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I have some literary work that I've done, and I feel bad because I've never actually done anything with it as far as attempting to get it published.
I have some web design skills and access to web space, so I thought it would be a good idea to put it up on a site, just free to read with no profit in mind at first (maybe selling adspace would come later if it became popular).
At any rate, free to view ≠ free to copy. How can I put a literary work online and make it freely available while still maintaining my rights over it? I don't want someone to run off and get a publishing deal with it, claiming it was theirs all along.
What's this business about registering works with the copyright office*? Is it necessary? Is it a good idea? (*I'm in the US, by the way)
I don't know if he was joking or not, but a friend of mine told me to print it out, seal it up, and mail it to myself so I have a sealed package postmarked with the current date.
Nope, he wasn't joking, that's an easy way to date your work in case somebody publishes it as their own.
By simply writing anything down in your own words, it is copyrighted to you. Doesn't matter if you write it on the back of a beer mat or chisel it out in stone. It is yours. You don't even have to write "[copyright symbol] Taximes 2008", that's just an indicator that you take your copyright seriously. The letter thing is just so you have evidence that the court will accept that shows the work was yours at the time on the letter.
You do not need to register anything at the copyright office for this to come into effect. I don't know about the US Copyright Registration system, you'll need to wait for someone else or research this yourself.
You cannot, however, copyright an idea. If someone rips off your story, that's a fact of life. Unless you can prove the work was highly derivative (which is very hard), you won't have any legal recourse.
If you are serious about this being published, I would forget about publishing this online first. If you think it's good enough to go to a publisher, take it to one. If you don't, you can't worry about other people stealing it either.
Litigation is expensive, so if you are really worried, rather than idly concerned, don't put it online. However, thousands of authors put up new works on the Internet every day, there is not some criminal cartel dedicated to stealing your work and trying to get publishing deals with it.
By simply writing anything down in your own words, it is copyrighted to you. Doesn't matter if you write it on the back of a beer mat or chisel it out in stone. It is yours. You don't even have to write "[copyright symbol] Taximes 2008", that's just an indicator that you take your copyright seriously. The letter thing is just so you have evidence that the court will accept that shows the work was yours at the time on the letter.
You do not need to register anything at the copyright office for this to come into effect. I don't know about the US Copyright Registration system, you'll need to wait for someone else or research this yourself.
You cannot, however, copyright an idea. If someone rips off your story, that's a fact of life. Unless you can prove the work was highly derivative (which is very hard), you won't have any legal recourse.
If you are serious about this being published, I would forget about publishing this online first. If you think it's good enough to go to a publisher, take it to one. If you don't, you can't worry about other people stealing it either.
Litigation is expensive, so if you are really worried, rather than idly concerned, don't put it online. However, thousands of authors put up new works on the Internet every day, there is not some criminal cartel dedicated to stealing your work and trying to get publishing deals with it.
This, entirely.
Putting your work online for free will virtually prevent you from ever getting it published by the way.
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
I have some literary work that I've done, and I feel bad because I've never actually done anything with it as far as attempting to get it published.
I have some web design skills and access to web space, so I thought it would be a good idea to put it up on a site, just free to read with no profit in mind at first (maybe selling adspace would come later if it became popular).
At any rate, free to view ≠ free to copy. How can I put a literary work online and make it freely available while still maintaining my rights over it? I don't want someone to run off and get a publishing deal with it, claiming it was theirs all along.
What's this business about registering works with the copyright office*? Is it necessary? Is it a good idea? (*I'm in the US, by the way)
I don't know if he was joking or not, but a friend of mine told me to print it out, seal it up, and mail it to myself so I have a sealed package postmarked with the current date.
Nope, he wasn't joking, that's an easy way to date your work in case somebody publishes it as their own.
Except it's worth approximately diddly-squat in a real court of law because it's too easy to exploit. Sending yourself an open envelope, plopping your newly created work into the old postmarked envelope, and ta-da! "I swear, I wrote it last year!"
