Knowing what you can and shouldnt do is a critical part of the publishing business. From guest blogger rachel ryan with the wealth of online resources and doityourself tools, publishing a book no longer requires writers to go through the arduous, costly, and frustrating, traditional publishing process. Leaving such an essential intermediate step out of the kindle publishing equation leaves new self publishers confused and feeling uneasy when getting their book ready to upload onto kindle direct publishing kdp. This is true whether you are a firsttime author or a veteran in the field with dozens of books to your name. Intellectual property rights frequently asked questions. Most publishing platforms make it easy for you to change your author name or to add a new author name to your publishing account. All about the copyright page for selfpublishing authors. In this post, youll learn the important elements of a page and other essentials. How to write a copyright page, basics of self publishing. If, however, you plan on selling your ebook or self published book, i would highly recommend you take the time to actually register it.
Because of the expansion of selfpublishing there are an increasing number of lawyers who will assess legal issues in a book and tell you how to address the problems for a fairly nominal fee. How to change your author name to a pen name when selfpublishing. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes infringement, please follow the. None of these protects you from a infringement lawsuit. The 2010s were supposed to bring the ebook revolution. Well announce the results of the firstever econtent 100 list chosen by the people. Two groups representing dutch owners, including authors and publishers, filed a infringement lawsuit in amsterdam against.
So, while draft2digital isnt as comprehensive as the highestranked selfpublishing services we evaluated, the convenience and affordability of its ebook services cant be beat. Selfpublishing is a method of publishing and distributing books thats different than traditional book publishing because the author has control over their book. This text is fairly standard across books and publishers but you can. There is no difference in the language if youre operating as a soleproprietorship, an llc, or any other type of business organization. This essential guide includes an explainer video, a free infographic, and tips from practicing attorneys. Publishing spent the 2010s fighting tooth and nail against ebooks. When youre working alone, without a literary agent or traditional publisher, you must be vigilant about scams. Selfpublishing is big business, but theres more to putting out a book than just printing it. In other words, your story or piece of music or building plans must be fully developed, fleshed out, and exist in some visible manner in order for it to be considered ed. Authors and selfpublishers need to understand basics and why it is critical to protect their work.
The worlds largest book publishers have jointly filed a lawsuit against. If you are creating a simple ebook to distribute for free, you may want to pass on the registration process. However, to identify the particular work for which preregistration is sought, a description of the work is required. What is copyright and why is it important to authors. Copyright for coauthors, ghost writers, and illustrators. The author services department is composed of knowledgeable customer service reps, publishing consultants and marketing professionals. Especially for something like a novel, registering a gives the author tremendous intellectual property protection. Beware this talk will make you rethink your entire life and work life changer duration. The worlds largest book publishers have jointly filed a lawsuit against amazonowned audiobook company audible today over a new, controversial texttospeech feature the literary industry. Copyright violation would be if you made another ebook from the one that you have.
In traditional publishing, the publishing house will decide how long this section is and what it includes, but when you selfpublish, you will be writing the page. I published two books with publish america, self publishing. Not everyone wants to have their book take six to eighteen months before. On the flipside, youll see a bunch of scary legal information symbols, disclaimers, isbns, dewey numbers, publisher details and more. Internet subscribers are advised not to take any action based upon the material in this website without first consulting c. Over 300,000 authors trust the professionals on reedsy, come meet them. At authorhouse, a self publishing company, we understand the amount of work youve put into your book publishing project, and ensure that you retain all rights to the content of your book throughout the self publishing process. In fact, everythings going swimmingly in your plan to conquer the. Major book publishers sue amazons audible over new speechto. Nowadays, anyone can write a book and easily selfpublish it. Uploading or attempting to upload any content for which you do not have rights can result in the rejection or removal of your book, negative impact to your account status, andor loss of royalties. Scott allan is a student success coach and inhouse content creator here at self publishing school. Oppressive grabs are routinely negotiated out of agreements by knowledgeable authors and agents, and there is no credible justification for their existence.
The page is standard in any book where its poetry, fiction, nonfiction, memoir, or comic. This is the province of lawyers, big publishers with legal departments, and plagiarism trackers, isnt it no, every selfpublisher needs to have a bit of information on and the way the law works in. The information provided on this website is not intended to be legal advice and does not create an attorneyclient relationship. Amazon respects the intellectual property of others.
Publishing services for self publishing authors and businesses. She is the author of the book, protect your writings. Samples of a long page and a short page are provided so readers can copy and paste them into their own book files, ready for customization. Thus, many authors will work through a publishing company to distribute their books in an ebook.
Copyright page samples you can copy and paste into your book. Its also true whether you are selfpublishing, going through a mainstream publisher or. Google has settled lawsuits brought by book publishers and authors. Because preregistration is not a form of registration but is simply an indication of an intent to register a work once the work has been completed andor published, there is no deposit requirement.
