Sunday, September 2, 2018

children - Add copyright notice before submitting manuscript?


I have written and illustrated a rhyming picturebook (for approx 0-7 year olds) and have it in PDF format which I prepared in InDesign. When I am sending the manuscript off, do I need to worry about adding copyright to the the content first, or should I just send the PDF as is? Should I put a watermark on it, or is this really not necessary?


Obviously I am very new to this game - I was an art teacher, so completely different ballgame entirely, but I ended up teaching primary children, so at least I have a fairly good idea about the target audience!


This question is further to this question asked previously.




Answer



When you create a work of art, you automatically own the copyright to it in all countries that have ratified the Berne Convention1. Therefore, when you submit a text that you have written to a publisher in one of those countries, it is unneccessary to tell the publisher what they already assume.


Respectable publishers will also never steal your work. If they did, no other author would every work with them again, and they would be out of business.




1 Since 1998 you no longer have to register copyright in the USA, but registration is advantageous in case you have to take a copyright infringement to court.


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