Copyright for Writers

I need to preface this post with the following disclaimer:

I am not a lawyer. I do not have a law degree, nor have I studied for one. These are my personal opinions and interpretations of what I have learned in my time as an author. All of the following applies solely to the Copyright of works produced in the U.S. by U.S. citizens. If you use only my advice, without doing further research for yourself, you do so at your own risk.

Copyright law effects writers. It is what protects us from intellectual property theft. The more we understand what a copyright is (it’s actually a bundle of rights), the better prepared we are for submitting for publication and dealing with infringers.

The moment you create a unique collection of words, whether it is any good or not, you possess the right to publish it in any format currently available or that may become available in the future. You have the right to publish it:

-In Print

-Digitally

-As Audio

-As a Movie

-As a Video Game

-Any Other Form of Media

Within each of these categories is a sub-bundle of rights. For instance, in the Print category there is:

-1st Publication

-Hardcover

-Mass market paperback

-As part of an anthology

-2nd Publication

Confused yet? And these are not all the rights involved with publishing in print. What’s more, each country where the work will be printed and/or sold has their own set of rights.

The good news is you do not need to know about every single variation of copyright in existence, just those that apply to your work. With that in mind, let’s do a little exploring.

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Stay tuned for the complete post by indie author and Prose. blogger, Kendall Bailey (@KBaileyWriter) later today on The Official Prose. Blog at: blog.theprose.com/blog.