Seven Questions Authors Need to Ask About Copyright

Writers beginning their journey to publication will eventually have to think about the issue of copyright protection.

When my first novel came out, the small press who published it took care of copyright registration. There wasn’t a heck of a lot for me to do. I saw the little copyright symbol in the front of my book and thought, Well, that’s one less thing for me to worry about.

However, when I self-produced my novel THE HEARTBEAT THIEF, I was on my own—so I needed to know what the details were.

New writers should be aware what copyright is and what it does so that they can make informed decisions regarding their work. Much of the information presented in this article comes from the Wikipedia page (noted as [1]) as well as Copyright.gov (noted as [2]).

Which leads me to the big looming disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I don’t pretend to be a lawyer. This is not legal advice. If you need legal advice, consult a professional. This article is for informational purposes only. Visit copyright.gov for the laws and regulations and processes regarding this topic.

Ok, let's get to the important stuff. Here are the questions you should be asking (as well as some answers. I have nothing against cheat sheets.)

1) What is copyright?

“Copyright is a legal right created by the law of a country that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights for its use and distribution.” [1] It protects both published and unpublished works. [2]

Basically, it states that, if you create it, you should have the rights to it. For authors, this means that your book is your book and you control the rights to it. It also means that if you plagiarize another person’s work or distribute it without their permission, you are in violation of their copyright. You cannot copyright material that belongs to someone else.

However, there are shades and degrees all sorts of nuances. For instance, through coincidence, two people may hold copyright on substantially similar ideas and still not be in violation of copyright as long as it can be determined that one did not copy from the other.

2) What does copyright protect?

“Copyright is a form of intellectual property, applicable to certain forms of creative work. Under US copyright law, legal protection attaches only to fixed representations in a tangible medium.” [1]

Creative work includes far more than literary creations but, for us authors, we are most concerned with works such as novels, stories, poems, plays, and articles. (For an in-depth answer to this question, look at this document.)

3) What does copyright NOT protect?

The Wikipedia page lists several exceptions to what copyright will protect. Copyright will not protect:
• Names of products
• Names of businesses, organizations, or groups
• Pseudonyms of individuals
• Titles of works
• Catchwords, catchphrases, mottoes, slogans, or short advertising expressions
• Listings of ingredients in recipes, labels, and formulas (although the directions may be protected by copyright)

It also doesn’t protect facts or ideas. [2]

Copyright is not the same thing as a patent or a trademark. Those distinctions are described here. 

4) How is copyright enforced?

Copyright exists the moment an author puts work in a tangible form. In other words, he prints it out. You write a book, print it out, boom. You got copyright!

Enforcing it, on the other hand, is where all the work comes in. An author must register the work with the copyright office. Doing this is easy enough: go to http://copyright.gov and fill out an application.

You send in the form either by mail or electronically (faster) and follow up with snail-mailing a print copy of your book. They mail you a certificate once the work is registered. If you then find that someone has violated your copyright, you can take legal action.

5) What does it cost?

Registering a work with the copyright office isn’t very expensive. For a single author/single work, it costs under 50$. The fee list is here.  (The costs associated with taking legal action will vary.)

6) What is a poor man’s copyright?

It is thought that if one were to print out their manuscript, seal it in an envelope, and mail it to themselves, it would protect their work in the matter of what some call “a poor man’s copyright". If left unopened, the date on the postmark should be enough proof that the work was put into tangible form by that date. Right?

Wrong. This process won’t protect the work in the event of a copyright lawsuit. All this process does is make a nice souvenir. But you already knew that copyright exists the moment you print your work out. (If not, go back and read #4.)

7) Do you need to register your copyright?

And that’s the million dollar question. The answer is: only if you want copyright laws to back up your claim should you head to court.

Will you actually need to go to court? I hope not.

It’s kind of like auto insurance. Are you definitely going to get into an accident? I hope not. But that’s why we carry insurance. It’s protection in case an if becomes a when. What stops a person from driving a car without insurance? Nothing, really, except the threat of legal ramifications since it’s the law to maintain car insurance. But no law says you need insurance to publish a book.

So…maybe it’s not like auto insurance. Maybe it’s even more confusing.

