How does copyright work when publishing a book?

Out of the many questions I receive from authors on a daily basis, a majority of them have to do with copyright—both in regards to copyrighting their own work and what you can and cannot do with someone else's work. In the next blog, we'll explore the answers of the latter part of the question, but first now let's discuss what it takes to copyright your work and what part does the Library of Congress play.

According to the copyright law, your work is completed copyrighted and protected the moment it's in a tangible form. The moment you save a manuscript to a disk, write a poem down on paper or sing a song into a tape recorder, it is 100% protected with you as its owner. Take this post you're reading. If I did nothing more than just press the "publish post" button so that it's saved to my blog, it's still completely protected by the definition of the copyright law.

I think one of the biggest misconceptions regarding filing your work with the Library of Congress is that authors think they have to file with the government for protection or that filing entitles you to more protection. But the truth is a work is completely copyrighted and protected the moment you put it in a tangible form.  Period.

However, filing with the Library of Congress does make it easier to prove your ownership if the need arrises. It's difficult to prove the date you wrote something down on paper, but filing with the Library of Congress gives your work a government-issued date, making it much easier to collect royalties or damages.

Many times recently-signed authors to Tate Publishing ask me if they should file their manuscript during the production process of their book, but I just see that as a waste of time and money. The book will need to be submitted in its final, published form anyway, and if someone does steal your work, you have an entire publishing staff that could testify in court to your ownership of the work.

In a later blog, we'll talk more about how much room you have to use someone else's work in your own work, and what the Fair Use clause of the copyright law says. Copyright law is a tricky subject for someone who doesn't deal with it on a daily basis, so always feel free to give me a shout if you have a specific question about how copyright law affects you and your published book.