After 14 years of continuously contributing articles to Silicon Chip magazine, I have resigned from any association with Leo Simpson or Silicon Chip Publications.
This resignation is based on financial, journalistic and ethical reasons.
My articles will probably continue to appear in Silicon Chip for a few more issues as old material is used up but I will not be doing any further writing for that publication.
Thanks for letting us know Julian, sorry to hear your association has ended. You have made an excellent contribution over the years, and I'm sure many readers that don't lurk here would like to express their thanks as well. Thanks, and best of luck for your future endevours.
Sorry to hear that Julian, I always read your articles and projects with interest. Will we still have access to your articles via Everyday Practical Electronics, or were reprints of SC articles in that mag out of your control?
My articles were reprinted in Everyday Practical Electronics, were they? First thing I have heard of that...
When they republished or re-sold material, magazine publishers I have previously worked for notified contributors of the extra sales and paid a fee (normally half of the original) for the re-use.
I've had some of my EA articles "republished" in other publications. One was in a Hong Kong magazine but I got no payment for it, nor told about it, but at least they kept my name on the article :-/ Someone emailed me and told me of another one too, but I don't have a copy of it nor remember the mag. Another one was in (I think) Test Gear Vol.3, again I wasn't told about that one either, but a cheque did duly arrive in the mail, maybe because it was an actual EA publication?
** Normally, articles contributed to SC, EA or ETI are (or were ) on the basis of the author granting an implied " copyright license " to the magazine. Authors still hold their original copyright ownership.
This meant the magazine could publish the material in their usual way - ie initially in the magazine itself and possibly again later in another publication produced by the same magazine like a compilation book of projects.
However, since the magazine does not hold copyright ownership, they cannot supply the material to another publisher.
Other magazines may operate in a different way, where the author signs an agreement that assigns copyright ownership to the magazine. This allows the magazine to trade in the material as they wish.
One thing a publisher must not do is to omit the author's name or attribute the material to another.
True story:
On one occasion, I contributed an item for the "Circuit & Design Ideas " pages of EA magazine and received their standard acknowledgement letter and that it would be considered for such use in due course.
The item then appeared in the magazine's " Information Centre " pages ( run by Peter Phillips) about two months later.
Now, authors of items in the CDI pages were paid a fee and could even win a nice prize - but no fee applied to material published the "Information Centre" pages.
Took quite a bit of haggling by phone and letter to get Jim Rowe to agree that accepting the item for the CDI pages meant he owed me a fee for publishing it.
Many thanks for the great reading over the years and good luck in you other activities. Your 'salvage it' column made many think twice about the value of common throwaway 'junk'*
Peter
(*) I'm typing this sitting on a chair and using a monitor both found on the kerbside!
Wow, I lost count at around 2 dozen SC projects in the last 10 months or so! All the familiar names are there, Leo Simpson, Jim Rowe, Peter Smith, John Clark...
Julian's (sole attributed) "Human-powered LED Torches" is there.
Yep, they are - eg. Quick Brake in EPE Nov 2006 and Human Powered LED Torches in Sept 2006 just to name a couple - along with articles by John Clarke and Peter Smith.
Buying Silicon Chip mag certainly won't seem such a bargain without your "Salvage It" column. Always enjoyed your contributions, they got me hacking more rather than just building from scratch.
Leo Simpson remains a man of tremendous capability in many areas. I seriously encourage others to write freelance material for Silicon Chip
- especially when contributing just an occasional article here and there, I found the relationship to be very fruitful. If you do the articles as a hobby, it can pay quite well too.
In the main, Silicon Chip magazine is extremely good - I think in the presence of John Clarke they have an electronics engineer who performs brilliantly in the niche of designing for a hobbyist electronics magazine.
But I think that anyone who writes for the magazine long-term and in bulk should insist on being appointed to a staff position, if only so that ideas like ownership of intellectual property and suchlike are clearly resolved.
Leo Simpson is the driving force behind the magazine, in addition to being (with his wife) the owner. He has achieved a great deal in starting the magazine from scratch and knocking out the competition. However, in a way he is a victim of his own success - a very big fish in a very small pond.
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.