Think about you, your book, your goals as a writer…then do your own research. You already own the right to your work. Do you want the laws to protect it for you? I guess that’s the question you need to ask.

And if you want to see copyright in action, here are some articles about important copyright infringement discussions:

J.K. Rowling wins copyright infringement case

When Does a Movie Infringe a Novel's Copyright?

The Shadowhunters vs. the Dark-Hunters

Authors published by traditional or small presses most likely will have their registration handled for them, as mine had been with my first novel. Indie authors who are self-producing their work will have to register their work with the copyright office on their own.

I chose to register THE HEARTBEAT THIEF because I wanted to ensure I crossed every t and dotted every i (something that, ironically, I often fail to do when handwriting. What a weird cliché for me to use.) It was only 35$. I figured it was worth the cost of insurance. Once I had the print book formatted, I printed a proof copy and mailed it in (so, another 10$ or so).

For me, it wasn’t difficult or and it wasn’t expensive...and it’s one less thing I need to worry about.

Good thing. I don’t need to spend my time worrying about things like that. I’d rather spend my time writing my next book.

Ash Krafton is a speculative fiction writer who, despite having a Time Turner under her couch and three different sonic screwdrivers in her purse, still encounters difficulty with time management. She's the author of the urban fantasy trilogy The Books of the Demimonde as well as WORDS THAT BIND. She also writes for YA and NA audiences under the pen name AJ Krafton. THE HEARTBEAT THIEF, her Victorian dark fantasy inspired by Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death”, is now available.

Taking Care of Business: The Author Biography

When you’re an as-yet-unpublished writer, one of the most intimidating things you’ll face is your own author biography.

You’ve read countless bios of successful authors, with their lists of titles and bestselling charts and accolades. Then, there’s you, manuscript in hand, wondering how you can possibly get the attention of your dream agent when you don’t have what the others have.

You already know that the hook and blurb is vital to getting an agent to finish reading your query…so how do you keep their attention long enough to hit “reply”? What if they see your empty, unenthusiastic bio? Won’t they pass because no one wants to take a chance on an unaccomplished unknown?

Stop that right this instant. You’ll defeat yourself before you even get started.

You do have a bio inside you, even if you’re querying your first book. You are an accomplished writer who obviously has what it takes to go pro—because the act of querying is proof that you are ready to make this manuscript into a product. You are seeking a career. You are worthy of
publication.

You simply need to find the bio that’s waiting to be written.

Building a Bio

“This is my first novel.” Clean and simple. This statement is not a death wish. It’s simply the truth. Think of all the successful debut novels you’ve seen over the years. They were all first books. If you have nothing else to add, just leave it at that. Agents appreciate brevity. (And... just in case you have a trunk full of unsold manuscripts: nobody needs to know you have a pile of gone-nowhere projects. Just say it's your first novel.)

“I belong to a writer’s group.” This shows that you are already networking with other professionals and shows you have commitment to the craft. Join a local writers group at the public library. Join a state-wide group like Pennwriters (who have members worldwide). Join a national group, such as Romance Writers of America if you write romance.

“I have a platform.” Platform is such a lofty word, isn’t it? It doesn’t have to be. Platform doesn’t mean pedestal. Platform is simply the legs on which you stand. What experience do you have in real life that has inspired or supports your book? Writing about animals because you’re a vet or work for animal rescue? Bam—platform. Writing about Greek gods in contemporary settings because you’re a curator in a museum or have travelled to ancient archeologic attractions? Bam—platform. Writing a vampire love story because you are the Slayer and have been fighting the forces of the undead since you were a high school freshman and honestly believe that Slayers need love, too? Bam, bam, stake through the heart and bam—platform (as long as you can prove it.) Which brings up the warning—don’t make stuff up. Save that for your novels.

“I have previous work published.” Novels aren’t the only things that get published. So do poetry, short stories, and articles. Do you contribute to an established blog with wide readership? Have you been featured in ezines or print journals? If not, don’t despair—because those are things that you can start doing right now. You’re a writer. Publishing in smaller venues gets your name out there and builds a readership. And if there is one thing that agents love, it’s a writer that comes with an established audience.

