Today, I was excited to see a letter from the US Copyright Office. I applied for a copyright in early July and sent a hard copy of The Art of the Compromise to the Library of Congress and the US Copyright Office.
The “official” copyright issued! I’m pretty excited!
The registration number is TX 9-417-201 with an effective date of July 8, 2024.
It’s not important to have a registered copyright as US law stipulates that a copyright exists the moment a work is created. The registration process is voluntary and somewhat perfunctory.
The process was one of many that I had to learn, starting back in February, as I began to compile and launch the book. I enjoy learning, and I have enjoyed the process of self-publishing. It’s enjoyable when one achieves these small milestones.
The IngramSpark site is one of the better descriptions of the process. I read and followed a couple of different blogs, too. I don’t have a specific one that I recommend.
End to end, the process took about six weeks. A couple of weeks upfront I needed a hard copy of the book to submit, and I needed to register on the US Copyright website. Then, wait. I had to wait about 4 weeks to receive the letter.
I’m not sure I still have hard copies, but I’d love to find the original certificate of my patent that issued and the first acceptance letter to Radio Science for my master’s thesis. Good memories.