self publishing

Discussion in 'Self-Publishing' started by Sayold, Mar 15, 2018.

  1. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    I’m unclear on what you mean by public domain. Do you just mean before it’s published? Public domain has a different meaning.
     
  2. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    My bad, before its accessible to the public - shouldn't try to post and cook at the same time - If the first thing you do is register copyright no one else has a chance to fuck with it. Beats any amount of posting envelopes to yourself
     
  3. Sayold

    Sayold Member

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    Well i tried signing up on bookrix and amazon, they both seem to let me use a pseudonym, but they want my adress. I don't think its necesary for the purpose of selling ebooks digitally?
     
  4. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    They need to send you a royalty check somewhere (they also have a duty to complete the tax forms and they need the address for that).
     
  5. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    Just a question along these lines ...but ...can you get a copyright for something that isn't finished yet? Or, rather, is completed, but is still being edited and changed. SHOULD you get a copyright in that kind of instance? Can you change something that's copyrighted, without having to get a new copyright?
     
  6. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    I think so, without having to get a new CR. It is still your work, and you are allowed
    to change it as you see fit. Though I would think it would be easier to CR it once
    you have it ready for the market. But you can deff change/fix it after the fact without
    any hassle. As long as you have something in the final material stating you are the
    sole owner of the works in question, you can do what you want since it is your material.
     
  7. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    They need some level of personal identity for tax purposes - they need to report the income they send you to the IRS.

    You have copyright as soon as you write it down. You're talking about registering copyright, I think, and as I understand it you CAN register copyright on WIP but it's generally not considered necessary.
     
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  8. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    In the UK you absolutely don't need to register your copyright with anyone (if you wanted to you could get a solicitor who does notary work to witness the creation date, but i doubt many people bother). In the US although you have copyright at the point of creation, you have to register it if you want to sue for violation. In the UK the latter bit isn't the case.

    There are websites that offer copyright registration in the UK, and in some cases are dressed up to look as if they are a government body. They aren't and registration with them is pretty worthless in an IP dispute.
     
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  9. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    In the US, while registering is important to be able to sue, timely registration is important to qualify for statutory damages, attorneys fees etc.
     
  10. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    Proving you are the original 'owner' or that you have the copyright to a book is relatively easy. The difficult - pretty much impossible - part is taking legal action against people who violate your copyright. You need extremely deep pockets.
     
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  11. Lew

    Lew Contributor Contributor

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    I registered a copyright on the first draft of E&D, and as you know, that underwent a lot of editing. My understanding is that editorial changes don't matter as long as the basic story is identifiably the same. And as @Tenderiser said, the registered copyright makes it much easier to sue for damages, but does not make the lawsuit and upfront legal fees any cheaper. Probably, a registered copyright might make a difference as to whether a lawyer would take your case or not.
     
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  12. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    If you registered it in a timely fashion and it’s a really good case—lots of statutory damages (which you don’t get without that timely registration) and a defendant who can pay—you might get a lawyer to take it on a contingency.
     
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  13. Lew

    Lew Contributor Contributor

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    I registered it about a month after finishing it, about a year before publishing. Though I am not anticipating any problems.
     
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  14. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    Understood. I meant “you” to refer to authors generally. While registration is important if you’re going to sue (in the U.S.) the timing of registration may determine whether a lawsuit ever gets off the ground. But, suing someone for copyright infringement is an unlikely occurrence.
     
  15. Lew

    Lew Contributor Contributor

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    Yeah, having rolled around in all the money I got from publishing, I can see why copyright infringement is so rare. Stealing matchbooks might be more profitable
     
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  16. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Write more books :D
     
  17. Catrin Lewis

    Catrin Lewis Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2023 Community Volunteer

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    Here's the FAQs from the U S Copyright office. They require you to send them a physical copy (or copies?) of the "best edition" of your work. So first drafts would not exactly do it, it appears, because if you make substantial changes (including adding new chapters) that would require a new copyright filing.

    I wonder how this "physical copy" requirement affects books that are published electronically only. Possibly you can send the file in on a CD-ROM.
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2018
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  18. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    Copyright infringement is rife in the book world. It's being able to do anything about it that's rare!
     
  19. Sayold

    Sayold Member

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    As from what i can see, you can have them put the money on your bank account, so theres no need for a physical adress to send a check. As for taxes, wouldn't it be good enough to simply just specifiy your country?

    Also, im thinking about typing my pseudonym in the book with a copyright logo, but i guess it wont be worth much if im not using my real name?
     
  20. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    If you publish through someone like D2D they'll generate the copyright paragraph for you - its more than just your name and the symbol.

    On the adress thing you may not like it but its the way it is - if you want to self publish you'll have to share your physical address ... I can't see an issue with that though, unless you are about to publish something highly controversial, its not like they are going to share it will nilly

    (if it really is that big a deal I think you can register to publish through an LLC, and its possible to keep your name and address off the LLC records if you spend some cash ... it seems like overkill for publishing a book though)
     
  21. Sayold

    Sayold Member

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    Sorry but could you please clarify, what do you mean with D2D?
     
  22. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Draft 2 Digital - its an agregator , another popular one is smashwords. Basically if you publish your ebook through draft to digital they take care of getting you onto all the major stores and a bunch of minor ones, they format your book in epub, mobi and pdf, and they provide a central author page link. There's no upfront cost but they take 15% of your royalty (which works out at about 10% of the cover price). Personlly I'd suggest using them for everything except amazon since amazon is the biggest market and you can do it yourself - however if you do D2D first you can then grab a nicely formatted pdf and take that to amazon to use in create space and kindle.

    https://www.draft2digital.com/faq/
     
  23. Sayold

    Sayold Member

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    I see. That looks a bit too complicated for me. Will see if i can find a publisher that doesnt require my adress.
     
  24. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    I'm unclear on how you're visualizing a scenario where you pay taxes but the government doesn't know your address?
     
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  25. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    Yes. @Sayold, I'm a bit puzzled by all this need for secrecy. I'm sure it's easy enough to protect your actual identity and address from your readership, as an author, but I don't imagine anyone is going to enter into any kind of a business deal with you, without having actual contact details for you. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean.

    I presume you had to disclose some details about yourself in order to join the forum. I know I did. However, nobody on the forum other than the mods knows who I am or where to find me— unless I've allowed it.

    Check out other self-published books, and see if it's easy for you to find out where the author lives—even if they're not writing under a pseudonym. I reckon you'll find it's not. The authors often tell people a bit about themselves in the blurbs that accompany the book, but that's certainly not necessary. If you publish under a pseudonym, you don't need to make that known, or disclose anything real about yourself within the story or any of the attached pages.

    Self-published authors work tax systems into their publishing repertoire, and I reckon it will be easy enough to get help on how to set it up. It will be a lot easier than dealing with the fallout from tax avoidance charges, I reckon. Instead of trying to avoid it, learn how to do it. Or get help—online or otherwise—from somebody who already knows how.
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2018

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