Writing Feature: Securing Copyright for Your Book

From Authorhouse.com

Book publishing can bring about many questions for authors, including concerns about copyright issues. A few questions authors commonly
have are:

• What is copyright?
• What are advantages to copyright registration?
• What is poor man's copyright?
• How can AuthorHouse help with copyright?

What is copyright?
Copyright protects original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture.

Under U.S. law, your work is immediately copyrighted when you put it down on paper. This copyright is based solely on your authorship and not on any agreement with a publisher or even with the government. However, registering copyright with the government can create peace of mind and confidence that you would be supported should a legal matter ever arise.

What are advantages to copyright registration?
There are three main reasons to register a work for copyright:

1. For works of U.S. origin, before an infringement suit can be brought to court, the work must be registered.

2. You must be registered to be officially recognized as the copyright holder in a court of law.

3.  If registration is made within three months after publication or at some point before the infringement occurs, you can win statutory damages and attorney's fees from court decisions. Otherwise, you can only be awarded actual damages and profits gained.

You can register anytime within the life of the copyright, and do not have to make another registration when the work becomes published.

What is poor man's copyright?
Many people believe that if you send a copy of your own work to yourself, the postmark on the envelope is enough evidence that your work is copyrighted at the date that is printed on the envelope. However, according to copyright.gov, there is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.

How can AuthorHouse help with copyright?
By publishing with AuthorHouse, you retain all rights to the content of your book throughout the self-publishing process. You are the copyright owner, as it says on the first page of your book, and you own the foreign rights to your book as well.

AuthorHouse can register your book with the U.S. Copyright Office, fill out all the paperwork, and send in copies of your book. AuthorHouse also assigns every title an International Standard Book Number (ISBN), which is unique to your book and allows retailers to locate your title.

If you plan to promote your book to libraries, AuthorHouse can also secure a Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) for your title. The LCCN is a serial number that uniquely identifies the bibliographic information of your book to support the process of sharing your information electronically with other libraries.

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