The next step for an author after self-publishing is to copyright a book. In general, a book is a very personal project for a person. Given that, people put their blood, sweat, and tears into their books. It is fair for them to feel the need to protect their complete rights with legal protection as the writer of the book.

But before you save your books from the copycats, you need to have some cardinal information about the copywriting steps.

Let’s briefly discuss the meaning of copywriting a book and why it is necessary right after book publishing services.

What Is a Copyright?

By definition, copyright is when you create something from your creative mind and establish a public record. The content becomes the property of the owner through when it is registered. Not only that, the author of the book has the privilege to make copies, circulate, put them for exhibition, and produce imitative works with the original concept.

Also, it doesn’t allow any other entity to share the profit you get from book sales and other methods. No one has the right to distribute what’s under your name. Copyright protection does not apply to ideas or facts. The work you are putting up for copywriting must be in a physical form and must be based on your abstract ideas.

Why Should Copyright Your Book?

When you hear someone telling you about how to copyright a book in the United States, there are sharing the process of registering the book in the U.S. Copyright Office.

In the United States, the minute you publish your genuine content, regardless on paper or on a computer, your work is protected by copyright. Therefore, if you have not registered the copyright yet, you might be protected by U.S. copyright law already.

Are you puzzled that if that’s the case, why do people go to the Copyright Office to register their book?

• These are the reasons why you need to copyright a book.
• To have the copyrighted book in the public record.
• In order to obtain a copyright certificate with the date of registration.
• In a situation like copyright infringement, you have the right to file a lawsuit.
• The probability of statutory damages and the lawyer’s fees coverage are high in a lawsuit.
• It aids you if you ever feel the need to go to court to fight for your copyright.

If you don’t have an official copyright registration document, you would need to show some solid evidence that you are the sole copyright owner and blame the other party for plagiarizing your book. Honestly, proving this without a formal document is harder than you could imagine.

On a related note, it’s extremely simple to copyright a book. You have to spare no more than 30 minutes to get it registered. But you need to accumulate the information related to it first to save time. Plus, the cost is low for a majority of Authors.

Here are the book copyright steps that will help you to a great extent in this journey:

Visit the Official Copyright Website

The first step is reaching the registration page of the U.S. Copyright Office. Recently, the address of the landing page is copyright.gov/registrations. Upon arriving on this page, you will clearly see an option that permits the submission of a paper application. The price of the registration fee is more than $100 this year in 2022. To get done with the processing, you will have to be patient for a time period between 10 and 15 months.

Pick the Section that Reads Literary Works

This is the category dedicated especially to books and similar content. Hence, those who intend to copyright a book and not lyrics or a script can simply click on Literary Works. After that, you have to head to the other page to register a Literary Work.

Make an Account

Once you go to the site, you will be driven to the sign-in page of the Online Copyright Office. In case you don’t own an account on the website, you will have to click the link that offers new users to create an account.

After you tap on the create an account option, you will be prompted on the other page where you have to write your personal information, a username, and of course, a password.

It’s up to you whether you want to register your copyright under a pen name later or your real name. Don’t worry about attending the copyright court proceedings with a pseudo name. That’s not going to be an issue if you sue someone for copyright infringement.

Opt For the Standard Application

When you are successful in making an account, tap the under the copyright registration, where you will see a link for Register One Work by One Author. By tapping onto this, you to access the low-cost registration option instead of the recent standard cost, which is slightly higher.

Remember that the Copyright Office’s website recommends that users operate with a Firefox browser to achieve the best results. The part that can annoy you the most is going to be the poor and obsolete-looking design of the website. Even if you work with different popular browsers, you will see the same appearance of the website everywhere. To get through that phase, you can tell yourself that this will be a short one-time task.

Suppose you’re just registering a single book as an author and the only copyright holder, then you have to click on the Start Registration option on the subsequent page.

Fill Out the Registration Information

In the second last step, you have to insert the information about your book that has been asked by the website and keep pressing the Continue button as you write the details.

After all the details are entered, and you have gone over your submission, find the Add to Cart button present on the top and click on it. Finally, this action will lead to the payment page.

Pay the Filing Fee

In the cart, you can hit the “Pay” button where you get two choices Credit Card and ACH, and you’ll be sent to the US Treasury’s website to make the payment by credit, debit card, or direct deposit.

Submit Your Top-class Work

Lastly, when the filing fee is paid, you will be asked to submit a copy of your book. Try to send the best copy you have. For instance, if you have several editions, pick the one that is outstanding.

In Conclusion

Once you complete the registration process, you can add a copyright page to your book to let the audience know that you are the copyright holder for the book. Mostly, this page is enough to warn them from attempting to copy your book. Yet, you never know if someone’s going to steal something, even when you copyright a book.

The page must have your name and the date when the book was published, an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) for identification, a reservation of rights, the edition, the copyright mark, and a statement to let the viewer know that any information or material taken from the book would be at the author’s discretion.