Copyright Certificate

Today I received my 2nd copyright certificate in the mail. My work with the Marathon Torres Series is now officially registered with the US Copyright Office in Washington D.C. Somewhere in some office, on some server, there is the original file I wrote for Discarded and now for Abandoned. That is pretty cool, I guess.

I wonder if the person issuing the Copyright registration actually reads the manuscript? I picture a massive server with millions of manuscripts all registered with the US Government in some Indiana Jones type warehouse where lost artifacts are stored. I might be exaggerating a bit, maybe putting a little too much thought into this.

Little known fact, any original written work has automatic copyright to the author. You don’t have to register it and you are awarded the same protections as any author with or without an official registration.

So why copyright your work? Good question. If there ever is a dispute on originality and lawyers get involved, you are going to have to apply for official copyrighting based on the date your work was completed. Officially registering your work with the US Copyright office is a step that has to be taken if someone challenges or steals your work.

Start the process sooner rather than later. Get it registered and keep the registration number close. I like to put the registration number inside on the copyright page. It just makes it seem more official.

Here it is, the official registration with the US Copyright office. Something I am extremely proud of. If you were to ask me about writing a book three years ago I would have told you I didn’t have the time to do it. I would have come up with any excuse in the book and blamed anything to avoid a monumental task that is writing a novel.

Now I am about to finish my 2nd and I am already in the planning stage for the 3rd. My goal is one book per year (for now). I have been told I have a great character in Marathon Torres. Let’s see how long her story goes and how many times the US Copyright office will have to issue out these certificates. Maybe they’ll be sick of seeing “A Marathon Torres Novel.”

More on my 3rd book to come. Stay tuned.