When you register for a copyright for your book, your photographs, or any other type of project, you are registering it with the U. S. Copyright Office at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. It’s a legally binding formality that makes it public record that you created your project and you retail all the rights, and registers the date.
As you register for the copyright, you can visit the official Copyright Office website at copyright.gov or you can write to them at:
Library of Congress
Copyright Office
101 Independence Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20559-6000
If you use the website, you can gather the appropriate forms. You should know that you might need different forms to copyright your work, depending on the type of project you have. There are literary works, which is a book or play or poem or anything that you have written. There are the visual arts, such as pictures or art. There are performing arts, which would be music or dance pieces. Sound recordings; serials like newspapers and magazines have their own forms as well. There are even copyright works on circuits on a semiconductor chip.
Go to the website, or write. You will need to fill out the appropriate form for your work; you will need to submit a copy of your work as well. You should also have to pay a registration fee. The fees and the requirements you will need might vary depending on the project, so you will need to ask specifically for more information.
You should take care to fill out the proper paperwork and submit the project the first time around correctly. If you need help, there are lawyers that specialize in these types of services. If you don’t do it correctly the first time, it might be a longer wait and additional fees and paperwork to fill out when you try to reregister. Once you have registered your work, you have an official document and you have secured your copyright on your work. From this point, if anyone should violate your copyright, you will have the copyrighted document to protect you.