Legalities to Consider When Printing a Book

Publishing your own book can be a dream come true.  Many people opt to go down the self-publishing route due to creative reasons, or cost reasons but there are some things that you need to take into consideration when doing this.

If you do this through a publishing house, there is an editor with you every step of the way to give you a helping hand.  With self-publishing – all of the responsibility lies on you. This includes the writing of the book, the design of the book – as well as all of the marketing involved so it can be a daunting task.

There are some legalities involved that you may not be aware of, so we have put together a handy list below.  Hopefully by following this list, you will have a better idea of how to stay out of trouble if you are thinking about going to printing your own book.

Text Copyrights

There is no real black and white scenario when it comes to texts copyrights.  If you are using things such as music lyrics, or quotes – these can have a different set of rules.  Depending on how they have been distributed it could mean that it’s public domain and anyone is free to use it.  You should however, be on the safe side – and attribute these quotes to prevent any issues whenever possible.

If there is text that you know isn’t in the public domain – you need to make sure that you have written permission to use it by the owner.  You may get mixed responses when doing this.  Some people may love the fact that you want to use their work and sign off on you doing this straight away – others may want to ensure that they maintain the exclusivity of it and don’t want it shared.

Image and Graphics Copyrights

If your book has characters in it, there is no doubt that you have already visualised in your head what they will look like, or even pictured scenes that you want depicted in images.  When it comes to inserting those in your book – it can be a little tricky.  For example, it could be that you find a Pinterest image that you want to use but can’t because it isn’t yours.

If you are looking to make money from your book you can’t use any images that belong to anyone else under the Fair Use Doctrine.  This means that there are a couple of options open to you.  This could be that you create your own images. You can do this yourself if you are good at that kind of thing, or else you can hire someone to do this for you.  Alternatively, you could also ask permission of the owner if you can use their image.  They may allow you to do this but apply a cost to it.

Brand Names and Trademarks

The law isn’t as harsh when it comes to brand names and trademarks purely because things can be so well-known.  For example, if one of your characters walks into a Costa Coffee, it’s unlikely that this would cause any problems for you.

There only should be an issue if you are associating something negative with a brand as part of your book.  If the claim is false, then this is a libel issue.  In this instance it’s best to simply steer away from that kind of information in your book.  It’s always best to be safe than sorry.

Your Own Copyright

Your own copyright is incredibly important – as if it’s not taken care of, then there is nothing to stop people from stealing your work. In order to secure copyright for your intellectual property – you need to apply for it.  It could be that a self-publishing company will help you with this, but you need to check in with them first.

You need to make sure all of your bases are covered when filing for copyright, so it’s definitely a good idea to seek legal advice from a relevant professional if you haven’t partnered with a self-publishing company.  If you do discuss this with another company – make sure you are clear as to who owns what, and don’t be afraid to ask questions if you are unsure of anything.

This may all seem a little daunting to you at first, but hopefully our guide of things to look out for has been some help to you.  Publishing your own book is a fantastic idea, you just need to make sure that you have all of the legalities of it covered before progressing with it.