You don't need to register the work with the copyright office to obtain a copyright - all creative works are copyrighted to the creator upon their inception, as Lewis has said. Registering it would make any sort of litigation involving illegal usages easier, though, as well as making you easier to find to people who want to license your work, so it's not a bad idea.
As for putting it online even when you're serious about publishing - well, look at John Dies At The End. It was online at the author's wildly popular site for years, I believe, in its entirety, and it was signed by a publisher recently with printed copies available now. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Those whose copyrights get abused scream bloody murder and make a huge fuss (and rightly so), but there is piles of copyrighted content freely available online that no one ever exploits.
By simply writing anything down in your own words, it is copyrighted to you. Doesn't matter if you write it on the back of a beer mat or chisel it out in stone. It is yours. You don't even have to write "[copyright symbol] Taximes 2008", that's just an indicator that you take your copyright seriously. The letter thing is just so you have evidence that the court will accept that shows the work was yours at the time on the letter.
You do not need to register anything at the copyright office for this to come into effect. I don't know about the US Copyright Registration system, you'll need to wait for someone else or research this yourself.
You cannot, however, copyright an idea. If someone rips off your story, that's a fact of life. Unless you can prove the work was highly derivative (which is very hard), you won't have any legal recourse.
If you are serious about this being published, I would forget about publishing this online first. If you think it's good enough to go to a publisher, take it to one. If you don't, you can't worry about other people stealing it either.
Litigation is expensive, so if you are really worried, rather than idly concerned, don't put it online. However, thousands of authors put up new works on the Internet every day, there is not some criminal cartel dedicated to stealing your work and trying to get publishing deals with it.
This, entirely.
Putting your work online for free will virtually prevent you from ever getting it published by the way.
Please explain the reasoning you used to come to this conclusion. It seems to contrast wildly with reality.
As for putting it online even when you're serious about publishing - well, look at John Dies At The End. It was online at the author's wildly popular site for years, I believe, in its entirety, and it was signed by a publisher recently with printed copies available now. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Those whose copyrights get abused scream bloody murder and make a huge fuss (and rightly so), but there is piles of copyrighted content freely available online that no one ever exploits.
Well, we can find many authors who publish their work online, as well as in deadtree format (Cory Doctorow, plenty of computer science books), but these authors are usually well established. I can't just go and try and publish, say, Tycho's newsposts, because enough eyeballs would notice that I'd stolen it.
If I wanted to take some slashfic to a publisher from the depths of a depraved Spock/Kirk romance database, it's very unlikely anyone would ever find out it was someone else's work.
Which leads me back to my original point: if you think it's good enough to be stolen, then take it to a publisher (well, an agent really). When you're established enough, then you can start taking things into the digital realm.
Putting your work online for free will virtually prevent you from ever getting it published by the way.
Please explain the reasoning you used to come to this conclusion. It seems to contrast wildly with reality.
Not legally, in terms of what a publisher will accept. For fiction at least, not sure about nonfiction stuff, probably depends on the genre. From everything I've heard (I've spent a considerable amount of time researching this stuff and have spoken with/learned from published authors), publishers really don't like it if you're trying to get them to publish something you've already widely distributed, especially openly (like on the net).
I know you posted an example, and it may be valid--but it is likely the exception and not the rule.
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
Putting your work online for free will virtually prevent you from ever getting it published by the way.
Please explain the reasoning you used to come to this conclusion. It seems to contrast wildly with reality.
Not legally, in terms of what a publisher will accept. For fiction at least, not sure about nonfiction stuff, probably depends on the genre. From everything I've heard (I've spent a considerable amount of time researching this stuff and have spoken with/learned from published authors), publishers really don't like it if you're trying to get them to publish something you've already widely distributed, especially openly (like on the net).
Ah, okay. That's much clearer. I'd still argue the point, though.
