Hi everyone. Thanks in advance for any advice I maybe able to get here. I wanted to know should I get my current novels' working title and plot copyrighted? I am around 3/4 into the novel and have shared two very small sections of it on this site. This book is very important to me as I have had this plot in my head (and certain edited sections of it on paper) for nearly 12 years but have not been able to complete it due to personal circumstances. At this moment in time my aim is to have my book published either by self publishing or going through a literary agent but I have been advised that by copyrighted my work in advance it would put me in a better/stronger position. If I was to do this how would I go about doing it and what kind of costs would I be looking at? Again thanks for any advice available, much appreciated :)
Just Googled the folowing line (WITHOUT speech marks):
effect of gamma rays on the fertility of bonobos in captivity
and got aprox. 12,700 results
WITH the speech marks ("effect of gamma rays on the fertility of bonobos in captivity"):
Zip, nil, nuffink, zero, nowt, rien, nada, nichts, 0.
Poor scientists!
As I understand it, it needn't cost you anything. As long as you can prove that a copy of yours existed before anyone else publishes it, then you can take them to court (if it comes to that).
The traditional way is to seal a copy of your manuscript in an envelope and mail it to yourself. Never open the envelope! And make sure that the date stamp cancelling the stamps is clearly legible. (If not, you have to send it again.)
Others suggest giving a copy to a priest and asking him to make a note of the date received. For some strange reason, [some] people tend to believe the word of a priest.
I'm sure that there's a way to date a digital copy... but then a computer whizz could probably crack that.
However, remember that you can't copyright an idea. And this might include a plot. (Almost certainly a title... unless it's something REALLY original and out-of-the-ordinary, e.g. The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. And, sorry, that one's already been taken. In fact, I just typed in "The Effect of Gamma Rays" [with the speech marks] on Google, and I'm sure that most of the aprox. 132,000 results dealt with this Pulitzer winning play by Paul Zindel*. If youre a scientist and want to search the Internet for the effect of gamma rays on the fertility of bonobos in captivity, you'd have to be a lot more specific.)
As long as somebody doesn`t copy whole paragraphs of your work word for word, you might have problems proving plagiarism. And big publishing companies have specialist lawyers who will defend the publishers against charges of copyright infringement in a book that they've already invested in.
Small-time writers have a bad deal, all 'round...
* I've just started reading The Pigman (a novel for teenagers) by Zindel and am enjoying it immensely.