I wrote some poetry and was wondering how do I copyright it or get it published...?

Question

At least before someone else comes along and writes something close to what I've written.

Answer 1

The answer about sending yourself the poem in a letter is soooo wrong. This is called "poor mans copyright" and has never been successful in court.

In 163 countries copyright exists the moment you make something original, like a poem.

The problem is when someone rips you off and then you have to prove that the copyright was yours and not someone elses. It's not good enough to have a dated version on your own or a friends computer or send it in a letter because you could easily alter that. It has to be independent.

You can upload them to a special webpage and they fingerprint them and record the time you uploaded. This means that you have an independent record showing when you made it.

You can use the US copyright service which costs about $45 per application you make. This takes about 4 to 6 months to get registered.

You can also use an international online service called http://www.provemycopyright.com. You get an account with 1Gb of space to upload lots of your poems, even if they are in demo format. When you make a new version, you can just upload that one too and it doesn't cost you anything extra.

This one kind of acts like an independent third party which helps to prove that you were in control of the copyright before you send it off to a publisher.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

cheapest way is to send a copy to your self via certified mail....

that's a federal documented item and is honored in court... good luck