An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.

Author of a written or legally copied work[link]

Legal significance[link]

In copyright law, there is a necessity for little flexibility as to what constitutes authorship. The United States Copyright Office defines copyright as "a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to authors of "original works of authorship".^[1] Holding the title of "author" over any "literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, [or] certain other intellectual works" give rights to this person, the owner of the copyright, exclusive right to do or authorize any production or distribution of their work. Any person or entity wishing to use intellectual property held under copyright must receive permission from the copyright holder to use this work, and often will be asked to pay for the use of copyrighted material. After a fixed amount of time, the copyright expires on intellectual work and it enters the public domain, where it can be used without limit. Copyright law has been amended time and time again since the inception of the law to extend the length of this fixed period where the work is exclusively controlled by the copyright holder. However, copyright is merely the legal reassurance that one owns his/her work. Technically, someone owns their work from the time it's created. An interesting aspect of authorship emerges with copyright in that it can be passed down to another upon one's death. The person who inherits the copyright is not the author, but enjoys the same legal benefits.

Questions arise as to the application of copyright law. How does it, for example, apply to the complex issue of fan fiction? If the media agency responsible for the authorized production allows material from fans, what is the limit before legal constraints from actors, music, and other considerations, come into play? As well, how does copyright apply to fan-generated stories for books? What powers do the original authors, as well as the publishers, have in regulating or even stopping the fan fiction?

Literary significance[link]

In literary theory, critics find complications in the term "author" beyond what constitutes authorship in a legal setting. In the wake of postmodern literature, critics such as Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault have examined the role and relevance of authorship to the meaning or interpretation of a text.

Barthes challenges the idea that a text can be attributed to any single author. He quotes, in his essay "Death of the Author" (1968), that "it is language which speaks, not the author".^[2] The words and language of a text itself determine and expose meaning for Barthes, and not someone possessing legal responsibility for the process of its production. Every line of written text is a mere reflection of references from any of a multitude of traditions, or, as Barthes puts it, "the text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture"; it is never original.^[2] With this, the perspective of the author is removed from the text, and the limits formerly imposed by the idea of one authorial voice, one ultimate and universal meaning, are destroyed. The explanation and meaning of a work does not have to be sought in the one who produced it, "as if it were always in the end, through the more or less transparent allegory of the fictioni, the voice of a single person, the author 'confiding' in us".^[2] The psyche, culture, fanaticism of an author can be disregarded when interpreting a text, because the words are rich enough themselves with all of the traditions of language. To expose meanings in a written work without appealing to the celebrity of an author, their tastes, passions, vices, is, to Barthes, to allow language to speak, rather than author.

Michel Foucault argues in his essay "What is an author?" (1969), that all authors are writers, but not all writers are authors. He states that "a private letter may have a signatory—it does not have an author".^[3] For a reader to assign the title of author upon any written work is to attribute certain standards upon the text which, for Foucault, are working in conjunction with the idea of "the author function".^[3] Foucault's author function is the idea that an author exists only as a function of a written work, a part of its structure, but not necessarily part of the interpretive process. The author's name "indicates the status of the discourse within a society and culture", and at one time was used as an anchor for interpreting a text, a practice which Barthes would argue is not a particularly relevant or valid endeavor.^[3]

Expanding upon Foucault's position, Alexander Nehamas writes that Foucault suggests "an author [...] is whoever can be understood to have produced a particular text as we interpret it", not necessarily who penned the text.^[4] It is this distinction between producing a written work and producing the interpretation or meaning in a written work that both Barthes and Foucault are interested in. Foucault warns of the risks of keeping the author's name in mind during interpretation, because it could affect the value and meaning with which one handles an interpretation.

Literary critics Barthes and Foucault suggest that readers should not rely on or look for the notion of one overarching voice when interpreting a written work, because of the complications inherent with a writer's title of "author." They warn of the dangers interpretations could suffer from when associating the subject of inherently meaningful words and language with the personality of one authorial voice. Instead, readers should allow a text to be interpreted in terms of the language as "author."