Assuming this starts off on a tiny, unpopular site, which is fair given that the site doesn't yet exist and its main material will be the works of an entirely unknown author: If the work is good enough that the site becomes wildly popular and is read by a great many, I can't see how that could possibly be detrimental to it being published, as it's already proven it's able to draw a huge readership in a very unpopular place to read books in (internet, on a computer) with very little marketing.
On the other hand, if the site is a flop but the material is still good enough to be considered by the publisher, they'll likely never know the site exists. And should they learn of the site, it being terribly unpopular can be chalked up to poor marketing and still not considered.
Right, if it's extremely popular I'm sure it would help rather than hurt your chances of being published. How likely is it to become very popular from self-publishing your own works online, though, especially absent a plagiarism-centric community like fanfiction?
I think the problem is more if your site is not wildly popular (it probably won't be) and the story shows up on Google and other search engines. I don't think it's implausible that a publisher would Google fragments of the story and other such things before offering a contract.
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
Thanks for all the responses so far. I knew US copyright law protected all original work as soon as it was created, I just wasn't sure how you'd ever verify who actually created it and when.
As for harming my chances of publishing later, I'd thought about that. The work I was considering putting up, though, is usually too long to submit to the short story publishers/contests I've seen and too short to be a novel or a novella of its own (~13000 words). As such, I thought it might be good to put up and get some feedback on, and (if I'm lucky) point to later and say, "Hey, people liked this short story of mine, so you should think about publishing my new novel."
If anyone knows of some publishers/agents dealing with short stories though, I'll gladly try that first. I know the Writer's Market is a good resource for that, but I haven't ever looked into it. Is it worth it?
That's a site I've been browsing, some people seem to like it. You might also try putting it up in the Writer's Block area and see if you can trim 3k words, never know. And the mods will remove it if you get a publishing contract for it I do believe.
I'll just echo a few things here. First off, certainly put it up on some online writing communities (like the Writer's Block forum here) to get some constructive feedback about it. A lot of experience and published authors spend time in the Writer's Block, so you'll get valuable advice.
Second, posting it online will really hurt your chances of publication as mentioned. Most publishers usually want to purchase first publication rights when they buy a story, and this would include the web. Sure, if it doesn't get popular they'll probably never know, but if they do somehow find out they won't be happy. Most people even in Writer's Block tend to pull stories down from threads they've posted when they try to get them published for exactly that reason.
Edit: If you're really worried about someone stealing it, register it with the copyright. The mail thing -- as mentioned -- is pretty much useless and has either never been tested in court or has never won in court -- I don't recall which, but it's too easy to fake something like that so it's worthless as a proof of copyright. Registering with the copyright office isn't too expensive (not sure what different levels/etc there may be but I registered a 100 page screenplay a few years ago and it was like $35).
In fact, that's kind of the point of getting a document notarized. A third party trusted by the state acknowlegdes that you had this document on this date.
Posts
Nope, he wasn't joking, that's an easy way to date your work in case somebody publishes it as their own.
You do not need to register anything at the copyright office for this to come into effect. I don't know about the US Copyright Registration system, you'll need to wait for someone else or research this yourself.
You cannot, however, copyright an idea. If someone rips off your story, that's a fact of life. Unless you can prove the work was highly derivative (which is very hard), you won't have any legal recourse.
If you are serious about this being published, I would forget about publishing this online first. If you think it's good enough to go to a publisher, take it to one. If you don't, you can't worry about other people stealing it either.
Litigation is expensive, so if you are really worried, rather than idly concerned, don't put it online. However, thousands of authors put up new works on the Internet every day, there is not some criminal cartel dedicated to stealing your work and trying to get publishing deals with it.
This, entirely.
Putting your work online for free will virtually prevent you from ever getting it published by the way.
Except it's worth approximately diddly-squat in a real court of law because it's too easy to exploit. Sending yourself an open envelope, plopping your newly created work into the old postmarked envelope, and ta-da! "I swear, I wrote it last year!"
