How to Copyright a Book in 2 Minutes [Top Hacks 2024]?

When you have completed your final draft, you send the book to the editors. Different editors edit your manuscript and make it free from typos, grammar mistakes, and all kinds of errors. After that, a proofreader proofreads your book for one last time before publishing. And after that, you publish your book. Now, if your book isn’t copyright protected, its content might get stolen. Nobody wants their book, novel, and story to get stolen, on which they invested a lot of time and effort. That’s why it is essential to copyright your book, so if anyone steals it, you can legally cope with the situation.

In the UK, you don’t have to register a copyright for books, and even if you register by private agencies, it doesn’t make any difference. However, if you want to protect it in the US while you live in the UK, continue reading this blog post. This blog post will discuss how you can copyright a book in significantly less time.

Different Ways to Protect your Works

To protect your work legally, you have different ways for different work types. Briefly describing, we avoid others stealing a design of an instrument or tool, for example, mobile phone, motor engine, or to protect things like logos, or any food product you need to trademark it. To protect inventions like new medicine formulas, you use the patent option to protect it legally. To protect your written work, intellectual properties like music and videos, you need to copyright them. As a result, we copyright a book to protect it legally.

Unlike a trademark, you don’t need to register copyright to make your work copyright protected. However, we recommend registering copyright to claim it legally easily.

Difference between Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement

You can also make a copyright claim on the person who plagiarised your content. However, plagiarism differs from copyright infringement. Plagiarism means copying someone’s work and showing it as their work. Copyright infringement refers to the act of stealing someone’s work and claiming it as your own and using it without its owner’s permission.

Which Book requires copyright registration?

There are two ways to publish a book: a) Traditional Publishing b) Self-Publishing.

When you traditionally publish a book, your publisher takes care of its copyright registration. Your publisher takes care of the book’s copyright registration. However, when you self-publish your book, you register its copyright protection.

Below we’ll discuss two steps involved in copyrighting a book.

 2 Steps to Copyright your Book

This section will talk about how we can copyright a book in 2023. You can register your copyright both on the internet and by visiting the government copyright office.

1. Prove that it’s your Book
   It’s a fundamental and obvious step. You need to prove that it is your work or intellectual property to copyright anything. We recommend hiring an attorney for this purpose. Don’t worry, as it’s just a one-time investment.
   
2. Register your copyright online
   Here, your registration process starts. Visit the copyright.gov website. It is the official US government website to register copyrights.

Follow the following instructions to register the copyright:

1. Click on the registration tab in the header and go to the registration portal.
2. They’ll ask you to make an account. Finish making your account.
3. After creating your account, submit your work on the website.
4. Pay the required fee.

After you send your application to them, it will take three months to send you a letter confirming that they have registered your book’s copyright. However, sometimes, they take more than a year to send you a confirmation letter of your copyright registration. Hiring an experienced attorney in the copyright field will make the required time short, as he would know how to cope with the legal processes.

It’s simple to copyright your book. As per the blog post title, you can apply for copyright registration in two minutes. There is no exact time frame for confirmation of copyright. However, it doesn’t mean that your book is unprotected while waiting for the confirmation letter.

What happens when you copyright your book?

A copyright-protected book is free from the following things:

1. Produce a similar book
2. Sell the book without the author’s permission
3. Put the book online, whether free or paid
4. Printing the text to resell it

However, a book title doesn’t come under copyright protection, so that people might copy it.

Should I register copyright after releasing the book?

We recommend registering copyright for your book when it is published. One big reason is that a book undergoes various changes by the editors and proofreader before publishing. So, that’s why you need to copyright it after it is released. To avoid any trouble, we suggest you hire a lawyer, and as soon as your book is published, your attorney will do all the work required to copyright your book. If you copyright your book before you publish it, you will pay the registration fee twice for it. But the good thing is, in the UK, you don’t pay any price for the registration of copyright, as you automatically get copyright protection without any process.

Use the Copyright Sign

It is not a requirement to put the copyright sign © on your book, but it is recommended that you use it. People would know that your text is copyrighted and won’t violate the copyright. Along with the copyright sign ©, you also need to write the publication year and the name of the copyright owner.

