In comprehensible and entertaining prose, Linda Pinkerton labels the nuts and bolts of basic law for novelists, journalists, freelancers, screenwriters, computer program authors, and other wordsmiths. The text covers royalties, copyright (including copies of the actual forms in the appendix), protected speech under the First Amendment, tax advice, publishing contracts, agents, law and the freelance writer, points and perils of self-publishing, lawsuits, and many other nagging questions that you"ll never get around to hiring a lawyer to answer. A chapter devoted to computer software authorship, copyright, and the road to licensing explains the parallels and differences between this relatively new authorship and print publishing.