Copyright infringement is a big deal all over the world. Some companies, writers, and artists lose millions by having their work stolen or redistributed illegally.

Thankfully, there are national and international laws that are in place to help protect your work. So while you may run into a situation where someone infringes your copyright, you do have direct protection and legal options to ensure your work & rights are preserved.

In this article, I will explain how to copyright you work, and other basics about copyrighting. This will mostly deal with the Unites States copyright laws, although many things will apply to international copyrights as well.

Do You Have To Copyright Your Work at All?

Surprisingly, you do not have to even register your work with the US copyright office to have copyright protection. The law clearly indicates that as soon as the work is finished, you own the copyright, and therefore, have copyright protection. So as soon as you are done with your self published book or eBook, you automatically have copyright protection.

Not registering a copyright officially may be the best thing for certain publishing mediums where it would be impractical to attempt to copyright something (such as a website, eBook you will distribute for free, etc.). Instead, you can simply publish and distribute your work at your will, and you still have protection.

Should You Copyright Your Work At All?

While the law clearly provides protection for your copyrighted work even if you don’t register it with the copyright office, it may be a very good idea in many cases. For example, if you really spend a lot of time on your work, and want to ensure you get full protection (and suspect you may get infringed and have to later bring a lawsuit), I would highly recommend registering you work.

Registering your work can provide substantial benefit, and I would recommend anyone seeking to sell or distribute their work on a large scale to do so. Some of the benefits of taking the time and money to register your copyright include:

1. It gives you a much better case in a court of law if someone later tries to infringe your copyright. This way, you have a clear record of proof of your publishing/registration date. This will help to ensure your work is protected, and you are much more likely to win cases of infringement.
2. It makes you work appear more professional.
3. It gives you peace of mind to know that you have legally protected your work, and also can freely sell or distribute it at this point, and more.
4. The law states that there is a mandatory deposit requirement when you publish a work. You are supposed to submit a copy of the published work within 3 months of completion. If you register your work, you can do all of this together.

So while you may not have to register your copyright protection in all cases, it may definitely be beneficial to do so in some instances. Again, if you plan to publish an eBook or real book, I would highly recommend you take the time to register it.

How Do You Register for Copyright on eBooks or Self Published Books?

If you live in the United States, you can register for copyright protection via the internet or mail. The copyright office has a great website, and you can find loads more information about what copyright protection includes, how long copyrights last, registration requirements, and much more.

The general fee ranges from about $35-200, depending on whether or not you take advantage of any copyright searches or other services.

A Few Other Words on Copyrighting Work

Another thing you want to beware of is that while you may totally come up with the writing yourself, you must ensure that someone else hasn’t written a similar work that is still under copyright protection first.

It may surprise you that someone out in the world may very well have written a book very similar to yours. You may share similar ideas, phrasing, and so forth. This can happen even if you have never even read their work (or vise versa).

So it may be beneficial to do a quick search in the library of congress to ensure you aren’t using a copyrighted title, phrase, etc. It would also be a good idea to ensure that your work isn’t too similar to someone else’s. Again, it may seem unrealistic to you, but I can assure you it happens. There are billions of people in this world, and more than one may have used the title, “How to make money online,” or “How to cook.”

Conclusion: To Copyright or Not to Copyright? That is the Self Published Question

I think the most important issues to consider are what your ultimate goals are, and whether or not you feel your copyright may be infringed (and if it would bother you or financially harm you if it was).

If you are creating a simple eBook to distribute for free, you may want to pass on the copyright registration process. In this case, it may be an unnecessary expense and waste of time.

If, however, you plan on selling your eBook or self published book, I would highly recommend you take the time to actually register it. This way, you will feel more professional, have a strong legal record of your copyright, and be able to defend your work in a court of law.

Again, you can find great information, and even register your work at the US copyright website.

In this next chapter, I will discuss what an ISBN is, and if you will need an ISBN in addition to registering a copyright.

Chapter 8: What is an ISBN, and Do You Need One?

1. Have you proofread your guide several times & used spell check?
2. Have you let a friend or professional edit or proofread your guide for errors?
3. Have you inserted all links, disclosures, images, and references?
4. Have you inserted your cover graphic on the very first page (optional)?
5. Are you comfortable with distributing as is at this point?

If you answered “yes” to all of those questions, then you should be ready to finish your eBook guide and convert it into a finished product.

Which File Format Is Best for eBooks? PDF? Mobipocket Format? Website?

