Copyright!. Help me please. does anyone have this knowledge?

[Gritti]

Being an absolutely new author I'll admit I don't know much about the business of writing.  Could someone explain how a copyright works very simply?  Also when is it smart to get a copyright for your work?  Does the publisher do that once the book is edited to its final form?  I'm completely lost on this.  Please help me.

[Gritti]

Okay, first off let me apologize for not realizing that there was a difference between copyright and copywrite.  After days of no response on this I picked up a book on the subject and it was brought to my attention that I'd spelled copyright wrong and that might be why nobody responded.  I corrected the spelling in the subject box.  Personally I think nobody responded 'cause the subject was rather dull. And theres always Google, Anyway confusion over.  Lesson learned.

[Darwinist]

not really, go back in the history of this forum... it's been brought up several times before...

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,13033.0.html
about copyrighting your materials

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,12929.0.html
about someone else's copyrights (locations, places, etc)

And that was just two pages back. I had a long boring day off from work a month ago and read almost every post here (which I highly recommend, its tedious but there is a LOT of helpful topics) and it's been brought up several times. Chances are, nobody else felt like dredging up or replying to a topic that has been discussed and discussed and discussed.

Clift notes version... nobody has a firm answer. Some say that as soon as you put it on paper, that it is your intellectual property and no copyrights are needed. However, how do you prove WHEN you wrote it down? Someone suggested priority mailing a sealed copy of the materials to yourself (which seemed like paranoid overkill to me), but others said that this probably wouldn't stand up in court.

Someone had mentioned a copyright website, but I think that really only applies if the manuscript or WIP has been published.

Personally I'm of the opinion that anything I write, stays on my computer for my eyes only. I don't mind posting excerpts of it for workshops, but NEVER EVER EVER EVER produce a full copy of your own work in one place. Even with agents and publishers, they usually only ask for the first 50 pages of a novel - never the whole thing.

hope that helps

[Gritti]

Tremendously.
Thanks so much
And, I'll take your advice and try to dedicate some serious time to reading everything here.

[Kris_W]

Hi Gritti,
Best of luck with your writing!

Here's a couple web sites that may help you with related questions -

The first should give you a fair idea of what 'red flags' to watch out for in publishing -
http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/about/

This second one closed down in 2007 but is still the best blog to give the general feel for the industry. Go back to the oldest post and read it all -
http://misssnark.blogspot.com/


Again - Best!

[Gritti]

Kris_W... thanks for the tips.  I will check them out!