Author’s Storywriting Hints–Hint 10:Publishing

Title 17 of the United States Code covers the copyright laws of the United States. I am not a copyright attorney and do not profess to provide copyright advice. Nevertheless, I always believed that it was important to do everything you can to protect your original work effort.

I have a vivid memory of an incident my cousin had with a school teacher. My cousin, Tom, had written a detailed account of life in a small mining town in South Western Colorado. Part of Tom’s research included interviews with an elderly family doctor who had lived in that small town in the early days of his medical practice. This doctor recounted his first-hand experiences with the gold and silver minors and even the prostitutes who frequented the small town. Tom submitted his research paper for the class assignment. Months later he learned that the teacher had published the paper as his own.

I don’t believe this is an isolated example of having your hard work “stolen.” In my cousin’s situation, the teacher denied that Tom even had any involvement in the written product. Tom had not put any copyright protection on the paper, and even had he done so, the teacher could have denied that it was Tom’s work. But there is a simple process to protect your work product short of filing a document with the US Copyright Office:
(1) Put the copyright protection on your document;

(2) Insert the document into an envelope and address it to yourself;

(3) Seal the document and write your signature across the sealed flap;

(4) Put clear, heavy-duty tape across the sealed flap;

(5) Mail the envelope to yourself BUT do not open it. The contents of your sealed envelope will help determine your ownership and the date you claimed ownership, via the postmark on the envelope.

Legitimate publishers are quite familiar with copyright laws and will normally do the official filing for you. But, be on guard for those unscrupulous publishers who function with less than stellar integrity.

With the use of the internet, you can electronically submit your manuscript to many publishers. Publishers often have submission “rules” that you should look for and follow carefully.

If you are unable to find a publisher who wants to publish and market your book, you also have the option of finding a publisher who will take care of certain legal issues, like copyrighting, but only print the books while you have the primary/sole responsibility of marketing the book. This form of publishing is commonly referred to as Vanity Publishing.

Another avenue for publishing your book is the self-publishing route. Self-publishing is similar to Vanity Publishing with the exception that you do all necessary legal work, including submitting the manuscript to the US Copyright Office.

This topic is worthy of much more discussion, and I will attempt to cover some of that information in the next hint – including some of the major errors my brother and I made.