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How To Protect Your Book Before Publishing: What You Should Know
If your book is sold by an agent, the agent can file the copyright. And if your book is published directly by the author (e.g. a book club edition), the author has the option to “allow” its use, without actually filing the copyright. This allows the book to be sold at a low price to someone's library, at the author's discretion. And it also allows people to “share” it. But before you go sharing someone's book, you might want to make sure that the creator wants that done. What If I'm Unregistered? What if I'm Unregistered? — Creative Law Center When you first set up your online account, you will probably be offered the opportunity to register your book directly with the Copyright Office. If this is not an option, you will have the option to submit an appeal to the Copyright Office. Note: All the links at the top of this article are to the official Copyright Office website. #1 — How Can I Get Registered? There are three main options for getting your book registered at the Copyright Office: 1. Register by Mail If you are not able to file your copyright applications online, you can get your applications, renewals, and related forms electronically. Registering electronically will: 1. Ensure that you will have to send your copyright application promptly to the Copyright Office 2. Make it easier to ensure that you complete all the required forms accurately 3. Ensure that your file is returned to you on time 4. Avoid processing fees 5. Provide you with more flexibility and reduced delays in receiving your copyright notice. Registration services are not offered through the USA Copyright Office offices.
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FAQ
How do I protect an idea?
A good idea is like a beautiful day. Everybody owns it. If you share it then it is no longer yours. And if it's a good idea you probably aren't the only one that has it. So you can't really protect it but it's not that simple. You can guard it and keep it close. There are three kinds of formal legal protection for intellectual property in the US and most major economies none of which really applies to ideasn Patents italic for inventions formulas algorithms ... but not really for ideas. Trademarks italic formercial words images logos tag lines ... even sounds (Harley Davidson owns the copyright on its motorcycle sound) ... but you can't trademark an idea. Trademarks don't work that well in our markets because people copy tag lines and logos all the time with near copies that aren't technically violations but violate the spirit of it. non-disclosure and confidentiality italic . One can assert confidentiality and claim spreading an idea is a violation but this is very hard to enforce and requires legal documentation signed agreements etc. This can work for ideas but often doesn't. And it's very hard to get people to sign confidentiality agreements covering ideas they haven't heard yet because you can't just tell them the idea (think of cats out of bags) but if you don't then they don't know that it's new and different and not something they already thought about. Investors and largepanies don't sign these agreements because they can't really without seriously constraining their future options or their way of doing business. ordered-list So what then is it hopeless? No way to protect an idea? No not really. You can italic protect an idea by building a business on top of it and doing that well enough to guard against others doing it better. Jeff Bezos never owned the idea of selling books over the web but he did it so well with that he sort of did de-facto. One key factor is shutting up. Don't discuss your idea with anybody you don't trust. Share it very carefully only with those people who need to know in order to participate or contribute. Don't tell your friends ask them not to tell their friends. Keep it close. And in the meantime recruit a team develop a plan meet milestones get going. Build the business around the idea.
How do I go about protecting my book when trying to get published?
You really don need to worry about protecting your book when trying to get published. If youre querying legitimate literary agents and traditional (ie NOT vanity!) publishers then youre fine. It easier for them to contract with a new author than to worry about stealing an entire book. If you want you can copyright your book officially but I have never done so for an unpublished work on submission only published. Usually my publisher would get the copyright for me in my name. This article at Wiki-How is accurate on the process How to Copyright a Book s That said I will give you a word of warning the publishing industry especially here in America is like a small town. Everyone knows everyone and gossip spreads like wildfire. Be nice to everyone because the lowly assistant who rejects your book may be the head of an imprint tomorrow. People move from (publishing) house to house from imprint to imprint and assistants get promoted all the time. Don badmouth anyone either. Some people who work in publishing will get very offended if you claim your copyright and mention it in your query because it like youre accusing them of plagiarizing your book italic and they haven even read it yet! Never mention that your work is copyrighted. They know. If you really want on your cover page you can write something like Copyright 218 Aaron Donnelly All Rights Reserved but even doing that might tag you as an amateur (since the pros all know each other and don assume anyone they send their manuscript to would steal it). Good luck with your submission process!
How do editors know if the book has sentences from a protected copyright before they publish it?
Be careful about mixing job titles. Publishers public books not editors. A publisher would not really know if sentences came from other books. That is a risk they take in publishing. You can mitigate that risk by having an editor work with the author to do rewrites of the books. Clearly sentences that have gone unchanged since the first draft would be suspect but that would also be pretty rare to find in a book. How does the editor know? Well they are widely read. And again they work with the author to refine the final draft of the book. So they would be asking about each paragraph each page as they flow through the process. Ideally the author would be fessing up to such plagiarism at this stage so it can be fixed. But sure there will absolutely be sentences from other copyright protected books. A short and direct sentence like She said I love you. italic is definitely going to be found in other books. That not copyright infringement assuming that it is the only direct sentence you could have used in the proper place in your book. Infringement would have to be taking a lot more from the source material than a standard sentence of verbalmunication like that.
Do I need to protect my intellectual property (children's book with illustrations) somehow before submitting to publishers?
No. More importantly it is very rare for a publisher to accept illustrations for a children's book - they usually hire the artist. SCBWI has all the information regarding children's book publishing.
I have a book published on Wattpad, and someone messaged me asking if I 19d like to have it published on ficfun and dreame. I would get paid. Should I accept?