Relationship between author and publisher[link]

The publisher of a work might receive a percentage calculated on a wholesale or a specific price and or a fixed amount on each book that is sold. Publishers, at times, reduced the risk of this type of arrangement, by agreeing only to pay this after a certain amount of copies had sold. In Canada this practice occurred during the 1890s, but was not commonplace until the 1920s.

• Commissioned: Publishers made publication arrangements, and authors covered all expenses (today the practice of authors paying for their publications is often called vanity publishing, and is looked down upon by many publishers, even though it may have been a common and accepted practice in the past). Publishers would receive a percentage on the sale of every copy of a book, and the author would receive the rest of the money made.

Relationship between author and editor[link]

The relationship between the author and the editor, often the author's only liaison to the publishing company, is often characterized as the site of tension. For the author to reach his or her audience, the work usually must attract the attention of the editor. The idea of the author as the sole meaning-maker of necessity changes to include the influences of the editor and the publisher in order to engage the audience in writing as a social act.

Pierre Bourdieu's essay "The Field of Cultural Production" depicts the publishing industry as a "space of literary or artistic position-takings," also called the "field of struggles," which is defined by the tension and movement inherent among the various positions in the field.^[5] Bourdieu claims that the "field of position-takings [...] is not the product of coherence-seeking intention or objective consensus," meaning that an industry characterized by position-takings is not one of harmony and neutrality.^[6] In particular for the writer, their authorship in their work makes their work part of their identity, and there is much at stake personally over the negotiation of authority over that identity. However, it is the editor who has "the power to impose the dominant definition of the writer and therefore to delimit the population of those entitled to take part in the struggle to define the writer".^[7] As "cultural investors," publishers rely on the editor position to identify a good investment in "cultural capital" which may grow to yield economic capital across all positions.^[8]

According to the studies of James Curran, the system of shared values among editors in Britain has generated a pressure among authors to write to fit the editors' expectations, removing the focus from the reader-audience and putting a strain on the relationship between authors and editors and on writing as a social act. Even the book review by the editors has more significance than the readership's reception.^[9]

Compensation[link]

A standard contract for an author will usually include provision for payment in the form of an advance and royalties. An advance is a lump sum paid in advance of publication. An advance must be earned out before royalties are payable. An advance may be paid in two lump sums: the first payment on contract signing, and the second on delivery of the completed manuscript or on publication.

An author's contract may specify, for example, that they will earn 10% of the retail price of each book sold. Some contracts specify a scale of royalties payable (for example, where royalties start at 10% for the first 10,000 sales, but then increase to a higher percentage rate at higher sale thresholds).

An author's book must earn out their advance before any further royalties are paid. For example, if an author is paid a modest advance of $2000.00, and their royalty rate is 10% of a book priced at $20.00 - that is, $2.00 per book - the book will need to sell 1000 copies before any further payment will be made. Publishers typically withhold payment of a percentage of royalties earned against returns.

In some countries, authors also earn income from a government scheme such as the ELR (Educational Lending Right) and PLR (Public Lending Right) schemes in Australia. Under these schemes, authors are paid a fee for the number of copies of their books in educational and/or public libraries.

These days, many authors supplement their income from book sales with public speaking engagements, school visits, residencies, grants, and teaching positions.

Ghostwriters, technical writers, and textbooks writers are typically paid in a different way: usually a set fee or a per word rate rather than on a percentage of sales.

See also[link]

• Novelist
• Writer
• Lists of writers
• Lists of poets
• List of novelists
• Professional writing
• Academic authorship
• Ghostwriter
• Lead author
• Autuer

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Author

Look up author in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Look up authorship in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikiversity has learning materials about Collaborative_play_writing

• A system for fast authorship by Daniel Hall

Jeff Pfeffer
Pitcher
Born: (1888-03-04)March 4, 1888 Seymour, Illinois
Died: August 15, 1972(1972-08-15) (aged 84) Chicago, Illinois
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 16, 1911 for the St. Louis Browns
Last MLB appearance
September 26, 1924 for the Pittsburgh Pirates
Career statistics
Win-Loss	158-112
Earned run average	2.77
Strikeouts	836
Teams
St. Louis Browns (1911) Brooklyn Dodgers/Robins (1913-1921) St. Louis Cardinals (1921-1924) Pittsburgh Pirates (1924)
Career highlights and awards
2nd in the NL in wins in 1916 with 25

Edward Joseph Pfeffer (March 4, 1888 – August 15, 1972) born in Seymour, Illinois was a pitcher for the St. Louis Browns (1911), Brooklyn Dodgers/Robins (1913–21), St. Louis Cardinals (1921–24) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1924). His older brother Francis was known as Big Jeff Pfeffer.