To register a book or other creative work, simply go to. In the past, printing processes and costs prohibited small runs of books, so selfpublishing was difficult and expensive. The only acceptable times when a person is legally allowed to copy the book is if the user copies the e book files to a computers hard drive. The lawsuits copyright and fair use research guides at. Inserting a comment in your book that asks the holders to contact you does not make it legal. We place your name where it belongs, right next to the symbol on the first page of your published book. Maria crimi speth is a shareholder at jaburg wilk and practices in the areas of intellectual property, internet law, and commercial litigation, representing clients throughout the united states. In this case, it may be an unnecessary expense and waste of time. Print on demand is gaining in popularity as another way for an author to selfpublish. When i realized that she was both an attorney and someone who understands the world of bloggers, online publishers, and authors, i asked her to write an article that would highlight legal issues authors face, and how those issues affect selfpublishers. This means that only the holder of a book is authorized to reproduce or distribute the book.
As a selfpublishing author, all you really need is the. If you are a star trek fan, the name axanar has almost certainly crossed your lips or your computer screen recently. Axanar is a film well, at least a very good trailer aspiring to be a film set in the star trek universe, which tells the back story of garth of izar, a character who appeared in one episode of the original star trek series. Copyright issues in ebooks and electronic publishing. Should i copyright my book the self publishing expert. To figure out the answers, well have to dive in deep to a lawsuit filed by.
Registering a is easy and, compared to other forms of intellectual property protection, inexpensive. I use article marketing to promote inkwell editorials line of ebooks. For ebooks, publishers have retained a lot more control over them. The 10 best self publishing companies for 2020 free. Some companies, writers, and artists lose millions by having their work stolen or redistributed illegally. When you write and publish your own works, you are now in business for yourself, and business owners protect their property by learning how to a book the right way. The reason, because after the books are published i send the synopsis, many of them to tradistional publishers and never get them back. Selfpublishing services is here to help you with all your indie publishing needs. Publishing faqs self publishing book ebook publisher. We asked andrew chapman, selfpublishing expert and author of the 53 biggest selfpublishing mistakes and how to avoid them a free e. Us law holds publishers accountable for publishing any material that has been previously published in any medium. To lay this book in my lap by marina noordegraaf used under cc byncsa 2.
Any computer that is owned and directly controlled by the owner of the e book may have the e book copied onto it. The page is most commonly found on the back of the books title page. Finishing a book is always a great accomplishment and its usually one that represents months or even years of hard work and dedication. If i choose to before publishing, do i have to re after the editing and publishing process. If your books are written andor published under a business structure of some sort, you can list your company as the owner on your page in your ebook. Most commonly located on the reverse of the title page, this page lists the everimportant notice, edition information, publication information, bibliographic cataloging data, legal notices, and the isbnlccncip numbers. Each year, econtent magazine compiles a list of the 100 companies that matter most in the digital content industry. One tidbit you may not know is that publishing services firms that help selfpublished authors are, in most cases, not legally liable for the content in an authors book. Nmpa members downtown music publishing, pulse music publishing, ole, peermusic, ultra music. Also if a person wishes to copy the e book to hard copy that is acceptable.
A judge ruled in her favor after an individual was set to publish a harry potter encyclopedia. The owner could be you, your company, or if youre going the traditional publishing route, it will be the publishing company youve signed your rights over to. Can your publisher get you sued for copyright infringement. Could one be sued for infringement without warning. Including all of the aforementioned details is thorough and professional, but if you choose to simply list the holder and date, that will work just as well. But with the advances in technology, not to mention ebooks, selfpublishing, as well as ing your book, can be done in a few. The kdp terms and conditions and content guidelines require that you hold the publishing rights to any content you upload for sale on amazon. With over 25 years of experience in sales and management, jodee thayer works as the director of author services for outskirts press. What you are doing is denying the publisher and author the revenue from the sale of their. Copyright infringement is a big deal all over the world.
Is it a violation if you purchase an ebook once and share it. This is definitely the first company you should look into if youre focusing strictly on selfpublishing your work as an ebook. Selfpublished books are no different, so they should include a page. Scott has a passion for teaching strategic life skills and inspiring people to take charge of their lives. If youre using artwork, tables, maps and charts and other thirdparty content in electronic books, then you must consider issues when planning your electronic publishing project. Isbn and copyright acquisition selfpublishing services. How to create a copyright page in 5 minutes with template. How to copyright a book quickly stepbystep with examples. We can also help you get your manuscript ready to submit to traditional publishers. A 2011 article in publishers weekly says that kahle told librarians at the. If authors have legal questions and want peace of mind they should get a legal opinion from an attorney. Kindle book copyright page examples for self publishing. Major book publishers sue amazons audible over new speech.