How do I get a copyright for my poems? How do I get them published? I want the rights to the poems.?

Question

I would like to have my poems copyrighted, and I am also interested in having them published. I am only interested in options that let me hold the copyright and royalties.

Answer 1

You don't need a copyright for your poems. You don't need to mail it to yourself, you don't ever need to go to poetry.com (it's a scam, people!), and you don't need to spend your money.

Why?

Because no one is going to steal your poem. If you submit it to a magazine or as part of a collection, trust me on this, no one is going to steal it. There are simply too many poems being submitted to magazines and publishers for consideration. And if your poem warrants enough pause to notice it, then they will probably publish it or hold on to it through to the next round.

Let me explain this a little more, because I seen people worry about copyright an awful lot over the past 15 years. The idea that you have written "the one" so early in your career is probably not very likely, and if you did write "the one" sending it to a good magazine like Poetry, Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, National Poetry Review, New Yorker, etc., etc. means if will be published more than likely. If not, then it will likely be picked up by one of the other magazines you send it to, if it's that good. The publisher is going to copyright it with your name on it if they publish it. If you bother to copyright it, don't say that in your cover letter when you submit it because it's the newbie kiss of death for you poems. You may as well print it in Minstrel font and center justify it, just to make sure everyone knows its untouchable.

Copyrighting your poems is a utter waste of your time and money. Magazines and publishers negotiate rights for your poem. Your copyright actually, if anything, makes the process a hell of lot more difficult.

Answer 2

Writing is copyrighted by the simple fact of writing it. Unlike a trademark or patent, you do not need to register anything. What you do need to be able to prove is that you originated the material at such-and-such a date. The best way to do this is to mail yourself the work using standard postal mail. Do not open the envelope. The post-mark for a sealed envelope will establish a date for the writing and be grounds for copyright infringement claims down the road.

The website below explains a little more about how to get a copyright. See especially the section on who can claim a copyright - which tells you that the author's work is immediately copy-protected.

As for publishing, send them to magazines to start. If you have a large collection, find other poetry books, find out who published them and mail them to those publishing houses for review. Getting published can be very challenging, but tenacity pays off. Someone I work with has published hundreds of times; but some of his first pieces were sent to 100 or more publishers before they were finally picked up. Others were never published at all.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Copyright exists, the question is just how you prove YOU have the copyright to a given document. The easiest and cheapest form of copyright protection is to seal a copy of your work in an envelop (using a notary seal is good) and mail it to yourself. Do not open it. The dated postal stamp and the seal prove when you wrote the work and this gives you the copyright.
There are other, more expensive and surer methods, but for most starting writers, this is more than adequate protection.
Gewtting your stuff published is another story entirely. The only way to get published is to submit, submit and submit. Buy a copy of Writer's Digest or Poetry Digest and send your stuff to every venue (one at a time) that publishes work like yours. When one returns it, send it to another. Be persistant. Don't give up.
When you have been published several times, you may seek a literary agent who will do the grunt work of submittal for you in exchange for a percentage of your pay, but good literary agents are the divas of representation and are VERY selective who they undertake to represent, so be patient and wait until you have achieved a modicum of success.
Hope this helps.

Answer 4

Your works are automatically copyrighted once they are in a tangible form, such as printed copies. You can also apply for a registered certificate from the Library of Congress by paying $35 and waiting eight months to get it. Log on to copyright.gov. and read the rules.

For publishing your works find a Writer's Market in your local library or at your bookstore. From the long list of literary agencies or publishing houses select among them the best that suits your poems. Follow their guidelines to the letter and be prepared to write the best query letter you can ever imagine.

Also be prepared for rejections unless you resort to vanity press publishing wherein you pay all the costs of publishing and marketing the books yourself.

Answer 5

I can suggest you a very good website.
A few people know about it...
OK, if you log on to this website you can publish your poems for Free. My friend used this website - and it works really well!
So enjoy!
www.lulu.com

Answer 6

I asked my grandmother a similar question while I was younger. She gave me the advice to mail my writings to myself in the mail, and to leave them unopened, that way in case I ever had to go to court for copyright/etc. that the unopened letters will have the date stamped on them by the postal service to prove I wrote them before someone started to take credit for my work.

Hope that helps. :)

Answer 7

One way of getting a "copy wright" this method is more like intellectual property protection. Send it to your self by registered mail. It's not exactly a copy right but it's cheap.

Answer 8

Check this free publishing website out: www.lulu.com

Answer 9

go to the library they have copy right forms there