The type of file format you want to use depends exlusively on your personal preference, and where (or how) you plan on distributing your work. If you plan to market and sell this eBook from your own website, then you definitely want to use PDF format. The same applies to any eBooks you want to publish via sales channels such as Clickbank.net, eBay.com, Craigslist.org, CreateSpace.com, Lulu.com, and others.

Also, I should briefly mention that you always have the option to publish your eBook via a website. To do this, you would generally want to just write the entire thing using the website/blog software you use. You can use a spreadsheet for spell check, grammar, and so forth. But eventually you will want to copy that into the site. This would be considered in “HTML” format. This is only recommended for those who want to publish for free on their sites (like this guide you are reading now).

Anyway, back to the topic. PDF format is the preferred format in almost all situations. Why? Almost every computer comes with a PDF reader, and if not, they are freely available. This ensures that this standard format will be able to be viewed by almost any computer. That is a huge issue. You don’t want to write it in .Doc format because not everyone has Microsoft Word (or Open Office).

The other notable file format would be the Mobipocket format I mentioned above. This is only recommended if you plan to sell via the Mobipocket site. The good news is that they even allow you to convert your PDF to mobipocket format. So again, I would recommend PDF in almost every situation (unless you want it free on your site as content). For information on how to convert PDF to mobipocket, click here.

How to Convert an eBook to PDF Format for Free

If you are using Open Office to write your eBook (recommended if you do not have Microsoft Word), then you can easily convert your document as soon as you are done. Here are the brief steps to convert your document into a finished PDF version:

1. Click on the “FILE” button in the upper left-hand corner of the Open Office Writer Document.
2. Select the “EXPORT AS PDF” option.
3. This will cause a small window to pop up. You can then select the security settings, any possible encryptions, and also make any last minute formatting adjustments.
4. When you are done making your final adjustments, encryptions, and settings, select the “EXPORT” button on the bottom of the small window pane.
5. You will then be asked where you want to save your PDF, and also you will need to name it. I suggest you save it to your desktop (or a special folder) so you can easily find it. Make sure to name it something appropriate. Remember, your readers will see the name you saved it under (so you may not want to use, “cool-guy-99.”

Yes, it is literally that easy! Once you click the “save” button, Open Office will then convert your document to a finished PDF guide.  You can keep this on your computer, and then it will be ready to upload and sell when you get to that point.

If you use another program (such as Microsoft Word), the process should be very similar. Newer versions of Microsoft Word (2007 and beyond) also have a built in PDF converting feature. So the entire process should be almost identical.

If you are using an older program that doesn’t have a built in PDF convert feature, you can always import it into the free Open Office program. Or you could download one of the various free PDF converters available online. Adobe.com also even allows a limited number of free online PDF conversions.

Final Thoughts on Converting Your PDF eBook

I would also like to stress a few things you want to be sure to do at this point. First, you absolutely want to ensure you backup your work. Burn the disk to a CD, jump drive, or backup hard drive. You don’t want to lose your work. I would also recommend you make a backup periodically as you are writing your eBook as well. Can you imagine your hard drive dying while writing a book, and losing everything? Yikes!

You also want to make sure that you take advantage of the encryption/password/security features that are available when you go to convert your finished work. This ensures that people will not be able to easily copy or edit your guide. Of course, if they do this it would be an infringement of your copyright and would be illegal, but you shouldn’t make it easy for them to do so. You wouldn’t leave your car doors unlocked in a bad neighborhood would you? I hope not. So don’t leave  your PDF open for thieves to copy.

Also, at this point your PDF is technically “finished.” However, you can always add any new edits or information to the original document, and then convert it again to PDF instantly if the need or desire arises. So I would highly recommend you keep the original for editing purposes (and back it up too). Especially if you ever wanted to go back and add your ISBN or other information you may later want to share.

People often add revisions as information, dates, references, or hyperlinks become outdated. This is a good idea if you write on a topic that will change over time.

Chapter 7: How to Copyright Your eBook Work

At some point you will probably want to include hyperlinks in your e-Book.  Hyperlinks are simply links that can be clicked, and when they are clicked it directs you to a web page or a location in a document.  There are many reasons why you may want to use hyperlinks such as: Inserting links to products so you can earn affiliate money, using links to direct traffic to a website, use links to products that you discuss or to a page with additional information, and you can also use links as a table of contents within your e-Book so that each link will take the user to a corresponding chapter.

As you have already noticed, I have used links already inside this e-Book (as it is published online).  Here is how you can quickly & easily insert a link to a web page.  First select the word(s) you want to convert to a hyperlink.  For this example I will use my website Wildtips.com since I will be using this site to offer some additional bonus information & tools. 

