Heads-up on the headshot: Ellen Kozak on putting oneself out there

HALLIE EPHRON: Today I'm so happy to welcome attorney and author Ellen Kozak who has been a reader and commenter since

way-back-when. We hosted her in 2014, talking about her book (EVERY WRITER'S GUIDE TO COPYRIGHT AND PUBLISHING LAW). She and I bonded as fellow Barnard College alums (this photo is of her, way-back-then)and fans of Star Trek.

Today she's back to talk about what is, for many of us with even a modest public presence, a bit of a nightmare: getting a decent head shot. I've seen more than enough photos of authors standing in front of their garage door, deep shadows under their eyes, faces plastered with a maniacal grin, in a photo credited to their spouse. (As a character in my new book would say, it's like handing out a business card riddled with typos.)

Fortunately I come from a family of writers so I knew the drill. To be taken (and to take yourself) seriously as a writer, I needed 1) an office 2) a fax machine (that's how long ago it was) and 3) a professional head shot. Getting the first two were easy. Eventually I found a fabulous photographer, Lynn Wayne, who hired a makeup person for the shoot and then spent about 2.5 hours taking photos in an industrial loft. Endless photos. I've been back twice more, and I need to go again since I no longer look like my head shot.

Here's a page of the  proofs from one of our early sessions.

Ellen?

ELLEN KOZAK: One of the difficulties of being a writer today is that one has to put oneself OUT THERE, whereas so many of us would rather just sit in a tree with a notebook, like Jo March, or hunker down in a quiet room with our computers, and public be damned. 

Unfortunately, the public, or your publisher, or the conference at which you are speaking, or your Facebook page—all want a head shot. And I am notoriously camera shy—so much so that when I once wrote an article for the Milwaukee Journal on what it was like to have watched the first Superbowl with all the guys in the law school (summary: a radiator pipe burst and the floor flooded, and none of the guys left until the rented TV shorted out), I actually looked up a ten year old photo of me that had been previously published in the paper, did my hair and make-up to look as much like it as I could, and went up to see the editor and tell him, “See, you don’t need a new photo.”

I have learned how to get a decent photo at the DMV by wearing a lot of make-up and hair spray, a rib-knit turtleneck (always a turtleneck, preferably in pink or magenta), and when they say “Look up!” doing so with just my eyes, not my chin.  (Try it; it works!) 

But when I asked Hallie for an opinion on whether I could use my latest passport photo, which I thought was passable, as a headshot, she lectured me about being professional and getting a real photographer to take the picture. 

HALLIE: Ellen sent me the passport photo she's talking about, but I am NOT going to post it. Some day she'll thank me.

ELLEN: I put it off.  On Facebook, I’d been using a photo of my late dog, who died twenty years ago. On LinkedIn, I had no photo.

Well, now I do.

When the State Bar decided to do profiles of several of its 50-year members, I was one of the ones chosen.  And they sent out a photographer, who turned out to be a friend of mine. 

This is the third PR photo shoot that a bar association has financed for me.  The first two—one for the Milwaukee Bar Journal, one for Wisconsin Lawyer—were done to accompany articles I had written for them. This one was for an article about me.  Their interviewer is, like me, a lawyer-journalist and we had a fun discussion, and he actually got most of the information right.  The photo they used was spectacular.  

Hey, guys, this is what 75 looks like—IF you have a great photographer and an entourage.

As for that entourage, I now live in senior citizen housing.  One of my neighbors is a retired hairdresser.  I prevailed upon her to come to the photo session to help beat my frizz into submission.  My sister lives across the street. She came over and draped my designer scarves for me, because I had my glasses off (I can no longer wear contacts) and couldn’t see what I was doing.

I had managed to find the bag of make up that I use for appearances (especially on TV), and layered it on, covering age spots and a fading bruise (did I mention I can’t see without my glasses?).

Yvette (my hairdresser friend) and my sister stayed throughout the photo session, running over with tissues when my eyes began to water from the make up melting into them.  Kevin (the photographer) kept up a steady stream of funny remarks that had me giggling.  I don’t usually like my smile in photos, but these weren’t bad.

Kevin sent a dozen shots in my Gucci scarf for me to look over. How to decide? Were my eyes even? Did my bust look too big?  He sent the rest (in a blue scarf from that same trip to Italy) to the State Bar, whose Communications Director also happens to be a long-time friend (I’ve written a number of articles for her.)  She chose a photo, and the profile went live on July 17.  Among the comments on Facebook: “So that’s what you look like.” 

