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What are the steps involved in obtaining U.S. Copyright Registration?

Once you purchase copyright registration and finish publishing your book, two printed copies of your book will be sent to the Copyright Registration Office in Washington, D.C., as they require, along with the necessary registration documents. The Copyright Office will process the book over the next 6 - 12 months and then send us a confirmation when they have completed the process. At that time, we will send you a certificate of registration stating the official number.

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Why don't you print the registered copyright number in the book?

The copyright number, unlike an ISBN or LCCN, is not required to be printed in the book. Also, the finished, printed copy of the published work, not a manuscript, is required by the U.S. copyright office to complete the registration, since it is associated with the particular publisher and published version of the book. So, it would take a very long time; the typical timeline for registration is 6 - 12 months. If you wish, you could resubmit your book to add the copyright number to the copyright page, however, it is not required or functional to do so.

Why does it take so long to complete the copyright registration of the book?

We do not have control over the time required to complete the copyright registration process. It entirely depends on the government office's workload and schedules.

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I'm worried about copyright protection. Is my book at risk until the registration is complete?

Don't worry; your book is still protected until the official registration is complete. A standard copyright protection applies to any work, unpublished or not, as soon as you create the work into a hard copy form, such as a manuscript. The general copyright protection will keep your book protected by law from others using your material without your permission.

I have already obtained a copyright registration number for my manuscript. Does this apply to my book?

The previous copyright registration number you obtained applies only to your manuscript, not to the published book. You must re-register the work as a published literary work. The copyright registration form clearly states that if a work has previously been registered in unpublished form, a second registration must be completed to include the new published edition.

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