Copyrighting nightmare!

I thought things were progressing with my venture in publishing until I got to the point where I had to copyright my story before sending it on to a publisher. I used the site http://www.copyright.gov/Eco.

I had previewed the whole site previously and diligently read through each step of the application and downloading process. Feeling somewhat secure that I knew what to expect I proceeded to actually start the application. Making sure that I had everything I needed at hand I opened the site and began what turned out to be a day and a half of agony!!

I filled out the personal information, easy since I know who I am and where I live. Next the site asked for my money up front before I could change my mind. Ok, I can do this. I am very good at using my credit card, even know the number by heart!

At first it was fairly easy to fill in each page but it got a little more convoluted as I had to make a decision what type of download I had and if it was acceptable. My illustrator had combined my words with his illustrations and it was no longer a word document but became a jpg. I am not a computer nerd but feel that I can get around most programs after a little trial and error. I usually learn from my mistakes. But I was getting a little anxious at this point.

Now I knew what type of document I had for download, one mystery solved. The second problem was making a decision if my story was a literary work or a work of visual arts. Since my book is a children’s story it has text and illustrations on each page. I had no idea how large my work would be once downloaded because of these illustrations.

The fun part comes now!! It was time to download my file of work. On this screen there are two buttons to push. One button is to download the file and the second is to press after successfully downloading the file. I was very excited at this time as I eagerly pressed the download button. Up came another screen with more buttons instructing me to press one to browse for download. I pressed and found my first page and clicked. Since I have 22 pages to this book I had to press this button that amount of times. There was a space after each download where I had to put a brief description for each download.

I finally got all my pages in and pressed download to site. I watched as another screen came up with the time of download 36 minutes and 18 seconds. It was time to eat dinner so I planned to come back within the allotted time and finish up. When I got back the site had timed out and I had to go back in and start the whole process again! I did and it told me my file was too large! By this time I am yelling and screaming at my laptop. I decided to call it a day and try again the next day.

Day 2 however, did not daunt me as I sat at my laptop once again. I decided to break up my work in three segments and downloaded seven, seven, and eight pages respectively. The first seven went in! Success!! The next two segments followed thank God! Now after a day and a half of pure torture I succeeded at copyrighting my first children’s story, Louey, the Lazy Elephant.

Hopefully my next books will be easier to do. Wish me luck. I’m still having fun though through gritted teeth!

Keep reading! Reading Gives You Wings to Fly!

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About jjspina

Janice is an award-winning author with nine children's books for PS-Gr 4, five middle-grade/preteen/young adult books, written under Janice Spina, and two novels, and a short story collection written under J.E. Spina. She is also a writer of poetry, blogger, avid reader, reviewer and a copy editor. Janice has always loved writing and started very young writing poetry, then stories. Her children's book, Lamby the Lonely Lamby, won a Silver Medal in the Mom's Choice Awards. Book 1, Davey & Derek Junior Detectives, The Case of the Missing Cell Phone, won the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award and Honorable Mention from Readers' Favorite Book Awards. Book 2, Davey & Derek Junior Detectives Series, The Case of the Mysterious Black Cat, won the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award and so did Book 3, The Case of the Magical Ivory Elephant, Davey & Derek Junior Detectives Series. Jerry the Crabby Crayfish won a Pinnacle Book Achievement Award. All her books are available on Amazon.com, Create Space, Kindle, B&N and other online book sites. One of her sports' poems was published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune in October of 2008. She is currently working on a mystery series for girls, a sequel to her first novel, Hunting Mariah, and a YA fantasy series will be coming in 2018 along with more children's books. Her hobbies are crocheting, walking to keep fit, hula hooping, going to the movies with her husband, and spending time with her five grandchildren. Janice loves to hear from readers and appreciates reviews. Sign up on her blog https://jemsbooks.wordpress.com for a copy of her newsletters under Contact Me. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband who is her illustrator and cover creator.
This entry was posted in Writing, book reviews and publishing, poetry, children's books, YA and novels and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Copyrighting nightmare!

  1. Wow! What an arduous journey you took to copyright your work. I do hope your next attempt will be much easier. I sent mine in by mail, so I avoided what you had to go through. Oh well, it’s over for now. Best wishes. Juan.

    • jjspina says:

      Thank you Juan for reading my blog. Yes, it was a trying experience but hopefully I will have an easier time with the next book. I love your story and will be following you. Thanks again. Stop in any time.

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