When a copyright notice is a deal breaker



Under "rookie mistakes" or "pet peeves," a couple of agents in the Jeff Herman book mentioned "copyright notices on book proposals." It's always been my standard practice to put a copyright notice on everything I send out, especially on the Web. It never occurred to me that an agent would even look at the copyright, let alone be put off by it. Do you know of other agents who dislike copyright notices on proposals? What are your feelings about them?

 
Everyone dislikes them. How much is less absolute. Most of the time (see below) they're not an instant pass for me, but seeing them does raise your bar appreciably. (For those of you who think this gives me license to steal your work, your wariness is noted and you can cross me off your query list.)
 
Your work is protected by copyright as soon as you dip your pen in blood and fix your words to the page.  Putting a copyright notice on your work does not change or add to the protection you already have.
 
The reason agents notice (and don't like it) isn't the copyright notice itself, it's the mindset that it indicates.
 
If you put a copyright notice on everything, OR (my new favorite) put a confidentiality clause at the bottom of your email it tells me first off that you don't really know much about how publishing, and specifically querying, works.
 
That means that if you were to become a client, I can expect to spend more than a little time coaching you through the cosmic horror of how things work, and pouring medicinal libations  as you discover this Arcane Business Model That Makes No Sense To Any Sane Person.
 
Now, I have to do that anyway since publishing is weird, but I like it when clients need less whisky cause they already know some of the basics. Like copyright notices don't mean a damn thing.
 
 
When copyright notices are a problem is when you've registered the copyright with the US Copyright office.
 
(And PAID to do so of course.)
 
The publisher expects to file the initial copyright (and pay for it too.) It's boilerplate in the publishing contract.
 
If you've already filed one, the publisher has to file an AMENDED copyright notice instead, and that costs more. And they have to know to do it which means I have to tell them, and if you forget to tell me ..well, it's just a stupid problem and we already have enough of those to deal with.

Not to mention it raises the question of whether you've published the book previously, cause there's another boilerplate publishing clause that says you have not.

All in all, a mess that's easily avoidable.
 
 
But, when a copyright notice means you're a blithering idiot and gets an instant pass is when you have something like:

Registered with the IP Rights Office
Copyright Registration Service
Ref: (string of numbers, no letters)

 
Previously referenced here

 
The ONLY copyright notice that actually means anything is from the US Copyright office, and starts with TX (as in text).
 
You don't need any of this, but the only one that's a deal breaker is the phony, expensive scam one.
 
Any questions?