One of the sources suggests you register your copyright with them along with the official registration. They are the team of independent witness agents that gives you a reference number and a certificate when you register your book.

Ensure your Book Protection

When someone works wholeheartedly on something, he remembers its dates. Similarly, write in a register all these dates:

• When you started writing your book
• You finish your final draft
• The editor edits your book
• Book release

Moreover, you need to keep the manuscript with you too. However, these things are not solid proofs to claim that you did the work. People can change the date and time of files on the computer, and hard copies can be made and seem old. However, forensic experts can find out if the paper and ink are old or not.

But, we don’t have to go down this road and become worrying about copyright protection of our book on this level. Doing all this can be fanatic. You need to take vital steps to ensure the safety of the book. Also, add a copyright page at the start of your book. It doesn’t add legal enforcement to protect your book. However, it tells everyone that your book is copyright protected, and it’s illegal to violate its copyright.

What to do when someone infringes on your book’s copyright?

Above, we have discussed why registering a copyright for your book is essential and how to get its registration. Now we’ll discuss what you should do if someone violates the copyright of your book. 

1. Ask the person not to violate the rules

When someone infringes on your copyright, the first thing you can do is to contact them and ask them to stop it. For example, if they sell copies of your book, tell them not to sell as it is illegal. Or if someone has put your book on their website or blog and whether it’s free or he’s charging people to read it, contact him and ask him to remove your book from his website. One reason for reaching out to the person is that the court process sometimes becomes lengthy, and you have to spend money to fight the case.

It seems rude to directly contact the court and sue somebody who violated the copyright rules. Some people are not aware of copyright rules and related things. When you tell them about it, they agree and remove your content. However, file a case against them in court if they don’t.

2. Use the online Reporting Option

If they are using your book on their website or social media pages, you can report them for copyright violation if they didn’t agree to remove the content when you contact them.

3. File a Lawsuit

We have talked about hiring a lawyer several times in this blog post. A lawyer who is experienced has experience in book copyright is helpful. It is a wise investment to pay for hiring an attorney because it lessens the burden you carry on your shoulders. When you tell the person to stop who has infringed your copyright, and he disagrees with you, you need to contact your lawyer. He will take your case to court, and it would penalize the person who infringed your copyright. The court would remove your book from his website and restrict shopkeepers from selling copies of your book.

Is your book copyright protected everywhere?

If you have registered your copyright in the UK, you don’t get legal registration globally. Your book is copyright protected for every country, but every country has different levels of enforcement. Some people might try to steal your book, put it on the internet, and edit it and resell it. You can ensure your book protection globally by registering it at the Berne Convention.

Before you Register a Copyright for your Book

It is crucial that your book is original and not duplicate another book before copyrighting it. You need to write an original book with unique content. Otherwise, there is no benefit in registering its copyright. Doing this can also damage your reputation and may demolish your career. So, you must avoid any illegal or unethical practices before you expect others not to do anything wrong. Do nothing controversial and provoke people to do trouble with your book. By this, we mean you need to give credits to the people whose work or study you have used in your book. It is also necessary for the UK that your book is original and is not a derivative of some other book.

Expiration of the copyright

Your book will have its copyright your entire life. You don’t need to do anything to keep your registration alive, and you don’t need to renew your copyright as you do for trademark registration.

After your death, your book would remain under copyright protection for 70 years. Then there would be a time when your book won’t be copyright protected. But that doesn’t mean it would get demolished. You don’t need to worry about that, because your book will not be getting another owner. Instead, it will come in the public domain.

Final Word

We have talked about how to copyright a book and ensure its protection. In the United Kingdom, we don’t have to do anything or register anything officially to claim or defend our work legally. However, in the USA, we need to register our copyright to claim it in court. In summary,

• Don’t violate anyone’s copyright in your book.
• If you use someone’s work, add references and credit the original creator.
• Submit your book for copyright registration after you publish it. However, you can also register its copyright before publishing it.
• Keep the original manuscript saved.
• Hire an attorney to ease the legal processes for you.
• When someone infringes on your copyright, first ask them to stop it, then report it online. If they don’t stop it, file a lawsuit against them.

If you want assistance in writing your book, you can contact our book writing team. We have a team of expert book writers who would help you write your book at very affordable rates.