I'm confused and have some concerns about the copyright laws regarding the publication of novels. I am not sure how I should go about copywriting my work. I am hoping you will be able to clarify this process for me.
Is my work already copyrighted once I create it? If you were to accept my manuscript, do you help me copyright my work? Any information you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.
Your work is protected by copyright law as soon as you write it.
Once your work is sold to a publisher, there's a clause in your publishing contract that says the publisher will register the work with the US Copyright office.
You should not register something with the copyright office at the query stage. And you also don't need to put the (c) notice on your manuscript.
3 comments:
I wrote a song I had to copyright at that time. Now I'm turning the lullaby into a picture book. I have been wondering if it would cause problems. Thanks for this post. It is very helpful.
No, no real problem. It is what it is and it predates the book. It isn't the amateur move of copyrighting before you query so no one can "steal yur stuffz."
Obviously, let your agent/publisher know about it.
By having the copyright to the song, you are the one who can legally create derivatives of it.
Terri
Thanks Terri! : )
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