[Note: This post was included in both the blogged and 1st version of How to Blog a Book. However, it is not as accurate as it should be. For correct information on copyright laws as they pertain to your blogged book or your blog, please read this post.]
I’ve been asked the same question several times: If someone blogs a book—actually composes it in the form of blog posts they publish on the Internet—do they need to worry about a copyright for that blogged book. The question has been asked about blog copy in general as well.
Previously, I’ve offered a general answer: As the blogger, when you hit the “publish” button, you basically copyright the material by becoming its publisher and publishing it.
In fact, my answer was correct. I just didn’t offer you the background material to go with it. I’d like to do that now. Under the Copyright law of 1976, which went into affect in 1978, any work created in a fixed form is protected by copyright upon creation. That means that when a work is put into any fixed form—printed out from your home laser jet printer, published as an e-book, booklet or POD book, or sent into Cyberspace as a blog post, your written work is protected by copyright. Thus, completed and published blog post, or all the posts that comprise a blogged book, comprise written works created in fixed form and are protected by copyright.
This information comes straight from a copyright attorney. I asked another literary attorney as well, who advised that writers always print out their work. That means, as a precaution, simply print out your blog posts before actually posting them on the Internet.
The so-called “Poor-man’s Copyright,” putting your work in an envelope and mailing it to yourself, only serves to prove when you wrote something not that you wrote it. However, it can be a handy piece of evidence should you need it, I’m told by the copyright attorney. As he said, it’s useful but not terribly essential.
And actually filing our work with the copyright office can be a royal pain in the rear if you produce a lot of writing, such as daily blog posts. If you want to sue someone for infringement and collect damages, if you worry about being infringed, or if you ever want to bring a lawsuit against someone for infringement and want to collect money, having a document that says you own the copyright to your work certainly can be a useful.
Nina… I enjoyed your post and have subscribed to your blog. The copyright info is very helpful to me and my clients whom I encourage to blog about their expertise. I shared your post via my facebook profile but could not connect with your facebook page. The link on your margin does not seem to work. Thanks again. …Howard
Thanks for the nice feedback, Howard. I’ll check on that link. Try it again so we can connect on Facebook; I could just connect with you there, but I’d love it if you’d let me know if it’s working now. (I’m going to go right now and try to fix it.) Thanks for sharing the post, too. I really appreciate it.
Thanks for addressing this important subject, Nina. Poets will be especially glad to hear what you had to say since their work is easy to pluck and pilfer from the Internet.
I’m glad your literary attorney advised writers (and poets 🙂 to print out their work too. That extra step provides a hard copy as backup and also as a way to proof or read your manuscript before you revise or mail a print copy to a traditional editor.
Thanks for your comment, Mary. Yes, too often I find I don’t print out my work. Her advice was a good reminder.
Hi Nina,
What if i want to blog about books that i read. And one of the topics will be “favorite sentence or passage of the book” and then i quote the lines??? Can i do that and if not where do i get permission?
Thanks!
Leontien
Usually it’s okay to use less than 600 words of someone else’s published work in your own work as long as you’ve attributed it to them correctly. I’m not sure you will find much of a market for a blogged book of just your favorite sentences from books, however.
Thank you Verymuch Nina for the information. Actually I was searching for this information…Thanks a lot. Nina ..you know I wrote a novel on Nasi Germani and concentration camps in my blog.When I completed 33rd chapter , I got around fifty thousand readers for the online novel.Even before completing the work, I got offers from 3 publishers too…There is 3 more chapters pending ..I was really confused about the copyright issues..Even I thought to stop publishing the novel in blog…Anyway ..thanks a lot
Arun,
That’s great! Did you land the publishing deal? Love to hear more….Congratulations.
Very useful article, thank you Nina. I had an idea of writing a book via dedicated Facebook page. I put copyright message into impressum and elsewhere. I will follow you from now on.
Personally, I am deeply disturbed that millions of people have this behavior. A blog is literally someone’s journal, a place to write your personal experiences, or in-dept feelings on a subject you feel passionate about. Someone who is so brazen, to feel they have the right to just take it because is there; is equivalent to steeling one’s identity. If you plan never to write your own material, it make no sense putting a blog online. This proliferation of copy and paste bandits is a huge problem. I wish Google can assist bloggers by de-ranking, or shadowing sites that have duplicate copyrighted works!! This would be a huge help.