So I select the word with my mouse by clicking & dragging along the word until it is highlighted. Next I go to the top menu on the word processor, and click Tools–> Hyperlink. If your word processor does not have the hyperlink option under the Tools menu, then you can usually find it by either right clicking, looking under the Insert menu, or by looking at the icons under the main menu.  The hyperlink icon button usually has a chain icon. 

After you click the hyperlink button, it will ask the target.  Just enter the full URL in this section (ex. http://www.wildtips.com). Then, it should highlight the word in blue & it will be clickable like the link above.  This should stay clickable even when you convert the document to a PDF format.  If the links are no longer clickable after you do this, you may want to make sure the PDF converter allows this feature.

If you want to create a link that takes you to another portion of your e-Book (such as a table of contents with links to certain chapters), then the process is slightly different.  First, you have to create what is called a bookmark.  This is where the hyperlink will take you when you click on it.  For example, you may want to create a hyperlink for each chapter in the table of contents.  So in the table of contents, chapter 1 will be a hyperlink, and when you click it, it will take you to the chapter 1 section (which is the bookmark). 

First, you will need to create the bookmark.  So go click on the word(s) you want to use for the bookmark (chapter 1).  Highlight the word by clicking & dragging your mouse, and then click Tool–>Bookmark (or click the bookmark icon) on the main menu.  Then a box will pop up & you will be asked to name the bookmark.  Select a name (chapter 1) and click the “save” or “create” button.  This will create a bookmark for chapter 1.

Now you will want to link to this bookmark in your table of contents.  To do this, highlight the text chapter one within your table of contents.  Then click the hyperlink button (or go to Tools–> Hyperlink or Insert–>Hyperlink depending on your word processor).  Then a box will pop up asking you to fill in the hyperlink’s properties. 

Select the bookmark option, and then type the bookmark’s name click the bookmark from the option field.  This will create your document hyperlink, and when it is clicked it will take you to chapter 1.  You can repeat this process for each chapter, or for any other parts of your document you want linked.

I usually have a table of contents with links on one of the first pages in my e-Books. However, you can create a separate sidebar table of contents section instead.  To do this, you would click on Format–> Frames–> Table of Contents if you are using a program such as Microsoft Word.  I have never used this format & I have only seen a couple of e-Books use this.  I would not recommend it because it usually involves using frames.  Some software systems & PDF converters do not work well with frames.  Therefore, I would recommend making a table of contents page by simply using bookmarks & hyperlinks.

Adding a Legal Disclosure & Protection, Footnotes & References In Your eBook

Legal Disclosures

To protect the reader & yourself from any potential harm, you want to take proper precautions.  This means you should have a legal disclosure (either on your website, e-Book, or both).

Since my very first e-Book, I have always included a disclosure within the guide. I would highly recommend you do the same. What should your disclosure include? Well anything that could potentially happen (even if it seems impossible) that could in any way harm a person, or get them into trouble.

For instance, if you write a guide on how to repair a television, you better have a good disclosure warning about the potential of electrical shock, etc. Because worst case scenario, a person goes & takes a television apart after reading your guide & gets shocked to death, you are probably going to be blamed in some way. I would recommend you have a good disclosure to help protect you.

That, of course, doesn’t mean that writing a good disclosure will protect you in every circumstance. But it can help. If you are unsure about how to write a disclosure, you may want to consult legal advice. The point is, the last thing you want is to simply try to help someone by writing an e-Book, and then the whole thing turns bad when something goes wrong.
So make sure the reader understands everything that could potentially go wrong, even if it is a one in a billion chance. You need to protect the reader, and yourself!

Also, in the disclosure I always like to remind individuals of my copyright notice. I will cover more about your rights under copyright law in another chapter, but it is a good idea to remind the buyer that your work is copyrighted & they may not reproduce, re-distribute, or re-sell it.

Of course, if you give resell rights to your e-Book to try to generate traffic, then you may want to mention something like “you may resell this e-Book as long as it is not altered in any way”-or something similar. You have complete control as an author on whether or not your work can be resold or not. It is up to you. Whatever you choose, I would recommend you disclose it fully in the disclosure at the beginning of your guide.

This also helps in the instance someone tries to illegally distribute your work. I have even seen authors offer a cash reward in their disclosure if anyone reports someone illegally distributing their work. That  seems like it would be a pretty effective way to help stop copyright infringement.

