Copyright

Here's a good one for you potential authors to think about.

Copyright: it's the thing that makes your work yours. No one can take it from you, no one can say they did it first, and no one can snippet off bits of your ideas for their own. Ye Olde Wikipedia defines copyright as: "a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Generally, it is 'the right to copy', but also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work to other forms, who may perform the work, who may financially benefit from it, and other related rights. It is an intellectual property form (like the patent, the trademark, and the trade secret) applicable to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete."

There are several types of copyright-- there's poorman's copyright, purchased copyright, and published copyright (note that these are not actual jargon but Caitlynisms. Just so you know.)

Poorman's Copyright:

This form of copyright is the simplest and most obvious. You have a copyright on something because you have it. Now, it used to be that people would put a paper copy of whatever it was they wanted copyrighted in the mail to themselves. Recipes, poems, books, the secret to life, the universe, and everything-- if you have an original copy of it in your hot little hands, you've got a poorman's copyright. These days, with everything being so electronic, just having a file (or many saved, edited files showing the growth and transformation of the piece) on your computer counts. Anyone who genuinely has the work will have the copyright. And chances are, your work isn't going to get stolen. Someone hacking onto your computer is probably more interested in your bank info than your next-bext-novel.

Purchased Copyright:

Purchased copyright occurs when you go and straight up register and buy a copyright. You can do this at several different websites if you just google the word "copyright". In the winter I did this myself at Eco Copyright (the Electronic Copyright Office). Now there are pros and cons to either side of doing this. First, it makes you feel kind of legit and awesome to have your work regsitered in the annals of copyrighted materials. You even get a certificate and everything. But it costs about $30 for the most straightforward version, and if you ever make any further changes to your book (like I did) then your copyrighted version and your updated version no longer match. This doesn't make your copyright null and void, but it may irk your soul if you're a little OCD like I am. The fact that the titles are no longer the same between the copyrighted work and my edited work...bothers me. And there's no way to edit it in the Copyright Office. Once it's done, it's done. Having a purchased copyright may give you peace of mind if you think your work will get hijacked or stolen, but in the long run you have to weigh the practicality. Do you need to spend $30 on something that you have by automatic poorman's right?

Published Copyright:

Now we're in the realm where your book has been taken on by a publishing company and hits the shelves! The publisher will take care of the copyright themselves, because of course it's in their best interests to make sure that no one else takes the manuscript they've paid for. Here's another reason I'll never purchase a copyright again-- if I'm planning (as I rather think I am) on getting a book published, what is the point in buying a copyright when the publisher is just going to do it again for me? Perhaps I should save my money and put it towards buying stamps and envelopes to send off my manuscript to agents and publishing companies, eh?

This is also where you'll hear the terminology "First Rights". Many publishers are keen and particular about First Rights. Selling a publisher the FR means you've never published the book anywhere else or in any other form. The first time you publish a piece, the FR are gone, another good reason authors in today's economy need to be very, very careful about the pull of Epublishing. Epublishing can be very lucrative to the fair and few who have done it. But they have put all their efforts and advertising into it by themselves as well as hit the jackpot in having whatever it was that those specific customers buying Ebooks at that time wanted. My author mentor tried her hand at it, and when her book was free online it went to readers like hotcakes. As soon as she put a price of even a dollar on it, the sales dropped, even when she advertised like mad. And she's successfully published, so she knows that she can write and sell. Most of the time, Epublishing can be nothing more than a black hole. And if you give away your FR to an online attempt at distributing your book for potentially only 1/20th of what it's worth...? Well, let's just say there are reasons I've decided to stay with the traditional methods. There are some publishers who won't care if you give them FR or not, but some will not take your work on if it is already 'published' in any other way anywhere else. Won't even touch it with a yard stick.

It makes sense-- they want exclusivity in your work, and if they're essentially competing with the other version of your published piece elsewhere, it will hurt their sales and the effectiveness of their pitch, which will lose them money and you royalties. Because when a publishing company buys your work, they give you a lump sum (probably divided into sections to mirror the progress of the work, like a deposit when you sign your rights to them, a deposit when they print, and a deposit when the book hits the shelves, or something like that). Say the publisher pays you $30,000 for your novel-- before you get a cent in royalties for that book, your sales have to equal back that amount. So until your work has reached $30,000.01 on the profit scale, you only get what you were paid. This of course saves authors from the losses if their book nosedives, but it does mean patience.

There are also such things as International Rights which affects you mostly in terms of strategy and money as opposed to prestige. If you ever come across a publishing company or agency that has a good IR agent, this could be very useful for you. For example, Publishing Company A decides to buy your book from you, FR and IR in all, for $30,000. But Publishing Company B wants just the FR for $20,000, and your agent decides to handle the IR for you separately. She/he is successful and lands you the rights to, say, England, for another $20,000. You've just made money on that deal. You might think, well, that's obvious then which one I'll choose!! But you have to do your research. Perhaps you don't have an agent to handle the IR for you. In that case you'll want to go ahead and sell the IR to Publishing Company A for $30,000-- potentially, you'll start getting royalties faster because you have more square mileage covered across several countries. It really depends. But you can worry about all these details later when you  have a contract sitting on your desk.

The advice given to me that I am taking and the advice I'll give to you: stick with poorman's copyright until such a time as someone else will pay for the legitimate, published copyright for you. Save your money, because any copyright you purchase on your own will only become extra and silly once you publish, which is always the goal. It's good to be realistic and not be disappointed when the rejections come rolling in, or when it takes years and years for success to set in. But it's never good to expect to never be published and therefore take precautions against that. Work towards your goal, not backwards.