We had lots of new faces at our October 23 virtual chapter meeting and a total of 22 in attendance. EFA LA broke their old record for distance (San Diego), with Jeanne McCafferty joining us from Ecuador. We are getting the hang of this new format and took advantage of Zoom’s features to maximize our time together. The usual announcements and introductions were followed by a presentation and breakout sessions. Freelance permissions editor and rights coordinator for Getty Research Karen Ehrmann gave us a run down on the concepts, complexities, and process of permissions handling. “As a freelancer I work for different academic publishers and authors, normally reviewing their manuscript and identifying 3rd party content which may need permission clearance. This would include figures, tables, photos, art work, quotes, excerpts, poems, song lyrics, etc.…  It’s a niche and there aren’t a lot of us so I do get a lot of work – thank goodness.” Karen explained “public domain” and “fair use” and how to request, track, and invoice permissions for use of creative or intellectual property from the copyright owner. Karen generously answered questions from editors with copyright questions. Breakout sessions after the presentation enabled academic and fiction editors to meet colleagues in their respective niches and discuss specialized issues and opportunities.

Image: Left to right, top row: Cody Sisco, Linda Ruggeri, and Mike Christie; second row: Kathleen Kelly, Mike Schrock, and Ricardo Stanton-Salazar; bottom row: Sarah Garrett, Elisabeth Keneally, and Helga Schier. Not pictured: Maria Alonzo, Matthew Anderson, Kristen Chavez, Lynne Curry, Alessandor Earnest, Karen Ehrmann, Stephanie Kawada, Sara Lawson, Janet Long, Jeanne McCafferty, Susan Shankin, Anna Skiba Crafts, and Christine Steele.

Janet Long
Los Angeles Chapter Co-Coordinator