The women’s majlis: Writing rights require righting

In a world where publishing is becoming more and more challenging, writers have found a haven online. Blogs and forums are popular, and social media seems to dominate the world of the written word. With multiple platforms providing creative and user-­friendly tools, writers can create a simple WordPress blog or a page on a writing forum that provides a platform that people visit to read and discover new writers.

Writers have become marketing experts. Using hashtags and search terms, they’re able to drive traffic to their blogs through social-media platforms. Writers on platforms such as Instagram post snippets of long poems and stories to entice audiences and urge them to continue reading on their personal blogs.

Many emerging publishing houses have started to track down these “Insta Writers” and have signed deals with them, turning those writers’ dreams into reality. A writer who’s already active on social media has followers who are dedicated fans of their work and would love to own a copy of a published book.

Through social media, readers get to know the writer as a person rather than just as an author. This adds personality to the persona of the writer, making the reader feel closer to them. This sort of accessibility puts readers and writers in direct contact.

While it’s impressive to see so many writers post original work online, making it accessible for free to countless readers, copyright concerns are growing. Online plagiarism is fairly easy to commit and hard to track down. In the midst of the urge to generate content, rules and regulations need to protect the rights of the writer.

Creative Commons is an excellent example of an online copyright tool that writers, or any artist creating original content, can use to protect work that they post online. The tool works by allowing the writer to use icons that specify what rights they’re giving to the end user. The artist can allow you to share their work, giving them credit, or just share a link to their site, or use the work for any non-profit or non-commercial use. This tool seems to be effective, although it depends on your geographical location and the laws of your country. The UAE’s leadership has announced that 2016 is going to be the Year of Reading, during which the country is looking into ways to enhance literacy levels among its citizens. Enhancing online copyright laws will encourage people to create free creative content. Many young people now prefer to receive written materials online, through reading blogs, sites or their social-media feeds. Having writers embed their work in young people’s social-­media feeds in a simple and digestible manner will have a positive effect for readers.

Hessa Al Balooshi is a budding writer who hopes to become an Arabic mystery novelist.

If you have a good story to tell or an interesting issue to debate, contact Melinda Healy on [e-mail].