10/30/07

To Copyright or Not

The questions of copyright that cropped up in the comments on the post, Wait for it prompted me to ask an editor the answers to be sure since I'm no expert. The following is what editor Sandy Tritt had to say:

"A writer automatically owns the copyright to his work. Registering the copyright is something that happens when the work is published. The publisher typically wants to be able to do this so there are no problems. If something is web-published, it doesn't hurt to include a copyright notice. Anything published on the web is considered published. As a general rule, if more than 10% of a large work has been previously published, you may run into trouble with getting it traditionally published."

So there you have it. Just keep in mind not to web-publish (blogs, websites, etc.) more than 10% of any work that you want to submit to a traditional publishing house. And still, it may be a good idea to check with the publisher you are targeting just to make sure it is okay to web-publish portions of the work you plan to submit to them on your blog or website.
(Thanks to Sandy Tritt)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for clarifying this Kaye. And thanks to Sandy Tritt for the informative answer.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to you and to Sandy for the answers.