD-ROM to back up your work. The same rules apply for the care of the discs.

If you have a safe deposit box at the bank, consider keeping a copy there in case something happens to your house. I know several authors that were impacted by Hurrican Sandy, and several of them lost their homes and their computers.

In addition to backing up important files, I also recommend purchasing a USB external drive that comes with backup software. This way, your entire hard drive can be restored if you get a nasty virus or malware that destroys everything on your computer. One terrabyte external drives are around $100. Restoring your computer after you get hit by a nasty virus with a couple of clicks is priceless. Another option is to use an external storage solution like Dropbox (see May 4th’s post by Kristen for a writeup), Evernote, and Google Drive.

2. Anti-Virus Scanning

I’m assuming most of you have an updated anti-virus program running on your computer(s) and laptop(s). Good for you! If you don’t, there are several free anti-virus programs available, such as AVG and Avast. If your computer connects to the Internet, you need protection.

Now is the time to do something that your computer has been bugging you to do for a while. Close all of your open files and programs. Yes, that includes Facebook — don’t worry, you’ll survive the withdrawals. Open whatever anti-virus program you use and select “full system” or “full hard drive” scans, then leave your system alone. If you’re running a laptop that goes into hibernation mode if it doesn’t feel your loving hands brushing the touchpad, deftly sliding the mouse, or even stroking the keyboard, try setting your system to stay out of hibernation mode by adjusting your power settings. Leave your laptop plugged in, in case it takes a while to scan your data.

Your anti-virus program is going to scan every file stored on your computer. Depending on the number of files and the speed of your computer, this may take an hour or ten. If it finds any nasty lurking virus files, let the software kill or quarantine the offending data.

3. Dump Unused Software

If you have software installed that you never used in 2012, consider deleting it from your computer to free up space. Make sure you have the original software available should the need arise to re-install. A good example is getting rid of old income tax software. It’s doubtful you’re going to re-file your 2008 taxes again, so save your data files (onto a CD!), then uninstall.

4. Catch Up on Updates

Now is a good time to update your operating system … AFTER you have backed up your data. Allow your system to go online to download patches and updates, then allow your computer to install without slowing it down by surfing the Internet. If you have the urge to post a Twitter update, tweet using your smartphone.

Once your operating system files are updated and your computer is restarted, go through your programs and check for updates. Don’t forget programs like Microsoft Office, Scrivener, Adobe Acrobat, Java, Firefox, and any other browser updates (including browser plugins, if any.)

5. Catch Up on Writing

Now that your computer is backed up and updated, it’s time to get writing. No excuses!

About the Author:

DMCA Tools

May 8, 2015

Guy Anthony De Marco

Guy Anthony De Marco Publishing 1 Comment

As authors, piracy is a constant threat to our income and property. Some don’t mind having their works available for download, while others are adamant that their work should be purchased. Should you find your works posted on a pirate website — or worse, plagiarized with someone else’s name as the author — you can take action to remove the infringing material using the legal tools provided by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA. Please note that sending false claims can get you into legal trouble, so don’t use the DMCA tools to play a practical joke. These tools can be used by non-US authors. The good news is it’s easy to do the steps required; the bad news is it may take some time for the works to be removed.

To be proactive, you should request your fans to alert you when they find pirated works on the Internet. Another proactive approach is to set up a Google Alert using a unique sentence or two from your story. It’s best to catch the pirates as soon as possible to get the link removed before too many people find it.

Our first stop is Google, currently the world’s most popular search engine. Using their copyright infringement tool to delete links to your stolen material is simple. For example, to delete a link from Google’s web search results:

Log into Google. Note you must be logged in to Google to fill out the form. You can create an account if you don’t have one. If you have a GMail account, log in using that.
Surf to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/dmca-notice?pli=1&
Fill in the complete form. If any field is not completely filled in, no action will be taken.

You may, of course, send a notice via fax or post. Most sites require your first notice of infringement to be sent via fax or post so they will have your signature on file, but Google does not. Google will post your DMCA notice (without your name and signature) to chillingeffects.org.

For Yahoo and Bing, you will need to send your first request via fax or post. Subsequent requests can be emailed. I have included a generic sample DMCA request at the end of this article, plus links to targeted DMCA sample requests, including Yahoo and Bing.

Mail or fax your Yahoo request to:

Copyright Agent
c/o Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Fax: (408) 349-7821
Email: copyright@yahoo-inc.com

Mail or fax your Bing request to:

DMCA Request
Attn: K. Carlson
Microsoft Corporation – The Microsoft Network
One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052
Fax: (425) 936-7329
Email: dmcaagnt@microsoft.com

Now that we’ve taken care of the links, we can focus on getting rid of the actual infringing content. There are two avenues we can take. The first is to request the infringing website to remove the content. Places like Scribd.com and Pastebin.com will typically act on a DMCA notice quickly because they are concerned the US Government will seize their domains. The other path is to send the request to the hosting company of the infringing website. If your content is posted on a random person’s site, this is a better method to get the content removed. Some overseas sites and host providers, especially in China, will not care about copyrighted material, and they’ll ignore your request.

