Is copyrighting material amateurish?

Question

Well, I'm an aspiring writer and I know that I have talent in writing. I recently bought a book called "Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, & Literary Agents 2007". In the writer's advice section I'm pretty sure there wasn't anything about copy writing, but if I did get my manuscript copyrighted and got it published and sent to literary agents do you think they would consider that amateurish?

Advice on that is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for all the answers guys! They were very helpful!

I didn't expect so many adults to help a 16 year old girl so much!

Answer 1

I've got a lot of respect for the Hellcat, even when I disagree with her and I would not have seen this question if it wasn't for her. I need to say that because I am going to disagree with her again. I have at least two very good friends whose creative work obtained copyright on behalf of the publishing company they were trying to sign with. One regained the rights to her material, the other did not. He is a joint owner, but will forever be tied to a publishing company that does not have his best interest at heart. It is not amateurish to copyright your material before you send it out, but it can be expensive.

If you cannot afford the copyright process but still want protection, you can always send the material Registered, return receipt requested. the thing about that it that it is more expensive than the whole copyrighting process if you send it to enough places.

If you believe in your work and want to protect it, Copyright is the Gold Standard. It doesn't say that you don't trust the agent. It really says that you know how to take care of yourself. For shorter works, bundle them into a collection before you submit them. The publisher will know what to do with the individual work if they are interested in it, but that way you only pay one fee for getting the protection instead of a separate fee for each work.

It is your agent's job to get the work published though. Once you sign with an Agent, you may even agree to let the Agency obtain the copyright. It is part of the service and you might as well make use of it. If you get it published yourself, there is really nothing left for the Agent to do, you have in effect become your own Agent. If you are speaking of Vanity Publishing, where you get a few hundred to a few thousand copies to distribute yourself, that will give you a nicer book to shop around with, but sometimes it scares legitimate publishers off because they don't generally enjoy dealing with people who want to do their job for them.

I will say that it certainly worked for Christopher Paolini, who self published Eragon and shopped it around to school Libraries before he got it accepted by his current publisher, so don't take any advice as the absolute word!

Best of luck in your endeavors in any case and I hope to see you on the bestseller rack in B&N soon.

Answer 2

Absolutely is is amateurish and unprofessional. It shows an agent or publisher you don't trust them. If you sell the book, you will get it copyrighted by the publisher according to your contract. You own the material the moment you write it according to Federal Copyright Laws anyway. It is an implied copyright.

And remember that a copyright is only as good as the attorney you pay to defend it. It is always best not to copyright before you send your work out.

Just keep it off the internet. Publishers get very nervous about work that has been published on the internet. This is a plagiarist's playground. If your work has been published online, it gives the legal dept. at the publisher a real problem ensuring that you are the genuine and legal author. It could have been copied dozens of times and turn up with another name on it. So most publisher's guidelines for submission now clearly state no previously posted material will be considered. There is absolutely NO safe way to post work on the internet so it cannot be stolen.

If you keep your work off the internet. your implied copyright should be good enough. Pax - C

Answer 3

Yes. For one thing, what you write is *instantly* copyrighted. (Minus the title. Material can be copyrighted, but the title typically isn't--unless it's a registered trademark or something.)

You don't need to tell the agents and publishers that--let alone show them that. (I did this in the beginning 8 years ago, and I'm sure I got a few of these people laughing at me. lol)

Secondly...published? I don't want to burst your bubble here, but you will find that agents and publishers will not take on teen authors.

Christopher Paolini was an extremely rare exception, but he didn't get *published* at the age of 16 when his publisher took him. He was published at 21.

No. What he did was self-publish his books and sold them with the help of his family. That's the only reason (Random House?) took him.

In order for you to get recognized as a serious writer and author, you have to SHOW that you can do the work yourself in regards to early advertising and promotion of both yourself and your books, attract attention through your work (by doing the best you can and go all out), and prove that you aren't one of the 99%ers who are typically rejected on a daily basis. (As only 0.5% are accepted by agents these days and 1-2% are accepted by publishers.)

Dedication, imagination, and creativity, are the three most important things when considering the path of a career writer and author.

Very few who start out on this jaunt rarely go the distance. The majority just go through the *motions*--but end up doing little else. (Because of writer's fatigue and a loss of interest.)

And traditional publishing is very difficult to break into. It takes people years (if not decades) to get accepted.

The market right now is very tight, very competitive, and more geared to making as much money as possible off as many new authors as possible--before the next hot author comes down the pike--and kills them all off.

Answer 4

Yes. You automatically hold the copyright to any intellectual property you have produced, and the publisher will provide the ISBN and copyright before release.

I am put off by writers who include the copyright symbol in their mss as it tends to show a lack of confidence in the market. No one will try to "steal" your work from you. A publisher's livelihood relies on material he sells to the public and one incident of theft will make that impossible.

While it is true that an "official" copyright holds a bit more weight in compensatory gains in court, it serves no other purpose and it costs the writer money.

Remember, your copyright is automatic and bears the full power of the law behind it for any intellectual properties you sell and the rights being sold are always (should be) spelled out in detail in the contract you sign with the publisher.

J.

http://www.jrichardjacobs.net

"The speed of the brain is inversely proportional to the speed of the mouth squared."

Answer 5

I'll help!

Copyrights are by no means looked down upon. Just make sure that you've got your finished product and by no means ever even consider doing the 'poor mans copyright', where you mail it to yourself. In most jurisdictions, that doesn't even stand anymore. Just FYI. Anyway, yes! Once you're done, submit it for copyright before you ever even think to send it off to a literary agent!

On a side note, let me give you a little side of advice on this. Whatever you do, never mention on your materials that it is copyright protected. THAT is for amateurs. The agents expect that you've done things right and have gotten your copyright, so don't mention it anywhere, okay? That annoys them.

Answer 6

It has been my experience that if I didn't "copyright" my work, it was stolen for lyrics. I have been writing since I was 10 years old and have everything copyrighted.