You don't need to register the work with the copyright office to obtain a copyright - all creative works are copyrighted to the creator upon their inception, as Lewis has said. Registering it would make any sort of litigation involving illegal usages easier, though, as well as making you easier to find to people who want to license your work, so it's not a bad idea.
As for putting it online even when you're serious about publishing - well, look at John Dies At The End. It was online at the author's wildly popular site for years, I believe, in its entirety, and it was signed by a publisher recently with printed copies available now. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Those whose copyrights get abused scream bloody murder and make a huge fuss (and rightly so), but there is piles of copyrighted content freely available online that no one ever exploits.
Please explain the reasoning you used to come to this conclusion. It seems to contrast wildly with reality.
Well, we can find many authors who publish their work online, as well as in deadtree format (Cory Doctorow, plenty of computer science books), but these authors are usually well established. I can't just go and try and publish, say, Tycho's newsposts, because enough eyeballs would notice that I'd stolen it.
If I wanted to take some slashfic to a publisher from the depths of a depraved Spock/Kirk romance database, it's very unlikely anyone would ever find out it was someone else's work.
Which leads me back to my original point: if you think it's good enough to be stolen, then take it to a publisher (well, an agent really). When you're established enough, then you can start taking things into the digital realm.
Not legally, in terms of what a publisher will accept. For fiction at least, not sure about nonfiction stuff, probably depends on the genre. From everything I've heard (I've spent a considerable amount of time researching this stuff and have spoken with/learned from published authors), publishers really don't like it if you're trying to get them to publish something you've already widely distributed, especially openly (like on the net).
I know you posted an example, and it may be valid--but it is likely the exception and not the rule.
Ah, okay. That's much clearer. I'd still argue the point, though.
Assuming this starts off on a tiny, unpopular site, which is fair given that the site doesn't yet exist and its main material will be the works of an entirely unknown author: If the work is good enough that the site becomes wildly popular and is read by a great many, I can't see how that could possibly be detrimental to it being published, as it's already proven it's able to draw a huge readership in a very unpopular place to read books in (internet, on a computer) with very little marketing.
On the other hand, if the site is a flop but the material is still good enough to be considered by the publisher, they'll likely never know the site exists. And should they learn of the site, it being terribly unpopular can be chalked up to poor marketing and still not considered.
I think the problem is more if your site is not wildly popular (it probably won't be) and the story shows up on Google and other search engines. I don't think it's implausible that a publisher would Google fragments of the story and other such things before offering a contract.
As for harming my chances of publishing later, I'd thought about that. The work I was considering putting up, though, is usually too long to submit to the short story publishers/contests I've seen and too short to be a novel or a novella of its own (~13000 words). As such, I thought it might be good to put up and get some feedback on, and (if I'm lucky) point to later and say, "Hey, people liked this short story of mine, so you should think about publishing my new novel."
If anyone knows of some publishers/agents dealing with short stories though, I'll gladly try that first. I know the Writer's Market is a good resource for that, but I haven't ever looked into it. Is it worth it?
That's a site I've been browsing, some people seem to like it. You might also try putting it up in the Writer's Block area and see if you can trim 3k words, never know.
Second, posting it online will really hurt your chances of publication as mentioned. Most publishers usually want to purchase first publication rights when they buy a story, and this would include the web. Sure, if it doesn't get popular they'll probably never know, but if they do somehow find out they won't be happy. Most people even in Writer's Block tend to pull stories down from threads they've posted when they try to get them published for exactly that reason.
Edit: If you're really worried about someone stealing it, register it with the copyright. The mail thing -- as mentioned -- is pretty much useless and has either never been tested in court or has never won in court -- I don't recall which, but it's too easy to fake something like that so it's worthless as a proof of copyright. Registering with the copyright office isn't too expensive (not sure what different levels/etc there may be but I registered a 100 page screenplay a few years ago and it was like $35).
In fact, that's kind of the point of getting a document notarized. A third party trusted by the state acknowlegdes that you had this document on this date.