FACTS FOR AUTHORS COPYRIGHT: Authors automatically possess copyright to original work which exists in tangible form. In other words, copyright is inherent in any written work you have created. It is only necessary to claim that copyright by stating that it exists. However, it is a simple and relatively inexpensive process to copyright your work through the copyright office of the U.S. government. In short, to register for copyright you must send one envelope or package to Library of Congress, Copyright Office, 101 Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20559-6000 which contains: 1) a properly completed application form. 2) a nonrefundable filing fee of $30.00 (effective through June 30, 2002) for each application. 3) a non-returnable deposit of the work being registered (2 copies of a published work, 1 copy of an unpublished work assembled in an orderly form and bearing a single title.) For detailed information, go to http://www.copyright.gov See Copyright Basics under About Copyright. LC CATALOG CARD NUMBER: Go to http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/ Or write to the Library of Congress, CIP Division, Washington, DC 20540 or phone 202/707-9792 and request form #607-7 Application for Pre-assigned Card Number. CIP Division will send your LC number approximately two weeks after receiving your completed form, and will include a postage free, self addressed label to send a copy of the finished publication to the LCCN office. The publication will not be returned. A LC number should be requested at the same time as the ISBN number. ISBN (INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBERING): Go to http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/us/index.asp Or call or write RR Bowker Co., 121 Chanlon Road, New Providence, NJ 07974, 908-464-6800 or 800-521-8110 x 6770, fax 908-665-3502. Request an ISBN application, complete, and return with processing fee ($100, subject to change). Allow 20 days processing time. You may request a 72 hour turnaround for an additional charge. Start this process before your publication is sent to the printer. Unless otherwise requested, the ISBN agency will issue you 10 ISBN numbers. Select one number for use on your current work and reserve the other numbers for future works. ISBNs should be printed on the copyright page and the lower right hand corner of the outside back cover and back jacket (if the book has one), above or below the bar code. Dust jackets should carry the ISBN on the upper edge of the left-hand jacket flap. HELPFUL LINKS FOR WRITERS NATIONAL WRITERS UNION The National Writers Union is the only labor union in the United States that represents freelance writers in all genres, formats, and media. It provides grievence assistance, contract advice, a job hotline, and health and professional liability insurance. Go to its web site for a media rates database and news on issues of importance to writers. Purdue University Nebraska Center for Writers at Creighton University Wesleyan Writing Programs at Wesleyan University Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa Bread Loaf at Middlebury College Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA AWP, The Association of Writers and Writing Programs The Ragdale Foundation National Writers Association Poets & Writers

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