A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: More on Copyright
It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.
This week's conversation looks at copyright again. (It can be a complex topic.) This time, the discussion focuses on what be copyrighted. It is a topic that is often misunderstood.
Book Titles
You might be surprised to learn that book titles cannot be copyrighted. That is why you will see several books sometimes with the same title. (Note: using a title already in existence can complicate matters and reduce sales both for you and for the person who first used the title.)
Ideas and General Content
You can trademark an idea that results in a product, but, no, you cannot copyright your ideas. We had one author who had a very frustrating experience with an unethical pair of authors (much better known than our author), who took her ideas on the application of emotional intelligence to marriage counseling and made them part of their workshop and their book. She had communicated with them on the topic; they loved what she was doing; they stole it and gave it their own flavor. She has little recourse. They did not use anything she gave them word for word, and, hence, she had nothing to show that they had "stolen her words."
Words and text
Ah, hah! That's it! This is what you can copyright: words. Published words are the easiest to prove as yours, and if you have filed for copyright on a publication with specific words, then you have a case against anyone who uses them without giving you credit.
A co-author and I, years ago. ran into a situation where we presented information about a cognitive styles instrument that would be in a forthcoming book we were still writing at the time at a professional conference. A university professor loved it -- and published it in his own book before we finished our book. Here is where he made a big mistake: he did not steal our idea but the words used for testing and categorizing individuals, using the instrument, word for word. We had actually printed out the pre-publication version of our instrument (which has now gone through a few revisions) and filed that document for copyright registration with the Library of Congress. When we discovered his intellectual theft, we confronted him and threatened to confront the publisher (who would have responded quite severely) if he did not re-publish it with credit to us. He did so. We would still have had a case, based on the handouts we provided at the conference since authors' work (words) is protected by copyright law whether or not the copyright is registered. Having the document registered, however, made it that much easier to confront the author (and it would have been easy to confront the publisher). He tried to use our work again in another publication, and we had it pulled from the Internet.
Illustrations
Yes, you can also copyright graphics of any sort -- illustrations, drawings, tables, and more. Generally, you do not need to register copyright for them prior to publication, but if you think that somehow someone might try to take them, then do what we did. Send a document with them to the LOC and register them as copyrighted by you.
Next week, we will talk about enforcing your copyright.
See more Publisher Conversations with Authors HERE.
Learn more about publishing from an acquisitions editor -- how to get your book proposal accepted, why proposals are turned down/accepted, and how to find the right publisher for your book. On special sale for $5 while inventory lasts at MSI Press webstore. Also available as an e-book and an audiobook.
The Tuesday talks reflect real discussions between the management of MSI Press LLC and our own authors or those would-be authors who come through our doors but don't make the cut--yet. If you have a topic that you would like addressed, leave the question in the comment section. Chances are, in our 18 years of publishing first-time and experiences authors, we have had a conversation with one of our authors that we can share with you.
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