Making Light: Time's Wing?d Chariot

Time?s Wing?d Chariot
Posted by Jim Macdonald at 04:43 PM * 21 comments

Summer now. We?re half-way through the solar year. This isn?t a topical post, or apropos anything. It isn?t an anniversary. But I think I should mention the need for writers to make wills, and particularly to name a literary executor.

Neil Gaiman wrote on the subject shortly after the death of Mike Ford.

John M. Ford was pretty much the smartest writer I knew. Mostly. He did one thing that was less than smart, though: he knew he wasn?t in the best of health, but he still didn?t leave a proper will, and so didn?t, in death, dispose of his literary estate in the way that he intended to while he was alive, which has caused grief and concern to the people who were closest to him.

He?s not the first writer I know who didn?t think to take care of his or her posthumous intellectual property. For example, I knew a writer ? a great writer ? separated from and estranged from his wife during the last five years of his life. He died without making a will, and his partner, who understood and respected his writing, was shut out, while his wife got the intellectual property, and has not, I think, treated it as it should have been treated. These things happen, and they happen too often.

Neil includes a handy template.

There?s more discussion of the issues involved here: Final Drafts.

In preparing the powers of a Literary Executor, you must consider the following questions:

• Will the Literary Executor have the sole and exclusive right to make all decisions regarding appropriate publication, republication, sale, license or other exploitation of your work? Or, should she merely be appointed as an advisor to the General Executor?
• Will the Literary Executor be responsible for preparing unfinished or unpublished manuscripts for publication and seeing those works through publication?
• Will the Literary Executor have the right to terminate copyright licenses?
• Will she have the power to destroy any letters or papers she believes should be destroyed?
• In return for her services, will the Literary Executor receive a fee or commission for her services? What is fair compensation? What about reimbursement for expenses? Will the Literary Executor be required to maintain a separate bank account for such monies?
• Will the Literary Executor have the sole right to sue for infringement of copyights?
• Will the Literary Executor have the authority to pay attorneys, agents, subagents and others?
• In the event the Literary Executor is unwilling or unable to perform her duties, what are the provisions for appointing her successor? Or, will the General Executor assume those duties?

I note that I?m as remiss as any. My current will dates from when I was a young Naval officer with just one child and had no thought of becoming an author. (Or, had thought of it and dismissed the possibility.) I?ll fix this soon.

The entire issue seems to be one where seeking qualified professional help would be a good idea.

Source: http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/013080.html

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