Children’s Book Writing

I am writing a children's book (series hopefully) and want to know about copyrighting?

Does anyone know how to go about getting a book copy written?

Where or how much it costs? I'm in the U.K.

Everything i've found on the internet seems to be different and a bit confusing.

I'd be very grateful. Many Thanks.

I'm going to answer your questions in order and then explain them further down:

...I want to know about copyrighting? OK. I can help.

...Does anyone know how? Yes, me.

...Where and how much? Nowhere and nothing (see below).

I'll just say this first: Posting stuff to yourself is NOT accepted as proof of ownership in a court of law in the UK when it comes to copyright.

Wabboc is mostly right (though he really shouldn't advertise), the same rules about copyright apply in the UK as in the USA:

Every country in the world (except China) automatically gives the creator copyright. That's it. You don't have to *do* anything, it's a legal right, you created it, so it's yours.

That's it. Nothing else required. Nada. (There are rules about being employed to create but that's not relevant here.)

In the USA you *can* do an official copyright form, but that's not necessary either. And the option doesn't exist in the UK because it's not needed.

However, when people ask "how do I copyright" what they usually mean is "how do I protect". Which is something else completely.

Proof of development is what you need in a court of law. If you can prove development of your created work then you win. Handwritten notes, hardcopy of earlier versions, that show how the work has developed. These are the things you need. And you don't have to post them to yourself.

Of course, no professional is ever going to rip you off, in fact anyone who is so unprofessional as to imply that another professional would, will be dumped.

However it is entirely acceptable to lodge your work with an online registration company such as the Script Factory:

http://www.scriptfactory.co.uk/go/WhatWeDo/Info_14.html

Or the Script Vault:

http://www.thescriptvault.com/reg.html

And doing so would help your case if there was a legal battle for whatever reason. But this is usually only done by people writing scripts for TV or film because there is so much money involved.

On the subject of writing Children's Stories, I hope you understand that children's is the hardest area of book publishing to get into. It's hard to get into *any* area of publishing (a friend of mine took over 10 years and 20 books before he got published ... he's now on his 4th published book with contracts for three more at least) but children's is the hardest.

It's not that I'm trying to dissuade you, just making sure you understand how hard it is. JK Rowling had tried a *lot* of publishers before Bloomsbury took her on.

.

[phpzon]Children's Book Writing, 10[/phpzon]

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