Writing a book and selling it to the audience is a process which involves many steps and stops like promotions, marketing, blogging etc. But have you ever thought of someone saying it’s my work and claiming that you have copied it. Looks like a nightmare but this can happen if you do not have the copyright for your book/work. So, to get copyright a book in the USA, these steps are required to be followed by the author/owner of the book/work:
- Visit the copyright office website.
- Then choose the option “Literary Works” category.
- Now, create a new account.
- Now, you will be directed toward the process of copyright registration.
- Then fill in the details asked.
- Complete the application of copyright registration.
- Lastly, submit your work/book to finish the copyrighting of your work/book.
Now let’s study some details about the process of copyrighting.
Visit the copyright office website
The page at which copyright registration is done in the US is copyright.gov/registrations.The work can be submitted via a paper application or online. The paperwork format for the copyright registrations is expensive and takes a long duration to complete. On the website registration is open for various types of work in the field of arts, animations, movies, writings etc. So, the next step will involve choosing the correct category for your work.
Choose literary work category
The category of the literary work includes Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, Articles, Periodicals. If one author/writer wants to register for unpublished work then 10 works/books can be registered in a single application under the application titled “Group of Unpublished Works”. Whereas in the “Standard Application” the collection of unpublished works is not accepted. It accepts one work at a time and registers it.
Besides the literary work category the website offers copyright registration in Performing arts (Music, Lyrics, Sounds, Recordings, scripts, Stage plays); Visual Arts (Artwork, Illustrations, Jewelry, Fabric, Architecture); Digital Content (Computer programs, Databases, Blogs, Websites); Motion Pictures (Movies, TV shows, Video games, Animation, Videos) and Photographs (News photos, Selfies, Wedding photos, Family photos, Events photos)
Create a new account
Well if you are a newcomer on the website then like other digital portals you will be asked to register yourself first with the website as a new user. Once you click the button for a new user, you will be asked to fill some personal information starting from your Name, Age, Sex, address etc along with a new user id and password. If you are an existing user then you need to provide your username and password to proceed further.
Copyright registration process
Once your id and personal info section is over you will be directed to start the registration process for copyrighting a book/work. Now here you will see a few options like Register a Work, Other registration options, Other services and Miscellaneous.
All these categories have their own set of restrictions and rules. Like in “Register a Work” includes Standard Application in which an unpublished collection of work can not be published. Only one work/book can be registered under Standard application. In “Other Registration Options” unpublished work collections or even groups of published collections can be registered under various subheadings. This category has an option which helps in rectifying the existing registration, when an author/ user needs to add any updates. This also has an option of “Register one work by one author”. It also has a sub category in which oly pictures can be registered.
In “Other Services”, there are different types of charges that are applied for some different types of applications during registration, for example pre-registration will be required in some specific work/book.
Before submitting the work/book, you have to pay the amount depending on the services you are using for your work and in which category. Once the payments are clear then you will be directed to the final step of submitting your work for copyright.
Submission of the book/work to get copyright of book
Once the copyright registration application is filled and payment is done by the user. Then comes the final step of submitting your work to get its copyright. In this section the website asks the author/publisher/user to send or submit the “best edition” of their book/work. The author may choose the paperback version or hardcover edition or digital version. All these versions will take different time to get the copyright. Digital versions are usually the quickest one to get approval.
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Well, these steps will help any author seasonal or fresher in landing the copyright of their work. But why copyright is so crucial is also important to know. Copyright means to have the exclusive legal right of your writing, pictures, quotes, lyrics, poems, stories, films etc for a fixed amount of time. During this time the owner has the right to reproduce the content on one medium or multiple mediums. This can be in the form of print media, digital medium, audio-video medium or even in live performances. The copyright allows the author/owner to own the work and also to earn from it again and again. Like a singer performing on stage charges every time he performs his number. Similarly, pictures, quotes etc if used by any other firm for promotion or marketing or social awareness causes they need to take legal permission form the author/ owner of the work. In general, copyright acts as a shield for authors and also helps in reducing plagiarism.
