Mistake # 5 (Re: Copyrights)

Ah, Kindle Direct Press, the world’s largest venue for self-publishers. They don’t discern for quality—hence millions of poorly crafted books fill cyberspace—but they do care about copyright issues. 

MY MISTAKE: I originally chose King James Bible verses for Sons of Adamah because they are too old to be copyrighted (and they are beautiful). But just when I was ready to publish, I discovered the crown of Britain owns KJB copyrights perpetually. 

Cambridge University Press, the administers of the Crown’s patent, says, “The reproduction by any means of the text of the King James Version is permitted to a maximum of five hundred (500) verses for liturgical and non-commercial educational use, provided that the verses quoted neither amount to a complete book of the Bible nor represent 25 percent subject to . . .” blah blah. 

But what to do at the last minute? 

Texts by Julia Evelina Smith, born 1792 and the first woman to translate the bible entirely, was a non-copyrighted option. Smith incurred wrath, partly for being female and partly because her result was literal and . . . choppy. 

The World English Bible is in the public domain but its words lack music (to my ear).

So, since ancient language texts can’t be copyrighted, I asked my M.Div. daughter to (very quickly) translate dozens of Hebrew and Greek scriptures and add some old English twists, a la King James.