Well, not most days.  But the public at large doesn’t have to know that.  Book jacket, here I come!

 HALLIE: Nicely done, Ellen! Here's Ellen's previous head shot... Not bad!

And, just a word in support of professional photographers. They know what they're doing. Shop around, Look at their work. It's really not that expensive. You'd only hire a pro to edit your book, right? Consider it an investment. 

So how do you feel about being photographed? Do you run away from the camera? Or check your hair and makeup, and your teeth for spinach, plant your fist under your chin and smile, smile, smile? Any tips for looking your best? 

Protecting your literary estate...

YESTERDAY'S WINNER of a copy of Joseph Finder's Suspicion is James Montgomery Jackson! (James, please email your mailing address  to me at hallie "at" hallieephron dot com.)

HALLIE EPHRON: Earlier this week, there was a little kerfuffle in the COMMENTS department over what's meant by literary executor.

Our friend and frequent commenter Ellen Kozak pointed out: "There is (in most states) no such thing as a literary executor. Not a term that is recognized-- and most lawyers who draft wills know nothing about copyrights and have no idea how to work around that myth."

Really? I had no idea!

Ellen, is a Milwaukee copyright, publishing and media lawyer. She is also the author of, among other things, Every Writer’s Guide to Copyright and Publishing Law. Like me, she graduated from Barnard College and is a Star Trek fan, as an aside.

She told me a sad story about a friend of hers, Miriam (not her real name), who 30 years ago sold a novel for $20K to a major publisher. It got to the copyedit stage... and they delayed the pub date. And delayed it. So her agent at the time took it back.

Over the years, Ellen would say, "Miriam, let us sell it for you" and Miriam would say, "No, I'd have to give the money back." Ellen could not convince her that the publisher would be so thrilled to get anything that they would probably settle for "first monies" which means the advance from the second publisher, even if it was less than they'd already paid-- indeed they might even have convinced new staff at the first publisher to bring it out.

Sad ending: Miriam got Alzheimer's, and was a hoarder, and they tore down the building next to hers and mice got into her place as a result. Friends went through her place and couldn't find the manuscript.  It probably got chewed up and/or thrown away.  

Such a shame. The moral is... what? I invited Ellen back to explain what exactly we writers should do protect our published and unpublished works. Ellen?

ELLEN KOZAK: Maybe the most important takeaways from this is: 
 
(1) MAKE LISTS.  Explain that the box under the bed is the Great American Novel.  Make sure someone you trust will have the authority to go through your stuff and will know what to look for and where to find it. (PASSWORDS-- make sure that person has or can find your passwords!) Make a list of all your published works. Are they still in print? (Copyright for published OR unpublished work extends through the life of the author plus seventy years.)
 
(2) If any of your contracts are still in force (not reverted), make sure the person who will be going through them knows where they are. He/she can always take them to a lawyer.  A folder full of copies of contracts, with the agent's name and contact information (unless you outlive your agent), and maybe a master list at the front of the folder?  (And when I say folder, I mean real, not virtual).  

(3) FIND and perhaps establish a relationship with or at least have a list (yep, again) of names of lawyers/agents the people who will be looking out for your stuff can go to: a list of lawyers who do copyright and publishing law, either in your area or elsewhere (copyright is federal, and the publishing lawyer can work with your local estate lawyer). 
 
(4) MAKE LISTS OF YOUR FAMILY/HEIRS.  Even if your long-time agent (as in Lorrie's case) is willing to handle your literary estate, how the hell is he/she supposed to know who your relatives are? And which is the one you do NOT want to be anywhere near your work? 

I guess it boils down to MAKE LISTS and LABEL THINGS.
 
HALLIE: Check! Ellen will be stopping by today, so if you have questions, fire away! This is your chance!!

Boldly tagging along where no man has gone before...

HALLIE EPHRON: Confession: I've been a Star Trek fan for, ahem, decades. Loved all the series. All the movies. If you recognize the quote, then maybe you're a Trekkie (or Trekker), too?

Recently Idiscovered a kindred spirit in Ellen Kozak. An attorney, Ellen is an expert on all things publishing and a published author herself of (among other things) Every Writers Guide to Copyright and Publishing Law as well as two pseudonymous science fiction novels.

