 Right. And to some extent they're doing you a favor, right? Right. But to a larger extent, again, they need good content. They have other people they can produce. So if somebody's, you know, at least see it for what it is. I don't know what you can do about that attitude. I don't know what you can do to stop that person from thinking that way or that institution from thinking that way. But what you can do is you can see it for what it is. And it's manipulation to make you take less, to make you think that you're less valuable than maybe you are. Right. So at least see it for what it is as a manipulation. And then again, I would just, you know, you have to have your walk away points. Everybody when they're new in a career and even further afterwards. I mean, I've been surprised how much I can go higher and higher in my career in terms of people respecting me as an authority. I still got to eat crap just like everybody else. Everybody's got a boss. Everybody's got to compromise their, what they think they want to do. Right. So you have to balance that. But they do want good content and they can't say, your play is great and you want to produce it. By the way, we're doing you a favor. It just doesn't make any sense. Yeah. I was very interested by this question over there. Are they telling you basically the reasons they want? Are you writing a certain thing? Are they adding? Are there different people? How does the extent of your, Michelle? Well, I guess the, you know, there's many, there's many changes they suggest. Some of them are good. Some of them, as you said, like they resisted it first. They wound up being good. I guess there was more of a point of that it always goes to the nuclear option instead of just sort of being in a conversation. Yeah. Because like you said there, I mean this is somebody who's produced like 60 things often on Broadway. She's just like very aggressive. Yeah. It's like the minute you say, well, and she says, well, let me know what you should play. It's like, whoa. Yeah, I've dealt with that too. What is a good comeback for them? Well, there's nothing. Right. It didn't meet me at the band shell, so I want a divorce. I don't know. I mean, you can point out to her. It's like, you know, is it going to be the nuclear option that it's your way or the highway because then you need to know going in. I mean, it's a sensitive situation. You don't want to blow your Broadway debut. But by the same token, you don't want to have a Broadway debut that's a flop and doesn't represent your work. If it's going to flop, at least it should be your work that flop. It shouldn't be your compromised work that flop. Because your name is going to be attached to it. But you shall go and produce another 20. Yeah. I think I spoke to a few people here about it, about royalties. I'm a flusie. I have Google Alert. I have like eight, 10-minute plays published. And I have Google Alerts out. And they're being done all over. Never gotten a pen. And I did something even. How do you know that they've been done all over? Because I see there, I get a Google Alert. I say, you know, when I have my stuff and I get emails to myself and I see a play of mine was done in Michigan last week. No money. Well, that's, you know, are you registering your works at the copyright office? The published ones are not copyrighted except they're published. They're published by whom? Just as an example. All right, this is a bad example. Is anyone with Smith and Cross? Because they just sent us this email. Right. So Smith and Cross typically... Well, they're not doing anymore. We just got an email a couple months ago. That Smith and Cross is no longer handling our royalties. No, but they're usually handled to make sure that your copyright is registered. They said just put at whatever they see. They see where your play was produced and it's okay. That's what they say. Now the royalties go to us. I mean, we have to be in charge of royalties. And what are they doing? Well, what I want to say to them is, excuse me, I've never seen a penny from you guys. And then within 10 days, I got a contract from my first college textbook. 6,500 copies. What do I charge? Loosy. Again, because I'm sure I'd be down to royalty. Well, you call the drama skill and say, what are the standards here? I don't know the standards off the top of my head, but it's usually like a textbook you would say is prorated according to what other people are getting. Most favorite nations clause. I don't get anything less than it on a proportional basis than other people. So you can handle that. First, you should make sure that all your copyrights are registered when you're sending them out. If you're doing a bunch of eight to 10 minute plays, make sure they're registered as a collection if you want to save that money. So once you register, then you can sue people. Then you get attorney's fees. Then you get a prima facie, which means a presumption that you have a valid copyright. So you want to register with the U.S. Copyright Office. That's at copyright.gov. I don't want to hear anything. I know that. What's that? It's cheaper if you just do it online. I don't want to hear anything about the WGA registering scripts that has nothing to do with anything. It doesn't give you any more rights than you have sitting here today. I don't want to hear about mailing it to yourself that doesn't do any good. So once you register with the Copyright Office, the second thing is when you find out