I am a signed author on Dreame which means I signed a legitimate contract with this online writingpany. Dreame is not like all the other online writing platforms youe across. On this site writers have the opportunity to monetize their works. Aside from the initial earning you receive when you sign with them there is also a number of bonuses they give to writers who publish fresh new stories on the site. You are offered two s of contracts a nonexclusive contract where your story can be published on other writing platforms and an exclusive Royalty contract which pays more than double what what the nonexclusive contract pays. The only catch is that the book is to only be exclusive on Dreame and no where else because the contract states that Dreame has all digital rights to your story. Now if you sign the exclusive contract aside from the initial payment a writer may get of a series of bonuses for brand new stories. For example a writer may get a new story bonus of 5USD as well a range of bonuses varying on the number of words the book contains so if the book has over 1 you will get a 1USD bonus 2 words means 2USD. These are only to mention a few. Writers are also able to their books in the pay-to-read programme which means that readers must pay to read using coins which can be bought from the site for example $.99 for 1 Coins. It is a legitimatepany and if you have been offerred a contract by them please take your time to read through it and if there are things you do not agree with be sure to tell them. If you are ufortable with signing an exclusive contract you can always choose the nonexclusive contract and publish your story on multiple sites.
How do you copyright a book before you have a professional editor work on it?
Firstly I think it important to know that in reality is very unlikely that editors and other publishing professionals will steal an author work. Doing so will damage their reputation. And would be all for nothing because let not forget a book no matter how good it is without the right marketing might not bring the desired financial success. Unless you are J.K. Rowling I wouldn worry much about that. Now let go with the scenario better safe than sorry. Most authors are fully aware that they own the copyright in their work as soon as they write down the ideas as soon as they save it on theirputer. It totally irrelevant whether the work is published or not or if the copyright is registered or not yet. Once on paper your wonderful words and ideas are protected. Lesson #1 Write it down. Verba volant scripta manent ) Now the only time when you as an U.S. author must register you copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office is when you are trying to protect yourself from an infringement suit. In this case registration will significantly increase the damages recoverable when you file an infringement action. In other words God help the fool who does you wrong. Note that to sue for copyright infringement you must register within 3 months of the novel publication date or before any breach of rights occurs. Time is of the essence. Lesson #2 If you want to register your copyright do so as soon as you publish your manuscript. The process of registration is easy fast and you definetly won need a lawyer. You can register online or you can submit a paper application. It up to you. If you choose to submit a paper application keep in mind that it might take longer. You might need to wait for up to 1 year. But as long as youve started the process do not worry. It all good. The day when the registration is considered effective and you are fully protected is the day the Copyright Office receives yourpleted application. If you choose to register online here are the steps Go to U.S. Copyright Office and create an account. Find Copyright Registration select Register A New Claim and start registration. Lesson #3 Do not hire a lawyer to register your copyright. It easy peasy. One thing to remember is that book titles are not protected by U.S. copyright law. This simply means that readers can find tons of books on Amazon all with the same title. I know you tried really hard toe up with that ingenious amazing title. Sorry. Unless you are prepared to dive into the murky waters of trademark protection you can do anything about it. And unless you wrote Harry Potter the expense is not worth it. The reason for which titles are not protected under the copyright law is quite simple. Most titles are too short to contain sufficient original expression. In other words it nothing that deserves protection. Lesson #4 Book titles are not protected by U.S. copyright law. To conclude do not be afraid to show your novel to literary agents editors and so on. However be very wary of signing publishing contracts if you don fully understand all the terms and conditions. If you want to hire a lawyer this would be the best time. For additional legal resources you might want to visit LegalZoom Start a Business Protect Your Family LLC Incorporate Wills Trademark Legal Advice s Lawyers Legal Forms Law Books & Software Free Legal Information To find trusted and respected professionals for all your publishing and marketing needs including literary attorneys see Writers Boon s .
In the Quora Anthology Collection, what category are you in, what volume are you in and what pages are you on?
Yay I am now a published author in a limited-edition book collection! OK I admit that it's actually two pages only. In a collection of hundreds. But just a few months ago I had zero italic pages published. That's like many percent more. So please check out the Quora Anthology 214 Volume Three (Life) pages 53-54 for Lorenzo Peroni's answer to What are the best science fiction movies for each decade starting in the 192s through the 21s? answer aid 412689 Pretty cool. I'm less italic happy however about what italic was published. For one I am not convinced that the answer is representative of my best writing but that's the editor's choice of course. Still I'm saddened to see that my answer was substantially modified by that same editorial team. And by that I don't only mean the missing formatting (apparently no-one was entitled to bulleted lists) but the missing content italic . Sometimes it's just words or sentences that are gone sometimes whole paragraphs. I'll leave it up to the reader to decide which version is better but I am pretty sure which version is more me. Yeah #topwriterproblems code I know. I am actually included right? And they spelled my name correctly. But why name me a Top Writer if they were going to change my writing? I wonder did this happen to anyone else?
Do I need to own a copyright of my novel before approaching a publisher?
For the most part if you are anywhere between a new writer and an established writer without much of a following no. You do not need to register a copyright for your book. You are already protected sufficiently by law in most developed countries. The only thing you may need to check up on is how long that protection lasts after you are dead. But for the most part it lasts during your entire lifetime. And as for countries that don respect copyright law registering your copyright is only going to make them chuckle. If you discover that someone has stolen your book in some way (extremely rare at this level) then you will have to register a copyright before you can sue them. The courts will not hear claims for an intellectual property which hasn been claimed by copyright or trademark even if after the theft has already occurred. And if someone registers your book after putting your name on it the courts will still determine who the rightful copyright owner is but only if you have a claim registered. If you are a writer with a huge following then you really do need to register the copyright. Because people will be trying to rip you off. But realistically the thieves have gotten so good at stealing popular copyrighted material these days that you probably will never catch up to them anyway. But you should at least have that copyright registered as a matter of doing good business. Pretty much all professional presses and publishers register the copyright for their books and authors unless they deal primary with self-publishing authors or they are an old-school vanity press in which case this service is not offered unless requested.