He helped the Robins win the 1916 and 1920 National League pennants. He led the National League in hit batsmen in 1916 (17) and 1917 (16). In 1916 he gave up Rogers Hornsby's first home run.^[1] In 13 seasons he had a 158–112 win-loss record with 10 saves in 347 games.

As of the end of the 2009 season, Pfeffer ranks 95th on the MLB career ERA list (2.77)^[2] and tied for 69th on the MLB career hit batsmen list (105).^[3] He is the Dodgers career leader in ERA (2.31).^[4]

He died in Chicago, Illinois at the age of 84, and is interred at Rock Island National Cemetery.

See also[link]

• List of Major League Baseball leaders in career wins
• Top 100 Major League Baseball hit batsmen leaders

Notes[link]

Sources[link]

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2007)

Troy Denning
Troy Denning
Born	1958 United States
Occupation	writer, game designer
Nationality	United States
Genres	role-playing games, fantasy

Troy Denning (born 1958) is a fantasy and science fiction author and game designer.

Career[link]

Denning joined TSR as a game designer in 1981, and was promoted a year later to Manager of Designers, before he moved to the book department.^[1] He then worked for two years managing the Pacesetter game company, and had a stint at Mayfair Games, before going freelance.^[1]

Denning wrote the third novel in TSRs "Avatar Trilogy", Waterdeep (1989), which he wrote under the house pseudonym Richard Awlinson,;^[1] the book became a New York Times bestselling novel.^[2] He wrote the novel with Scott Ciencin, and the choice of the surname Awlinson was an inside joke which sounds like "all in one".^{[citation needed]}

In October 1989 he rejoined TSR as a senior designer, co-creating the Dark Sun setting with Tim Brown and Mary Kirchoff.^[1] According to Denning, the three designers envisioned "a world for experienced DMs that would push the AD&D game to its limits and let people do things like play half-giants and thri-kreen and superstrong characters—in short, all the really neat stuff we wanted to do ourselves, but that everybody kept saying would ruin game balance."^[1] Denning felt in 1998 that Dark Sun "did what we wanted it to, and it has attracted a devoted following. When I go to conventions, it's still what people want to talk about. Talking Brom into being the lead artist early was very fortunate for us; he would sketch weird creatures and settings and equipment, and we’d work them into the game."^[1]

Denning returned to freelance writing again in 1991, writing the bestselling "Prism Pentad" for the Dark Sun setting (1991–93), and the Forgotten Realms "Twilight Giants" trilogy (1994–95).^[1] Denning also wrote the Planescape hardcover Pages of Pain (1996): "It had to be from the Lady of Pain’s viewpoint—which is something of a problem, since (as every Planescape player knows) she never speaks—and (this was the really good part) the reader must know less about her at the end of the book than he does at the beginning, and nobody knows anything about her at the beginning."^[1] Denning recalled that Pages of Pain "really made me rethink the way I approach stories, and for that reason alone it was worth writing. It also ended up being a much deeper book than I had ever written before, which I think was a result of the extreme approach I was forced to take. Those who have [read it] seem to think it's my best work. It was certainly the most challenging and—forgive the pun—'painful' to write."^[1] Denning continued the story told in Waterdeep's sequel, Prince of Lies (1993) by James Lowder, with the novel Crucible: The Trial of Cyric the Mad.^[1] Denning then authored another Forgotten Realms novel called Faces of Deception.^[1] Denning's other notable works are Dragonwall and The Parched Sea.

