7 Free Ways to Keep Your Work Safe
from Plagiarizers and Information Thieves
BY REGINA PAUL
Fortunately in the United
States copyright is a simple thing. When we write something
and say it is ours, according to copyright law, what we write
is automatically copyrighted and protected. However, as nice
as this thought is, it’s not something to be relied on in and
of itself. There are people out there who will steal your hard
work in a heartbeat and claim it for themselves. If you don’t
do what you can to protect your original work, then you leave
yourself open to those unsavory characters whom I refer to as
information thieves.
Here are seven free ways you
can protect what you’ve written:
-
Keep several copies on disk as
well as your hard drive, and hide some copies, make sure you
are the only one who knows where they are, and that they are
dated. This way if somehow your working copy disappears, and
miraculously appears under someone else’s name you have
proof that it is indeed “your copy, and your original
writing.”
-
Send each chapter as you
complete it to a trusted friend who then saves it to more
than one disk and keeps them safe for you. (Make sure this
is someone you’d trust with your child or your dog.)
-
Once you’ve completed your
final version print out a copy and mail it to yourself, then
don’t open the envelope, just keep it put away. If you don’t
want to waste ink, and paper you can save it to disk and
mail the disk to yourself. The key point here is don’t open
the envelope when you receive it. This is your proof you
wrote the book, novella whatever.
-
Under no circumstances, unless
you totally and completely trust the person (i.e., with your
child or dog) should you give out copies of your book or
copies of chapters of your book in Microsoft Word, or
WordPerfect. To do so opens up the temptation for a person
to make some changes and then call your work theirs.
-
Whether or not you are going
the traditional publishing route (you might want someone to
read it before it comes out) or POD, ebook whatever, you
should create a copyright page for your book. You can look
at a copyright page in any book and modify it to fit your
needs. Then add it to the front of your book, novella or
whatever before you turn your document into a PDF.
-
Download a copy of a PDF
conversion software. There are several free versions
available. I use
pdf995. You can then convert your writing into PDF
format and thus prevent any changes by anyone else.
-
One final note is to make sure
if you post any of your writing on your website that you put
a copyright note at the bottom of each page. This way there
is no way for someone to say “but it wasn’t copyrighted.”
While it’s true that the same as if you write something and
say it’s yours, legally it’s yours, this is also true of the
Internet. However, why take chances? The Internet is
international (and your writing may not be automatically
protected under copyright laws in other countries), I think
it’s better to be safe than sorry later on. Also many
writers post excerpts of their writing to writer’s groups,
boards etc. Make sure you put a copyright notice at the
bottom of the excerpt; you don’t know who might be surfing
the boards, or signed up for your writer’s group. Again, why
take chances?
These are only a few ideas to
protect your writing and they are of course free. You can also
opt to pay the fee to protect what you write through the
US Copyright Office for $30, which I highly
recommend.
However, if like me you are a
struggling writer trying to make ends meet and begin your
career, the above tips will work just fine until you can
afford the fee. It’s also important to remember that whether
you actually pay the fee to copyright through the US Copyright
Office or not, your writing is protected by copyright law.
So... that being said, Happy Writing, and please do everything
you can to protect your work! You’ll be glad you did.
Regina Paul is the author of
the science fiction novel Getting Out Alive, and editor
of the free bi-monthly writer's ezine Regina’s Universe.
You can read the first chapter of her novel, sign up for her
ezine and find many other writer’s freebies on
her website.
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