do I need to have work copyrighted

[tigerlily18]

What is the name of your state AZ (I wrote a childrens book that I want to send to publishers, do I need to copyright it first? If so how do I go about doing that?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[mike_lee]

copyright is an automatic/magical osmosis thing that happens at creation of a work (yes I do think the concept is silly) So if I write

It was 2:00 am and I was to meet my client at the pier. Close up the dame looked used, like a dictionary owned by a stupid family. I walked into the brownstone building on the corner of Chestnut and Powell . . . boy that really hurt.

That is now copy-written. However to prove it's copy written I need some way to establish creation date and you do that by registering it with the copyright office. However, people don't steal complete books, they might snatch an idea but those can't be copy-written anyway. With songs it's important with books not so much.

 

[quincy]

Mike is right that what he wrote is copyrighted - not only his creative lines from, what I certainly hope is, his forthcoming novel (the beginning intrigues me! ), but also his entire post. As soon as any work is in tangible form, it is automatically copyrighted.

Registering your copyright gives you added protection, and it can be wise to register your book when you are shopping your book around to publishers. It is not, as Mike said, necessary, but it can be prudent.

For information on how to register your work, you can go to the U.S. Copyright Office's official website - www.copyright.gov - and you will find your questions answered there.