He is also the author of a number of Star Wars Expanded Universe novels. Including Invincible, the ninth and final book in the Legacy of the Force series, was released in May 2008. He also authored the third and sixth books in the series. He has also been the author for three books in the Fate of the Jedi series.^[3] And the 9th book in The New Jedi Order: Star by Star and the Dark Nest Trilogy.

Troy was one of the founders of Pacesetter Ltd, a game company formed by a group of former TSR, Inc. executives.

Denning lives in Wisconsin with his wife Andria.^[3] He enjoys outdoor activities, and practices American Kyuki-do, a form of martial arts.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Troy Denning at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Bibliography at Fantastic Fiction
• SciFan Page for Troy Denning
• Troy Denning at Wookieepedia
• Troy Denning at Boardgamegeek

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2011)

Edward Nicolae Luttwak (born November 4, 1942) is an American military strategist and historian who has published works on military strategy, history and international relations.

Biography[link]

Luttwak was born into a Jewish family in Arad, Romania, and raised in Italy and England. He attended Carmel College in England for a short period, and then the London School of Economics and Johns Hopkins University, where he received a doctorate. Whilst still at school, he revealed a talent for writing, with a vivid description in a school magazine of the family's flight from Arad one night towards the end of World War 2. His first academic post, before moving to the United States, was at the University of Bath. He became a professor at Georgetown University in 1975. In 2008, Luttwak became a Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.^[1]

He has served as a consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council, the United States Department of State, the United States Navy, United States Army, United States Air Force, and several NATO defense ministries. Luttwak was a member of the National Security Study Group of the United States Department of Defense, and an associate of the Japanese Finance Ministry's Institute of Fiscal and Monetary Policy. With three other partners, he established and operated a self-sufficient forest-conservation ranch in the southern Amazon basin.^[2]

Luttwak has been a frequent lecturer and consultant, and is known for his unorthodox policy ideas, suggesting for example that major powers' attempts to quell regional wars actually make conflicts more protracted.^[3] His book Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook has been reprinted numerous times, and translated into 14 languages. His Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace is widely used as a textbook on the subject.

The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire from the First Century AD to the Third is controversial among professional historians. Luttwak is seen as an outsider and non-specialist in the field. However, his book has raised questions about the Roman army and its defense of the Roman frontier. Luttwak asked "How did the Romans defend the frontier?", a question that he argued had been lost in the professional discourse that focused on demographics, economics and sociology. Although many professional historians reject his views on Roman strategy, his 1976 book has increased interest in the study of Roman frontiers and strategy (for a summary of his thesis and criticism: Defence-in-depth (Roman military).) Since the 1980s he has published articles on Byzantium and his book, The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire, was published in late 2009. Reviews by Byzantine specialists have been largely negative.^[4]

Luttwak, during his childhood, spent a few years in Italy, traveling between Palermo, in Sicily, and Milan. He speaks Italian and is frequently cited by Italian media on political subjects. He has also co-authored two books in Italian with Susanna Creperio Verratti, (a political philosopher and journalist): Che cos’è davvero la democrazia ("What Democracy really Is"), 1996 and Il libro delle Libertà ("The Book of Liberties"), 2000.

He served on the editorial boards of Geopolitique (France), the Journal of Strategic Studies, The European Journal of International Affairs, and the Washington Quarterly. He speaks English, French, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish and other languages.

In 2004 he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degreen from the University of Bath. He received the America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2011.

Intelligence operative[link]

In addition to his persona as a "public intellectual", Luttwak is also an independent intelligence operative who is involved in clandestine activities that include "field operations, extraditions, arrests, interrogations (never, he insists, using physical violence), military consulting and counterterrorism training for different agencies of the U.S., foreign governments and private interests", he told Laura Rozen of the weekly The Forward newspaper.^[5]

Obama op-ed[link]

In May 2008 the New York Times published an opinion piece by Luttwak in which he argued that then-presidential candidate Barack Obama "was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood" and would be considered an "apostate" by the world's Muslims if he were to become president (see Apostasy in Islam).^[6] Luttwak was widely criticized by those authors who consider this analysis a misrepresentation of sharia, or Islamic law, including by the public editor of the New York Times, Clark Hoyt.^[7][8]

Books[link]

