f you are a self-published author who is working to get their first book out there, then you may have noticed in terms that you are not familiar with and some questions that are difficult to answer. For example, do you need to register a copyright with your book? What is an ISBN and do you need one? That’s exactly what we’ll be answering in this article about these legal terms.

What is a Standard Copyright?

The standard copyright is when you go to the copyright office website and you register the copyright. This can be for a song, a short story, a book or other works of art that you want to register copyright for. The cost is around $50 and it allows you to prove that you are the author of the work that is registered there in case there’s ever a dispute.

What is an Automatic Literary Copyright?

What most people do not realize is that they do not need a standard copyright. That’s because whenever you publish a book or even uploaded onto the Internet, you are establishing your legal copyright already. Self-publishing your book on Amazon gives you just as much of a legal foundation as registering your book at the copyright office does and you don’t have to pay the $50 to publish on Amazon. On the contrary, your Naruto Fanfiction or Percy Jackson Fanfiction isn’t copyrighted in the slightest.

What is a Book Copyright Page?

Your book’s copyright page will have all of the legal information needed including any disclaimers the you want to make about how your fiction is fiction, the date of your book publication in the copyright for that date, the name of the person holds the copyright, the addition of the book, the website of the author and lots of other small details that basically frees you up from legal liability over things like copyright or ibel. For example, you may want to put a disclaimer that the city that your novel is based in is a real city but it is used fictitiously in this novel. That way someone doesn’t try to sue you for saying something derogatory about their city.

What is an ISBN?

ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. It is an international number recognized around the world that identifies each work of fiction or nonfiction that is published. You can get an international standard book number and assigned to your self-published books, but they are relatively expensive and not always necessary. `On the other hand, they sell for almost nothing in bulk pricing so you may want to think about that if you have a lot of books to publish.

What is an ASIN?

The ASIN is Amazon’s version of the ISBN. It stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number and serves the same exact purpose as the ISBN. When Amazon publishes your book they will assign you an Amazon number and they will be used to track your sales over the Amazon websites internationally. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work on other platforms.