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Rights

What is copyright? What are subsidiary rights? How do I clear rights for illustrations or song lyrics in my book? We give you tips for understanding the rights landscape.

Know Your Rights

  • Understanding copyright
  • Using other people's work
  • Understanding licensing
 

Is a Copyright Needed for Each ISBN?

by Digi-Rights
Bowker | Tue Mar 21, 2023

CopyrightTips from experts* at CopyrightsNow.com

ISBN vs. Copyrights? 

An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a unique numerical identifier assigned to each specific edition and format of a book, such as hardcover, paperback, e-book, audio-book, etc. It is used to identify and track books in the book industry. ISBNs may be purchased and maintained at Bowker's myidentifiers.com website. 

Copyright is a type of intellectual property that grants legal protection to the creators of original works, such as printed book, e-book, audio-book, video, photos, illustrations, pictures, songs, software and website. 

Inside Publishing
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What Is a Copyright?

by Digi-Rights
Bowker | Tue Feb 21, 2023

Copyright Tips from experts* at CopyrightsNow.com

You've written a book. Now what? How do you protect it from piracy? And what are your copyrights?

What is a Copyright?

A copyright is a form of legal protection granted to the creators of original works, such as printed book, e-book, audio-book, video, photos, illustrations, pictures, songs, software and website.

It gives the copyright holder the exclusive right to reproduce, sell, distribute, and display the work, as well as to create derivative works based on it.

Copyrights enable authors to make money by selling their work and preventing others from copying or selling their work without their permission or a license. This means that others cannot use, share or distribute the work without the copyright owner’s permission.

Inside Publishing
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Why You Should Avoid Traditional Publishing If You’re Planning a Series

Penny C. Sansevieri's picture
by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue Jul 19, 2022

Self-publishing a book can sound complicated, and I won’t lie to you, it is more work upfront for authors. However, it can also be lucrative for many reasons, and for many kinds of authors! I’d like to focus on one group in particular this time around: the series author.

We get a lot of authors that come to us when they’re ready to release a new book in their series, because they feel stuck. Typically this happens because they went through a publisher or publishing service for book one.

And feeling stuck comes from their lack of access to their first book, and they’re unsure how to navigate continuing the series.

So in an effort to bring some clarity to the situation, I want to cover some of the biggest hurdles we see for series authors and why self-publishing your book series from the get-go might be an option you want to consider.

Inside Publishing
Marketing & Publicity
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Planning an Audio Book? Consider these 3 Things!

Penny C. Sansevieri's picture
by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue May 30, 2017

EBooks are everywhere these days. In fact, they’re so prevalent, it’s often easy to forget the “other” way to read books – by listening to them. Audio book lovers are passionate about their books. When you talk with them, you’ll probably hear that most can’t recall the last time they actually read a book word for word. In fact, some people listen to as many as five audio books each month – this is particularly common in people who spend long periods of time on the road, like over-the-road truck drivers. And you’ll also find that audio book lovers have a wide variety of tastes, listening to anything from world history to self-help and fiction.

Inside Publishing
Design & Production
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How to Self Publish in Germany

by Laura Dawson
Bowker | Tue Oct 29, 2013

Via Joanna Penn, a podcast with Matthias Matting, who has just finished translating his book "How to Self Publish in Germany" into English. If you are interested in selling your book overseas, in other languages, this guide will help you understand some of the pitfalls of publishing into another culture. While many factors of the book market in Germany are similar to those of the US, there are some distinct differences (such as the fact that more Germans are book consumers than are Americans, or the fact that German law governs book pricing).

Marketing & Publicity
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ISNI: A New Identifier for People (and Organizations)

by Laura Dawson
Bowker | Thu Aug 15, 2013

In addition to being a registration agent for ISBNs, Bowker is also a registration agent for ISNI. This is a new identifier - the standard was published in 2012 - for people and organizations. The mission of ISNI is (from the ISNI website):

  • Assign to the public name of a writer, artist, performer, researcher, publisher, etc. a persistent unique identifying number in order to resolve the problem of name ambiguity in search and discovery.
  • Diffuse each assigned ISNI across all repertoires in the global supply chain so that every creative work is unambiguously attributed to its creator or publisher wherever that work is described.

By achieving these goals the ISNI will act as a bridge identifier across multiple domains and become a critical component in Linked Data and Semantic Web applications.

Inside Publishing
Marketing & Publicity
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More on Digi-Rights Self-Clear©

by Robert Kasher
Bowker | Tue Jun 18, 2013

Digi-Direct℗ a new service from Bowker, found on its MyIdentifiers site, gives independent authors access to the first patent-protected, automated, comprehensive Rights Management solution. Digi-Direct℗ helps you:

  • Get a Rights Assessment on Your Manuscript
  • Clear Rights and Permissions
  • Register Your Rights for Others to See and Access
  • License Your Rights to the Global Marketplace

This will help you avoid legal problems, make your content ‘rights compliant’, as well as generate new potential sources of revenue. Rights compliance is important as more and more libraries, educational institutions and other organizations - including some distributors - are requiring some type of rights audit to insure that content from Independent authors is valid and cleared.

Inside Publishing
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Bowker Partners with Digi-Rights

by Laura Dawson
Bowker | Tue May 28, 2013

Bowker announced today that it is partnering with Digi-Rights® (warning - sound on the site is automatically enabled). From the press release:

 

Digi-Rights® Direct [is] a patented suite of automated rights solutions and services for authors and publishers. This cloud-based service is designed to enable users to optimize their rights so that revenues are maximized and risks from copyright liability issues are minimized. The link to Digi-Rights® Direct is part of Bowker’s larger program to identify high-quality providers of key services for authors and small publishers, connecting them through MyIdentifiers.com....

Inside Publishing
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Fanfic Authors, Rejoice!

by Laura Dawson
Bowker | Wed May 22, 2013

Amazon announced this morning that they have licensed fanfic rights from the Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and Vampire Diaries franchises.

From the press release: 

Through these licenses, Kindle Worlds will allow any writer to publish authorized stories inspired by these popular Worlds and make them available for readers to purchase in the Kindle Store.

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What Is DRM and Why Should I Care?

by Laura Dawson
Bowker | Tue Mar 5, 2013

 

DRM stands for Digital Rights Management – the controls that you (or an ebook vendor) place on your content regarding copying, printing, and sharing. Traditional publishers encode their ebooks with DRM to prevent piracy of the file.

The debate as to whether or not this actually works is heated and ongoing. But as a self-published author, you’ll have to decide if you’re going to put DRM on your ebook files or not.

Inside Publishing
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  • Obtain ISBNs (click here!)
  • Convert your file to ebook (click here!)
  • Acquire a bar code (click here!)
  • Increase discovery (click here!)
  • Purchase a QR code (click here!)
  • Register your copyright (click here!)
  • Find out who you write like (click here!)
  • Promote your book online (click here!)

Getting Started

Create a Culture of Quality in Your Publishing Company

Thu, November 13

How to Write a Business Plan as Narrative (Part 2 of 2)

Wed, September 10

A Novel Planning Technique for Book Publishers (Part 1 of 2)

Fri, September 05

Do You Have the Write Stuff?

Wed, September 03

Today's Great American Novel (Part 2 of 2)

Wed, August 20

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