Footnotes & References

Adding footnotes & references is also you may want to consider to place the final touches on your e-Book. For example, let’s say you quote from a piece of work or paraphrase something into your own words. It would be a good idea to include a footnote so that you can show your reference to the original work. You would do this by place a number or letter at the end of the sentence you are wanting to use with a footnote.

For example, if you want to give more information or show your source for reference for a sentence, you add a number or letter following that sentence like this. See how it added the little number one as a superscript, and then also provided a place to add the entire reference or additional information at the bottom of this page. How did I do that? Well it is simple.

Go to the top of your word processor. Then select INSERT–>Footnote/Endnote.  That’s it! It will ask a number or letter, and you select it. Then you can add a caption or reference & it will place it at the end of your document or at the end of a page just like it did below.

Footnotes/Endnotes are great to give additional information or to quickly show a reference to something you writing about. However, I really rarely use them myself. I see them sometimes on web sites such as Wikipedia.org. I also haven’t really seen many in most e-Books I have read. Buy they can be appropriate for many instances. Of course, it is up to you if you want to use them, and how often you want to use them.

Adding a Header/Footer to Your eBook

You may also want to consider adding a header or footer. A header is simply a section at the top of each page that you can use to add text. A footer is a section at the bottom of the page that you can use to add text. I often use a footer, and rarely use a header. You can see my footer at the bottom of the page. It says, “ Copyright © ….”

To insert a header/footer, simply go to the top menu of your word processor. Usually, it is located under INSERT–> Header/Footer. You can then add the text or caption you want to say and boom, it will magically insert the header or footer.

You may want to use it to place a copyright notice, promote your website, add your name or the title of your e-Book, or anything you want. Many e-Books use either a header or a footer for one reason or another.

Writing A Conclusion In Your eBook

At the conclusion of your e-Book, you may want to summarize the entire book in a few short paragraphs. Of course, a conclusion is not appropriate for all books. For example, you rarely see a novel have a conclusion. But some books (such as a “how-to” type of guide), you may want to consider adding a conclusion.

Usually, (as you will see) I finish my e-Books by having a few short paragraphs summarizing the entire e-Book & the main message.
I then finish it by saying a few final words or a personal message. After that, I have a section with links, any bonuses I include, references, any works cited, etc.

That is how I personally like to end my e-Books. Of course, you don’t have to do any of that. But it would probably be a good idea to summarize or at least conclude your e-Book with a final conclusion paragraph if appropriate (or two or three paragraphs).

If you decide to write a conclusion, a good way to write it is to simply mirror your main introduction. I once heard an old  teacher of mine say it best. She said, “When you write, you write in three stages. First is the introduction, where you tell people what you are about to talk about. Second, you have the body where you tell them what you want to tell them. Third, you have a conclusion (or summary) where you remind them what you just told them.”

Again, this may not be appropriate for every type of e-Book or document, but it works well with certain types. I usually use some form of introduction & conclusion.

Adding a References, Works Cited, & Resource Page

After you have concluded your e-Book, you may want to include some additional information. You could create an index (like many “real” books have), you could cite any works you mention in your e-Book, you can have a section of useful links, or website links you mentioned, you can offer any bonuses or additional books/articles that may be of interest to the reader, etc.

Most e-Books that I have written do not have a “works cited” or “references” page. The reason is that I simply try to avoid using outside sources as much as possible & simply write from my own experiences.. Most e-Books that I have read have also not contained works cited.

This is typically because e-Books are usually written by an author that writes from personal experience & there may be no need for a reference or citation page. Also, research papers, essays, articles, and encyclopedias are much more likely to contain a works cited or reference page because they rely heavily on outside resources for validity.

However, if the need arises for you to cite references, you can use several free online sources that will place your references in a popular format such as MLA format. You can perform a quick search on Google for “cite references” or “MLA format.” A neat website that has a form that you simply enter information & it automatically converts it to MLA format is KnightCite.

Finish Your e-Book

Wow, you are almost there! By this point, you should have all of your words typed, pictures inserted, a cover image (if you use one), any optional header/footers, any references, link, or anything else you want included in your e-Book.

It is important to go through your e-Book & make sure everything is displayed correctly. Check your links, proofread your work, make any changes, etc.

At this point you should spend time to make sure your book is ready to distribute. Because  I am going to now tell you how to convert your work into a finished e-Book product. Once it is in e-Book format, you are ready to sell or distribute your work. So this is the real deal, so  make sure it is ready! Of course, if you find a mistake you can always go back &  edit your work, and many times & will occasionally update my guides & include new information or links I have discovered, etc.

Chapter 6: Making a Finished eBook & Converting to PDF