Copyrighting issue?

Question

I'm submitting a piece of work to a well known publishing house. They are only accepting submissions via email. The work is around 5000 words. Do I need to copyright this first before I send it? I just found out about this opportunity a couple day ago and I have something done. Should I wait and hope they don't find what they are looking for in the meantime? Like I said, it is a very well-know publishing house.

Answer 1

NO... The surest way to annoy a publisher is to obtain a copyright before you submit something to them. It tells them "I don't trust you." Believe me - the last thing publishers are interested in is stealing your work -- yours in particular out of the ten gazilllion submissions they see every week.

Excuse the sarcasm, but I give this information here about 20 times a day. DO NOT COPYRIGHT MATERIAL BEFORE SUBMITTING IT.

I do hope your work has not been previously posted online, because it is almost a guaranteed rejection for you. It is becomeing extremely costly for publishers to have their legal departments determine the original owner of a work that has been on the internet and so they get rejected. Unfortunately, your time stamped e mail will do nothing in a court of law to prove your original ownership of the work. All that proves is that you were in possession of the material at the time you submitted it. You could submit and time stamp The Gettysburg Address. It doesn't prove you wrote it. Proving original ownership is a very expensive and complicated process. The so called "Poor Man's Copyright" just proves the same thing. That you were in possession of certain pages when you mailed them to yourself. It does not establish you as the author. Sorry. It does not stand up in court. Never has - never will. I have taught classes where I explained how to beat that.

I took 30 envelopes and mailed to myself unsealed. I took the stamped envelopes to the class when a writing assignment was due. In front of the students, I folded their asssignments and put them into the envelopes and sealed them. Then I explained I now had proof I owned the work before they did. I could have also backdated my computer, burned discs and time stamped them. Proves nothing. Take this sentence, print it out and tape it to your monitor because it is the second best advice you will ever get on the subject of writing. NO COPYRIGHT IS WORTH MORE THAN THE EXPENSIVE BADASS LAWYER YOU HIRE TO DEFEND IT.

The best advice about writing comes from Stephen King. "THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED BY ADVERBS." I thought I'd toss that in. I keep that on my monitor.

The best way is by never ever ever posting your work online. And if they are interested, a simple Google of a couple of sentences will tell them whether or not it has been posted online. Then out goes a rejection notice.

If and when your work is sold to them, they will make the arrangements for your copyright through the standard author's contract.
----
They're, Their, There - Three Different Words.

Careful or you may wind up in my next novel.

Pax - C

Answer 2

Generally these days instead of writers doing this

Title
by Author Name

They are doing

Title

Copyright 2007 by Author Name

Publishers generally use the author for copyright because the term is generally longer, lifetime plus 60-95 years depending on country, while a publisehr only goets 60-95 years flat

The purchase terms, however, states what rights the author is selling to the publisher.

Answer 3

I know you said this is a well known publisher, but, just to be safe, take a few minutes and do a web search on them with the word "scam" in the search.

Also, check the Predators & Editors website.

Best of luck on this. I hope it all goes well.
.

Answer 4

No.

All work is protected by copyright from the moment you set it in fixed form. Copyright registration offers additional protections, but is not required.

Besides, the fact that they accept electronic submissions is in your favor. Simply save your e-mail, as it is time stamped with your submission date. In the event something odd should happen later on, you would be able to prove that you did in fact submit the work to them.

Answer 5

Do the "Poor Man's Copyright"... mail a copy to yourself and don't open it.