>Now that I am nearing the end of my book, can someone please tell me
the steps to getting it published.  I don't want to put the cart before the
horse, so to speak.  Do I have to have an agent, someone to watch my back
so that I don't get ripped?  How do
>Thank you,
>Lynn
>
>Lynn Mundy

Hi Lynn, 

Just a little postscript. There is a lot of confusion about copyrighting, and
copyrights. Writing is like all the arts, you put you name on it, and it's
yours: for 99 years. Your estate holds the copyright after you are gone. You
name the holders in your will, or if you don't have one, it goes to you next of
kin. (We just went through this with some work of my father's.) When you sell
your work, unless it is (ick! ick!) "work for hire, AKA
AOL-style" (Boo. Hisss!
Spit!) or, a screen play (different contract laws), you sell the rights to
publication for X number of years, and the publishing house holds the copyright
for that amount of time, for which they pay you royalties. You sigh an
agreement to this effect (samples are on many web sites owned by publishers). 
Often is will say something about "first N. American rights" or
"worldwide
print and ditribution rights" -- this is where you should ask someone who
understands contracts to help you understand and negoiate what and how much you
are selling and for what what price. (We are not volunteers.)  People wishing
to quote you beyond fair use must inquire through you or publisher or, if you
don't have a publisher, to you directly for permission; this usually also means
that they must pay you for the privilage of usuing your work.  You do not have
to put anything other than your name on your MS, and your publisher will
register you with an ISBN (or, equivelant) # when you are ready to "go to
press."  Confused? Well, Nolo Press (Berkeley CA) publishes a book
called "All
About Copyrights" and it's sequel (I don't recall the title) that carefully and
in easy English explains copyrights and your rights as a writer and/or artist.
It also goes into "fair use", "critiques" and that grey
area called "open
source". (Watch out for those guys, they are techies -- SOME of whom have this
idea that all information, including print novels and such is
"free" for them
to use [re: rip off] because it is "open source.").  Amazon
carries Nolo Press
books. Good Luck! Lezlie

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