US Copyright Registration for Literary Works

The “Title” field on your application must contain exactly the official title the work is actually using. If you do not have a full title, you should include a “Untitled” or a simple identifying phrase describing the work (e.g., “Draft of Historical Novel Chapter 1).

On the other hand, if you have multiple titles for a series, you can specify either a subtitle or a series name. However, since the Copyright Office mainly requires titles for "the work itself", it is important to write the exact title of the work to be registered, not the whole series.

Under U.S. copyright law, publication generally involves distributing copies to the public, or offering them for further distribution, public performance or public display. Public performance or display alone does not constitute publication.

The decision of whether to publish should be judged by the applicant himself, whether published in the form of a paper book and distributed in a bookstore, or registered on an online platform (such as Amazon) in the form of an eBook, which is generally considered to have been published. However, simply posting some paragraphs on your blog or SNS, or showing them in the form of an exhibition, may not normally be a “publishing”.

The U.S. Copyright Office recognizes the actual creator as the author. If it is written by an individual, it must state the person's real name, and if there are multiple authors, it must be written by both co-authors (who each have copyright protection).

For a qualifying work made for hire, identify the employer or commissioning party as the author and answer the work-made-for-hire question accordingly.

A company is the author only if the work qualifies as a work made for hire. This generally means an employee's work within the scope of employment, or an eligible specially commissioned work covered by an express written agreement. A copyright assignment alone does not make the assignee the author.

Provide the requested author details and correctly identify anonymous or pseudonymous authorship. An anonymous work does not identify an author; a pseudonymous work identifies the author under a pen name. Disclosing the author's real identity in the registration record may affect the applicable term of protection.

If you have completed filling out information about the author, you should check the “Author Created” section of the application to see what kind of creation the author has created. Most literary works only need to be checked for “Text”, but you can select Artwork, Photograph, and more to register your artwork or photo together. However, if the author of the work is different, the transfer must be arranged together.

The claimant is the author or a person or entity that has acquired ownership of the copyright being registered. An assignee should identify the basis of the transfer. For a qualifying work made for hire, the employer or commissioning party is treated as the author.

If the claimant differs from the author, provide the required transfer statement, such as acquisition by a written agreement with the named author.

Selecting acquisition by written agreement indicates that copyright was transferred under an agreement.

Deposit requirements depend on the work and its publication format. Published literary monographs may qualify for electronic deposit under the Copyright Office's applicable conditions; other works may require physical copies. Check the requirements for the specific application.

If you submit a physical copy, you must print the Shipping Slip and include it with your book. If the Shipping Slip is missing, it may be difficult for the Copyright Office to link the application to the actual product and the review may be delayed.

Enter the year in which the version being registered was completed. If the work has been revised, identify the version covered by the application.

The first date is in the order of the month/day/year. If you don’t know the exact date, write your estimate, but preferably a close date.

First published country. If it is published simultaneously in the U.S. and abroad on the same date, it is required to select the U.S. On the other hand, if two foreign countries are published at the same time, you can select one country.

Enter an existing ISBN for a book or ISSN for a serial publication where applicable. Other identifiers are used for different categories of works. An identifier is not itself copyright registration.