But in her dark and tangled past, she was a journalist who had the good fortune of going to Star Trek Movie premieres for Wrath of Khan and Search for Spock and (SO jealous) hanging out with... well I'll let her tell you.

ELLEN KOZAK: Through some connections at a local newspaper, I was able to get onto the press junkets for both movies.  It meant not only seeing the movies before anyone else did, but also getting to interview the actors and director and producer in assigned groups during the next two days.  Needless to say, I attended every interview session.

HALLIE: Who did you get to hang out with?

ELLEN:  In the interviews, I met and got to quiz all the cast members, but because I'd been on the set of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and had attended a few Star Trek conventions, I knew several of them already. 

There was a dinner in the studio commisary (which was unrecognizable once it was all dressed up with tablecloths and china) just before the showing of Wrath of Khan, and I sat at with DeForest Kelley and his wife Carolyn (both of them smoking like chimneys-- I guess that's how he stayed so thin, and he was VERY thin!).

I think I was the only journalist who bothered to go to ALL the interviews; the others primarily stuck with the principals and then headed for the bar or wherever. 

The last interview of the day was with Kirstie Alley (who was young, and thin, and unknown, and played a Vulcan) and Merritt Buttrick, who played Kirk's son David.  De Kelley happened to pass me in the hall and asked where I was going, and when I told him, he teased, "I'd better come along and warn them that you're dangerous."  So he did, and then the four of us sat and drank the free Paramount booze in the suite for the rest of the afternoon.

At Search for Spock, I sat right in front of De and Carolyn for the screening. This time, there was a party afterwards, and I ran into Merritt there.  I told him that I was sorry his character had been killed off, and he bent me over backwards in a fake Rudolph Valentino kiss.  I was wearing false eyelashes, and when I got back to my room, I realized that I was missing an eyelash, and I couldn't figure out where it could have come off, and then I remembered he'd been wearing a bulky-knit Irish fisherman sweater, and I'm sure it wound up in his sweater.

At one of the Wrath of Khan press conferences, some journalist in my group asked De a question about the original series, and he said, "I don't remember-- why don't we ask Ellen? She knows." And I did! So then I had sort of celebrity status among the journalists, and they'd all come up and ask me questions if they wanted some background information.

HALLIE: I love that you call DeForest De. Who knew?

ELLEN: Actually, the name DeForest was a family name-- he was related to Lee DeForest, the inventor-- but everyone called him De.

He would wax garrulous in his cups, and would tell wonderful stories. One, which I wish I'd taken down because I've forgotten the details, was about how he and George Reeves (my first crush, and De was a later one, before he became a friend), were driving together to some location shoot right after they were mustered out of the service after WWII.

That was, of course, before "superhighways," so they were wending their way through Nevada stopping at every bar to ask directions (and imbibe). Wish I could have been a fly in the inner windshield of that car!

HALLIE: I got hooked on Star Trek as a kid. Did you?

ELLEN: I came late to Star Trek, in re-runs in the mid to late 70s. (I bought my first TV-- a small black and white portable-- to take to my office the morning of August 9, 1974, to watch Nixon resign).  My secretary was a Star Trek fan, and once I had the TV, I watched it a couple of Saturday afternoons while I was cleaning the house to see why she liked it, and I got hooked.

My first piece of completed fiction was a Star Trek short story about Spock in old age, called "Indian Summer of a Vulcan" (yes, with the allusion to Galsworthy). I'd always been able to make people laugh with my writing, but with that story, I let some other fans read it at a ST convention in Columbus, and I watched a dozen people, male and female, passing the pages along and, when they got to the end, bursting into tears-- the guys were fighting it, and one turned red as he tried not to, and I thought, "I CAN do this."

Gene Roddenberry's assistant Susan Sackett was at that same convention, and I gave her the manuscript to read that night, and the next morning she brought it up to my room, saying "It was wonderful-- I cried so hard I lost your paperclip," which only another writer would understand is high praise indeed.

In fact, that short story convinced my agent to take me on (I almost got to write a Star Trek novel, but the editor who was going to buy it left, so it never got published).  So Star Trek has done a lot for me-- including seeing me through some tough times. My favorites were the original series and Voyager, but I like them all.

HALLIE: The mysteries of the missing eyelash and paperclip. Love it!

Reds, any Star Trek fans out there? Favorite series? Favorite good guys? Favorite bad guys?

MINE:
Favorite series: Next Generation
Favorite good guys: Jean-Luc Picard and Data
Favorite bad guys: Q and Khan