Repurposing—Annuities for creative people.

Those of you who put food on the table by doing what you
love are, for the most part either underemployed
or underpaid. Those whose souls you nourish
value your work. Most of those who feel revitalized
after hearing your music, seeing your movie,
reading your book, or even just cruising your blog,
wouldn't mind paying for the privilege. But, for
most of you, getting paid for that work is a one shot deal.

Whoever is employing you wants to get rid of you
quickly. They want to make a profit, and be done
with paying off the talent. That accounts for
why advertising agencies are pretty well done
with paying residuals for musicians who write,
produce, and perform on radio and television
commercials. Those at the top of the showbusiness heap can
demand compliance to union regulations about residuals, or can
work only with those for whom compliance to union regulations is
par for the course. This isn't a rant about union organizing, though.
That one will come later.

For now, let's discuss finding a way to make money off your stuff once the initial purchaser of your talents/works has taken their slice. Did you sign away your copyrights? Your publishing rights? Let's hope not.

Could you, as George Harrison and Bob Dylan have, put out a book of the lyrics to your songs, with the special added value of commentary by the composer? Maybe. If you're famous, people will buy it. If you're a screenwriter, can you adapt your movie for the stage? If you're an author, can you serialize your novel on the web? Or, maybe you can work the other way around. Maybe you can, as Tracy Quan did, serialize your novel on the web first, gain a following and/or a buzz, and score a book. From the book, Tracy scored two more books, and a TV show based on the book/series of books. Pretty good, ay?

How about all the comedy talk shows on TV? Jay Leno did a book of dumb headlines (and ads, and other stuff that appears in print). Some were featured on the "Headlines" segment he does on The Tonight Show, others were "added value"—headlines that hadn't been on the show. David Letterman has had several books of "Top Ten Lists". During the recent WGA Strike, "lateshowwritersonstrike.com" published some original Top 10 Lists, but they weren't all that funny (on purpose).

Bill Maher's HBO show—Real Time with Bill Maher—has a segment called "New Rules". There's a "New Rules" book. George Carlin took some of his most famous routines, and put them in his Braindroppings books. Those books were big sellers too.

Most of these examples contain original content along with the repurposed content. Added value is what sells them. Various licensees of The Beatles recordings have found some really silly ways to capitalize on The Beatles' music. Someone found recordings of them before they sounded very polished, and put that out. Others put out "Greatest Hits" compilations. Many people have done "cover" albums—interpretations of The Beatles' music. My favorite of these was the title track of a Bing Crosby album: Hey Jude, Hey Bing.

Of course, one of my favorites, Jonathan Katz has found a great way to repurpose content. He has used bits of his standup act, and bits from projects that may or may not have launched in his current (internet radio) series "HEY, WE'RE BACK". He used pieces of his standup in his hit animated series Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. Just as significantly, he gave dozens of standup comedians the opportunity to repurpose their material, bringing it to a television audience who may never have seen the comics' faces before.

Bill Cosby had one of the most popular TV series of all time, based on his 1982 movie Bill Cosby, Himself.

Mildred and Patty S. Hill wrote Good Morning, Dear Teacher in 1890. You're not familiar with the song? Maybe you've heard of it in its repurposed form—Happy Birthday To You. Millie and Patty changed four words in 1935, copyrighted it with the new name, and their estates are still taking in millions of dollars from a song that's 117 years old.

But, the moral of the story is that good work can take many forms, and sell in more than one. And if not, maybe the first form in which your work is distributed is not the one that will "hit".
My best friend Lisa Liel—a historian—repurposed in an extraordinary way. She took a long out-of-print interpretation of the Book of Esther, and added some commentary to it. Her work was second edition of the book. The estate of the original author's work is pleased as punch, even though the original's in the Public Domain now.

How many forms has your work taken? Can you think of other forms into which your work will translate easily? Have you done something out of the norm with your musical composition, screenplay, poem, blog, or other intellectual property? I'd love to know about it.


Drop me a line.