My WaPo copyright issue follow-up

On Monday, after sharing my WaPo problem with you all, I wrote to the editor of the LoudounExtra section:

Dear Mr. Bernstein -

You printed an article of mine without my permission. See The Washington Post breaking copyright law?

I'm not sure what you were thinking. I know most people are happy to be published at all and would be thrilled to find their writing in the Post.

However, I am a professional writer (9 books and over 900 published, paid articles). My blog clearly states that my work there is protected by copyright law.

I was actually in the process of editing that article - removing the local references - to submit for national publication in other papers of record which have in the past paid me for my work.

I do not write for free. In fact, I have written documentation from December when the Washington Times (which has paid me before) asked to carry something of mine for free and I said absolutely no.

I also do not appreciate seeing my byline without any credentials other than blogger. Besides being an author/freelance writer, I am a Montessori teacher, parent educator, mother of 12 (including adopted kids with special needs), and grandmother of 12. I blog as a way to have a more immediate connection with my readers and to cultivate ideas - but it is certainly not my primary identity and I feel you have belittled my position to speak on this issue by withholding my credentials.

So, how would you like to handle this? Please reply today.

Barbara Curtis

Our exchange was friendly and authentic and the agreement is very fair:

The Post is paying me five times the going rate for the article and will carry this correction in Sunday's Loudoun Extra section:

An excerpt from Barbara Curtis's blog Mommy Life (www.mommylife.net) was reprinted in the March 2 Loudoun Extra without the author's permission. The excerpt was about the decision by Loudoun County's school superintendent to remove the children's book "And Tango Makes Three" from general circulation at Loudoun elementary school libraries. Ms. Curtis is a published author on parenting and learning, a Montessori teacher, and a mother of 12 children.

I was very impressed by the lack of defensiveness, courtesy, and pursuit of a amiable outcome shown by the Post.

Thank you, Mr. Lieberman!

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