when somebody's doing your play, most of the times these aren't sinister people. They're not someone twisting his mustache at the other end of the internet taking your play. They're just being careless, but they usually respond pretty well to a mellow email that goes out that says, look, I notice you've done my play. I typically get $1 for this kind of production. Can I send you a one paragraph contract and you can sign it and send back a check for $1? It's the flusy part that gets to me is that some of my responses, because I do write to them. People have written to me on Facebook, I love working on your play. And when they hide it under a title of like 10 minutes, there can be a title where your own title is not in it. So I'll even find out that way. Usually I do a mentorship kind of thing with them instead of... Yeah, I would start easy with the $1 and ramp it up from there and just get used to it. You know, part of being comfortable in your own skin is trying new things and developing that additional zone of comfort, right? I'll take one more question that I have a conclusion remark to make, but any other questions? Sir? There's a local company here in town that is doing its own one act, 10 minute play festival. They're not paying the playwrights. That's fine, because they're not paying the directors, they're not paying the directors. What gets me is in their thing they send out beginning, they aren't giving any cups and they're expecting anybody working on the show to pay for tickets. This is really the lowest of the load. I think so. I mean, on one level, I don't understand if they're not paying the people. If they were paying you and they said no comps, that would be different because then I would have this respect for them because that's right, they're in it to make money, they've got the right priority. But yeah, that doesn't... But you could say no to your play being good. I could, yes. Yeah. So that's unfortunate. Yeah, okay. It's true, I think that we don't value ourselves, I think is what you're saying, and we forget to value ourselves a lot. And early on in my career as a director, it was exactly the same thing. No, yeah. I just still remember to put a value on what I do. I think the $1 thing is a really, I think that's really an important thing to remember for us all because I also think that if we had said to that, my play's not being done, that particular artistic director, I really believe that I should be able to get comps for this if you're doing my play. But we don't even say that sometimes. Right. We just say the first words that the value on ourselves. Well, and keep in mind that with my theory, and I would feel comfortable with this, is this gentleman said, I insisted on $1, and I got $1, but there were no comps. They're still making money off of you if you want to go see the play. But the author should be able to go see the play anyway. I mean, that's a given. Yeah. The author sees... I mean, you're part of the production, so if you're a member of the Guild, that's something we would write a letter to that artistic director about, saying, the author... I can see how the author's family shouldn't be talking, but the author has to see the play in action. Oh, but it's just... I made a letter. It says, no comps, it's dirt cheap, everyone can afford this. Only those participating in the festival are free. So I assume that... Yeah. That I misread it. Yeah. Anyway, listen, the world needs great artists, and if you want to be one of them, you're going to have to figure out a way to make a living out of it. Okay? And that means knowing the business end of your profession. If you sincerely attempt to know the business, you're going to develop critical thinking skills. Now, all critical thinking skills at some level can be reduced down to A equals B, and B equals C, therefore A equals C in these kind of syllogisms, logical statements. But it's much more interesting than that. These critical thinking skills that you develop in improving your business sense, it's about human nature. You're developing critical thinking skills about human nature. There's one principle that I love, is that you can trust people to be themselves. So this producer that this gentleman has with this Broadway production, I guarantee you that he knows that when there's a confrontation about a certain change that she's going to do the nuclear option, well, then I won't do your play. You can trust her now. You know something about her. You can trust her to be yourself, herself. But also you can, you know, with a situation like that, you can consider what's going through the other person's head. There's something that she's trying to get at. She doesn't want to waste time, probably, with an amateur, right, or something like that. That's probably what's going through her head. So now you know something. That's your theory. You have a thesis about this person. She's trying to approach me. She wants to save time, and she doesn't want to have to spend time on my inexperience. She wants to save time like that. So you can react to that. You can try a strategy. If that's the case, if that's what's motivating her, maybe this will work. That didn't work. Maybe something different is motivating her. Now you're learning something about another human being. And I find it very enriching. So in conclusion, four things. Don't be a floozy. Get it in writing. Join the Dramatist Guild. And be intrepid. Thank you. Thank you. How's keeping things?