“I’ve won a writing contest.” This is another thing you can start doing right now. Contests are perpetually being held, from local to online to national to worldwide. Just do a quick search and start picking which ones you’re eligible to enter. Since many contests charge fees, you’ll have to be choosy. Winning a contest or simply making finals is great for publicity and often a nifty prize. Personally, I value the blurb more than anything else. Calling my first book BLEEDING HEARTS a “Six-Time RWA Chapter Contest Finalist” is a huge deal for me…and that blurb went a long way to sell that book.


Chances are you already have an impressive bio inside you, just waiting to be written. If a job, an experience, an association, an accomplishment, or a skill is pertinent to you as an author or to your book, it may be bio fodder. Just be sure to state it succinctly and professionally—you don’t want to blow your honed-to-perfection hook with an inflated, irrelevant bio.

And remember…if you’re in doubt, just go with the clean and simple “This is my first novel”. If you’ve hooked the agent with your story, that’s all they need to know.

Ash Krafton is a speculative fiction writer who, despite having a Time Turner under her couch and three different sonic screwdrivers in her purse, still encounters difficulty with time management. She's the author of the urban fantasy trilogy The Books of the Demimonde as well as WORDS THAT BIND. She also writes for YA and NA audiences under the pen name AJ Krafton. THE HEARTBEAT THIEF, her Victorian dark fantasy inspired by Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death”, is now available.

Taking Care of Business: Making Friends

Taking care of business and making friends may sound unrelated at best, but here's a secret: the dreaded term "networking" is basically just jargon for making friends.

Writing is a lonely business. You pull out your laptop, put on your headphones, and enter into a world that you created and no one else knows about (yet:  one day they'll be writing FanFiction in your world). If you're lucky enough to be writing full time (and don't all of us, somewhere, have that goal in the back of our mind?), that's pretty much all you do.

Write stuff: no human interaction required.

There are, of course, a few issues with that. For one thing, how do you write Deep Truth About The Human Condition if you aren't around other people? For another, writing is lonely. I know I'm repeating myself, but it's true. You write alone, you face writer's block alone, you revise alone, you read rejection emails alone.

Here's the thing: you don't have to. Making friends might be one of the key ways to keeping your sanity during the long and crazy process of writing and subsequently selling a novel. There are Twitter hashtags to follow (#amwriting is common; right now, #CampNaNoWriMo is a big one. And there's also #amrevising and #amquerying for other stages of the writing process); word sprints to join; and friends to be made.

If Twitter isn't your thing, writers love to blog. Search people out. Interact with writers on their blogs and through their Twitters, their newsletters, their Facebook groups... I do all these things, and I've made a lot of friends through the Query Tracker forum, too.

Besides keeping you sane and making friends from around the world (which should be all the motivation you need), making friends really is networking (which is a very scary word. Sorry about that.). Other writerly friends make great critique partners, ones who are willing to tell you, "You can do better than this. Don't take the easy way out." And you'll listen, and they'll read the revision, and they'll let you know they love it. You'll know they're sincere since they weren't afraid to tell you when they didn't love it.

When you get an agent, you'll want people to tell who understand what it means to actually have an agent. (I don't know about you, but this basically discounts my real-life family and friends.) When you go on submission, it's great to have friends who can send you pictures of cuddly animals to keep you sane and remind you that this, too, shall pass. And when you get the book deal you've always wanted? It's time to celebrate, and celebrations are always better with friends.

Twitter is full of now-published authors who have been friends since the days of querying. The most famous for their friendship is probably Susan Dennard and Sarah Maas, both now published successfully. And because they're writing BFFs, they get to blurb each other's books, and happily promote each other on Twitter, and collaborate on projects.

A quick reminder: Never treat someone like they're just a business deal waiting to happen, or befriend someone only because you think they'll help your career. It won't work. That's why I call it making friends, and not networking.

Befriend someone because you both have an undying passion for knee socks, obsess over Lizzie McGuire even though it's been off the air for 11years, and neither of you are sure what the big deal is about coffee. Oh, and you happen to both be writers. Maybe one of you rocks at dialogue and the other is excellent at filling plot holes. You'll make a great team, the two of you, with two books that both have killer dialogue, no plot holes, and obscure references to fancy knee socks.