Tag: Library of Congress

Self-Publishers May Want to Try For Library of Congress Cataloging

Library of CongressYou’re a self-published author, and someone has suggested you get yourself an LCCN. You’ve never heard of an LCCN and are wondering if maybe you need to find out more. Well, this is your stop. We’re talking LCCNs today.

First off, what are they? LCCN stands for Library of Congress Control Number. It’s a unique identifier issued by the Library of Congress (LOC) to books that get included in their collection. Some people desire this number because librarians across the nation and the world tend to catalog their books using the LCCN number. There is only one LCCN per book, whereas each edition of a book requires a new ISBN (eBook, paperback, hardback, special editions), and will likely have multiple ISBNs.

If it sounds appealing, how do you get one? Continue reading “Self-Publishers May Want to Try For Library of Congress Cataloging”

Copyrights: Obtaining Permission (or not)

clipartSince making the decision just over a year ago to leave my small publisher and re-release my books under my own imprint, I’ve learned quite a lot about copyrights, both my own and those of other writers, musicians, photographers, etc. For example, just because it’s free doesn’t mean you can use it  Along those same lines, as discussed in my post Copyrights and Copywrongs, fair use may not always apply.

With this new knowledge in hand, I had to make some changes not only in my previous books, but also in one of my current works in progress. I wanted to use a quote from Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet, just a couple of lines, but wanted to make sure I followed the rules and obtained the appropriate permissions. I started by searching the Library of Congress database, but soon found that to be of little help. Gibran’s works have been published in so many places under so many formats, I was unable to pin down a copyright holder with any certainty. Continue reading “Copyrights: Obtaining Permission (or not)”

Copyright and a Case for Why We Should

Copyrights are always something in the forefront of our collective indie publisher minds. Should we or shouldn’t we, do we have to take special steps? This overview will focus on U.S. copyright laws but I would imagine that they are similar in other countries. Toward the end of this post we’ll look at a possible copyright infringement that hits a little too close to home. Continue reading “Copyright and a Case for Why We Should”