Self Publishing Essentials...The Copyright Page

You’ve spent the last year of your life neck deep in a world you created and shared with your characters. Wasn’t it cozy and peaceful? Just the few of you, hidden away all safe. Well it’s time to release it into the wild! Now…the nitty-gritty, aka, non-fun stuff, comes into play. There are many technical aspects that come along with publication, one such thing is the copyright page. I know that single little page can be confusing and a tad intimating. So in efforts to help you along and figure out what you need to do, here a quick post listing all the necessities the copyright page.

A copyright page exists in every published book on the face of the earth, and yes, your self-published masterpiece needs to have one too. Not sure what to include? Below is an example, feel free to copy and paste to use in your novel.

Why do we need a copyright page?

The plain and simple answer…the copyright page exists to let people know that the book has indeed been copyrighted.

What do I include in the copyright page?

The single most important piece of information is the copyright notice itself. Include the year it was copyrighted and the author name.

Example ~ Text copyright © 2016 by (your name)

Beyond the copyright notice you should include the following:

*Title of Book

*Reservation of rights.

*Trademark information (if any)

*Isbn number

Is there any other information that I can or should include?

*font used

*links to people who helped bring your book to publication: editor, cover designer, interior designer, name of cover models

*printing information

*or any other technical or legal notices you wish to convey

Go grab 5 books off your shelf and flip to the copyright page. You will see that beyond the basic information, copyright pages very vastly. You can add more or less; you actually have quite a bit of freedom.

Where do we place it?

In the print version of yout book the copyright page typically is placed on the back of the title page. In your ebook it can follow the title page or it can be placed in the very back. For many authors they find in useful to place the table of contents and copyright page at the end of the book so that when a reader downloads a sample they will get more pages of text, as to front matter.

Where can I copyright my book?

http://copyright.gov

Or go directly to the log in page

https://eco.copyright.gov/eService_enu/start.swe?SWECmd=Start&SWEHo=eco.copyright.gov

Feel free to copy and paste for your own needs. Many people choose to use a smaller font or center the text.

Book Title

Text copyright © 2016 by (your name of name)

No part of this publication may me reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without permission from the author, except for brief passages included in critical reviews of the book. (if you like you can include how to contact you for permission)

This book is a work of fiction. Any comparison to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

ISBN XXX-XXXXXXX

Published by (you or publisher name)

Cover design by (designer name)

Book design by (designer name)

Printed in The United States of America

First edition