FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Most book files coming to us start in either Microsoft Word or Corel's WordPerfect but they can come from virtually any software program.  Because these files are still active and not locked, and the formatting and layout is based on your printer and your computers fonts, they can change when moved and opened on a different computer. We strongly encourage the files be converted into a PDF file format. This will insure that our printed output will be the same as yours with no font substitutions, layout changes, or re-pagination.  If this seems overwhelming, please call us as this is not as difficult as it may sound and we are here to help.

Software that will do this conversion for you can be found in our "links" section as PrimoPDF.  Creating a PDF file of your work is really no more difficult than printing, only with PDF software you are "printing" a PDF to a file instead using ink on paper..

Honestly, most of our clients don't worry about copyrights as the interest in the books is more family oriented than commercial.  We will never take your work and sell it as our own.

There's nothing wrong with copyrighting your work but often the added expense of $30 and 2 copies of your book for the Library of Congress just doesn't make sense.

Here's what you need if you still are interested in a copyright.

A Copyright is secured automatically by including a copyright notice in the work. It should contain the copyright symbol, the first year of publication, and the name of the owner of the copyright. For additional protection the copyright needs to be registered.

Here's how to register a copyright:

a. Download Form TX from the Library of Congress Website at www.loc.gov/copyright .

b. Print the form on a single piece of good quality, white, letter-size paper.

c. Enter the specific title of your work.  Don't include the subtitle or descriptive information. Fill in the rest of the form neatly with black ink.

d. Seal the completed form along with a $30 check to cover the application fee, and a deposit of one copy of the work if it is unpublished, two if it has been published.

e. Mail the package to Library of Congress, Copyright Office, Register of Copyrights, 101 Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20559-6000

As a publisher we have applied for a group of ISBN numbers which can be provided at a fee.

However, most self-publishers do not need the ISBN number as it mostly pertains to books that will be in retail stores and require barcodes which can be scanned at the register.

Many people are sending their files to us through the mail on CD's.  You can also send us your key-chain or USB thumb drive, zip disk, or DVD.  All such items sent will be returned with your finished books.

The question often arises about emailing the file to us.  All email servers have file attachment size limits that vary from company to company.  Our mail server will reject any file attachment larger than 20MB in size.  Most books with quality photos included are many times larger than this.