• A Dictionary of Modern War (London, 1971), ISBN 0-7139-0130-6.
• The Strategic Balance, 1972 (New York, 1972), ISBN 0-912050-33-0.
• The Political Uses of Sea Power (Baltimore, 1974), ISBN 0-8018-1658-0.
• The US – USSR Nuclear Weapons Balance (Beverly Hills, 1974), ISBN 0-8039-0096-1.
• The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire from the First Century AD to the Third (Baltimore, 1976), ISBN 0-8018-2158-4.
• Strategic Power: Military Capabilities and Political Utility (California, 1976), ISBN 0-8039-0659-5.
• Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook [ London, 1968, 1969], ISBN 0-674-17547-6. New York, 1969, Greenwich, Conn., 1969; Revised Edition: (Cambridge, Mass., 1979),(London, 1979; Sydney, 1979). Foreign-language editions: Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French (2), German, Greek, Italian (2), Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.
• Sea Power in the Mediterranean: Political Utility and Military Constraints (California, 1979), ISBN 0-8191-6010-5
• The Israeli Army (with Dan Horowitz) (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1983), ISBN 0-06-012723-6
• The Grand Strategy of the Soviet Union (London, 1983), ISBN 0-312-34260-8
• The Pentagon and the Art of War (New York, 1984), ISBN 0-671-61770-2
• Strategy and History (New Jersey, 1985), ISBN 0-88738-065-4
• Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1987), ISBN 0-674-00703-4
• The Endangered American Dream: How To Stop the United States from Being a Third World Country and How To Win the Geo-Economic Struggle for Industrial Supremacy (New York, 1993), ISBN 0-671-86963-9
• Turbo-Capitalism: Winners and Losers in the Global Economy (New York, 1999), ISBN 0-06-019330-1
• Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace Rev.Enlarged Edition (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2002), ISBN 978-0-674-00703-1.
• The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2009), ISBN 978-0-674-03519-5.

See also[link]

• "What the Byzantines Can Teach Us about Our National Security” by Ishmael Jones, American Thinker, March 6, 2010.

• "Why China Will Not Become the Next Global Power… But It Could” by Edward Luttwak, Infinity Journal, Fall 2011.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Interview about Libya from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives
• Interview about Soviet Union from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives
• Luttwak, Edward (July 1999). "Give War a Chance". Foreign Affairs. http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/55210/edward-n-luttwak/give-war-a-chance. 
• Luttwak, Edward (January 2005). "Iraq: The Logic of Disengagement" (PDF). Foreign Affairs. http://www.comw.org/pda/fulltext/0512luttwak.pdf. 
• Luttwak, Edward (May 2007). "The middle of nowhere". Prospect. http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=9302. 
• Robin, Corey. "The Ex-Cons: Right-Wing Thinkers Go Left!". http://lists.village.virginia.edu/lists_archive/sixties-l/2776.html. , an analysis containing several pages on Luttwak's life and thought.
• Interview with Edward Luttwak, Conversation with Edward Luttwak, Conversations with History, March 1987.
• Interview with Edward Luttwak, The Logic of Strategy and U.S. Foreign Policy, Conversations with History, November 2007.

Norma Kamali (born in 1945) is an American fashion designer based in New York City. She is best known for the "sleeping bag" coat, garments made from silk parachutes, and versatile multi-use pieces.^[1] She designed the red one-piece bathing suit worn by Farah Fawcett in the iconic 1976 Charlie's Angels poster.^[2] The suit was donated to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in 2011.^[3] She is also credited with popularizing the shoulder pad in womenswear in the 1980s.^[4] Her work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.^[5]

Kamali was the first designer to create an online store on eBay.^[1] In addition to designing clothing, she has also produced a fitness, health and beauty line.^[6] In 2008, Kamali produced a collection for Walmart.^[7]

Kamali attended the Fashion Institute of Technology^[8] and received an honorary doctorate from the institution in 2010.^[9] Kamali has received Coty awards, CFDA awards, and a plaque on the Fashion Walk of Fame.^[10] She received the CFDA Board of Directors Special Tribute Award in 2005.^[11]

References[link]