To start, we must first find out who owns the domain and where they are hosted. The research tool to find the owner and host is called a WhoIs Lookup. There are several versions available. I will typically use either MXToolbox or Network Solutions. For MXToolbox, surf to their site and click on the down arrow at the end of their menu. Select WhoIs Lookup from the menu and enter in the pirate domain name. For Network Solutions, at the bottom of their page you will find a WhoIs link. Click on that, then enter in the domain name. You should get something similar to this, using FICTORIANS.COM as our example:

Domain Name: FICTORIANS.COM Registry Domain ID: 1647105966_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com Update Date: 2014-03-24T12:24:08Z Creation Date: 2011-03-24T04:32:50Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-03-24T04:32:50Z Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC Registrar IANA ID: 146 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.480-624-2505 Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited Registry Registrant ID: Registrant Name: Registration Private Registrant Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC Registrant Street: DomainsByProxy.com Registrant Street: 14747 N Northsight Blvd Suite 111, PMB 309 Registrant City: Scottsdale Registrant State/Province: Arizona Registrant Postal Code: 85260 Registrant Country: United States Registrant Phone: +1.4806242599 Registrant Phone Ext: Registrant Fax: +1.4806242598 Registrant Fax Ext: Registrant Email: FICTORIANS.COM@domainsbyproxy.com

(truncated a long repetitive list)

Name Server: NS2339.HOSTGATOR.COM
Name Server: NS2340.HOSTGATOR.COM
DNSSEC: unsigned

Lucky for us, this domain seems legit and has plenty of contact information. You can send a DMCA request to the Owner, Administrator or the Technical Contact. If someone’s site was hacked and is being used to host pirated material, this method would get a fast response. The site owner may thank you for alerting them to the hack.

Let’s say that the site had false or outdated information. We can send our DMCA notice to the company that owns the actual servers that contain the pirate website, known as the host. At the bottom of the list are listings for the Name Server, which is how computers translate website names into numeric addresses that they can understand. Copy the site name and extension, in this case HOSTGATOR.COM from the above FICTORIANS.COM example, and run it through the WhoIs Lookup tool. The tool will show you who is hosting the infringing website.

Domain Name: HOSTGATOR.COM Registry Domain ID: 91478876_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: WHOIS.ENOM.COM Registrar URL: WWW.ENOM.COM Update Date: 2015-04-13T21:33:43.00Z Creation Date: 2002-10-22T22:07:55.00Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2015-10-22T22:07:55.00Z Registrar: ENOM, INC. Registrar IANA ID: 48 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: ABUSE@ENOM.COM Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4252982646 Domain Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK Registry Registrant ID: Registrant Name: ADAM FARRAR Registrant Organization: HOSTGATOR Registrant Street: 5005 MITCHELLDALE Registrant Street: SUITE #100 Registrant City: HOUSTON Registrant State/Province: TX Registrant Postal Code: 77092 Registrant Country: US Registrant Phone: +1.7135745287 Registrant Phone Ext: Registrant Fax: +1.2814767800 Registrant Fax Ext: Registrant Email: Registrant:

(truncated additional information)

It turns out the (probably undead) pirate site FICTORIANS.COM is hosted by HOSTGATOR.COM. Send your DMCA notice to the host. They will either help to get the copyrighted material removed or kill the entire pirate site.

You can, if you feel it is warranted, send a DMCA notice to the website and the host. Remember to always be professional — finding your work pirated or plagiarized is not a fun thing, but getting it removed will give you at least a modicum of satisfaction.

Generic DMCA Request follows. Notes are in [square brackets].


Attn: Legal Department, [Web Site Legal Name: ARRGH-A-PIRATE.COM]
Pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 USC 512(c)(3)(A),

this communication serves as a statement that:
1. I am the exclusive rights holder for the title(s), listed below,

of copyrighted material being infringed upon:

	Title, Publisher, Date of Release, ISBN

	My Cool Book, Tor, 4/1/2001, 9781234567890

	My Warm Book, Tor, 4/1/2002, 9780123456789
	[TITLE (you can do more than one on a single take-down and save time),

	PUBLISHER (list the full publishing history of a book), DATES OF RELEASE,

	and the ISBNS the title has had. If the book has had several ISBNs,

	list them all. If there were multiple publishers, list them all.]
2. These exclusive rights are being violated by material available on your

site at the following URL(s):

	a)	http://www.arrgh-a-pirate.com/stolenbooks/My-Cool-Book.html

	b)	http://www.arrgh-a-pirate.com/stolenbooks/My-Warm-Book.html

	[Use the full URL address to the infringing material]
3. I have a good faith belief that the use of this material in such a fashion

is not authorized by the copyright holder, the copyright holder's agent, or the law.
4. Under penalty of perjury in a United States court of law, I state that the

information contained in this notification is accurate, and that I am the exclusive

rights holder for the material in question.
5. I may be contacted by the following methods:

EMAIL: me@myemail.com

URL: http://www.myauthorwebsite.com/contact.htm

POST: Ima Author, POBox 123, Town, NY, 12345-0123

[Your email address may be placed on a spam list. Use GMail or an email with a good

spam filter if you can.]
6. I hereby request that you remove or disable access to this material as it appears

on your service in as expedient a fashion as possible. Thank you.
Regards,

[If you write under a pen name, you can use it here. Otherwise, use your real name.]

I would like to thank and acknowledge both Cari Silverwood and Sam Stone for a copy of the DMCA notice they’ve used to successfully remove infringing material.

An example Yahoo DMCA notice, in Word format, can be found at http://www.seologic.com/worddoc/dmca-yahoo.doc
An example Bing DMCA notice, in Word format, can be found at http://www.seologic.com/worddoc/dmca-bing.doc

About the Author: