If you’re an independent author you know you need a copyright notice (or page) in your book, but do you know why you need one, what should to be included, where it should be located in your book, and how an ebook’s notice should differ from a print book’s?All of those questions and more will be answered in this Self-Published Book’s Copyright FAQ . Free template included.

Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, and copyright is an evolving area of law, so treat everything written here as well-intentioned but potentially erroneous information. This article covers U.S. copyright law only, with apologies to my international readers (yes, I see you, India, Canada and Thailand).

In the U.S., written creative works are considered intellectual property (IP) protected by copyright law. This protection gives the writer “exclusive rights to copy, distribute, adapt, and display a work.” Essentially, copyright helps ensure that you, the writer, are the only one profiting from your hard work, unless you have transferred those rights to someone else (a publishing house, for example).

Copyright protection applies to any creative written work, and is said to be effective the moment pen is put to paper. The term “creative work” is pretty broad, but it doesn’t cover everything. For example, lists and listicles generally aren’t protected by copyright, so it’s unlikely a recipe book could be copyrighted unless the writer peppers it with anecdotes and personal observations.

You only need a copyright page if you want to protect your work from use (or misuse) by others. Not everyone wants that. The open-source movement is thriving, and fans of that ethos encourage the sharing of IP with a “copyleft” model called a Creative Commons (CC) license. A CC license allows a work to be disseminated widely, which can boost a writer’s profile, but is not without drawbacks. A CC license should be used in moderation, if at all.

Most indie authors will certainly want a copyright notice as a page in their book, if for no other reason than readers expect it to be there. Copyright law protection applies regardless of whether a copyright notice exists, but that doesn’t mean the notice has no value: it actively discourages plagiarism, and without one it will be more difficult to prove ownership of your work in a court of law.

For the copyright notice you should use the year your work was first published. For example, if you published a collection of stories on a fiction website two years prior to publishing them as a book on Amazon, your copyright year is the earlier of those two dates. Minor edits and corrections do not change the copyright date, only substantial changes do.

For the edition of your book, which appears further down in the copyright notice, use both the month and year of the book you’re now publishing, i.e. the later of the two dates.

Copyright protection is different from copyright registration; registration is an optional additional step that provides added protections to your work. The cost of registering a book with the U.S. Copyright Office is $45 – $65. Without registration, you can’t bring a lawsuit for infringement of your copyright.

Most authors, publishers and lawyers will recommend that everyone register their copyright. I think a good rule of thumb is, if what you have written is significant, you should register it with the Copyright Office. If you produce a large number of low-content puzzle books, registration isn’t as important, and copyright may not even apply to such a book.

Registration has other benefits beyond the ability to sue for infringement. It places your book in the Library of Congress collection, making it available to researchers and the public, which is a mark of prestige. If you register your book, opt for the assignment of a A Library of Congress number, and then include that number on your copyright notice.

There are no formal rules regarding which elements should or should not be included in a copyright notice or the form they need to take. The only absolute requirement is inclusion of the line “Copyright © [year] by [license holder]”. Different writers and publishers have different preferences regarding the order of other elements and the form the notice should take. The following guidelines conform to Amazon’s recommendations, however, and are intended for use primarily in print books.

• Book Title
• Copyright Notice: “Copyright © [Year] by [Author/Publisher]. All rights reserved.” (This should appear more or less verbatim and don’t forget the ‘all rights reserved’ part which is significant.)
• Rights Statement: “No part of this book may be reproduced…” (The wording here isn’t important.)
• Publisher Information: Name, and contact information for the publisher or self-published author needs to come right after the rights statement, but can be in any form you like. I use just my email address.
• Disclaimer (Optional): For works of fiction or content-related disclaimers.
• Trademark Notice: If any trademarks are used in your book.
• Edition Statement: If relevant (e.g., “First Digital Edition” with an optional month and year).
• Credits (if applicable): Acknowledgments for cover design, editing, etc. I like this to be in italics.
• ISBN (if applicable): If your book has one. ISBNs are only needed for paperback or hardcover books. KDP assigns ISBNS for these books for free, but they only operate on Amazon. For a general use ISBN, use Bowker or — for U.S. authors only — discounted seller ISBN Services.
• Imprint: Directly below your ISBN (if you have one) the publisher’s imprint should appear. In KDP this should read “Independently Published.”
• Website: I like ending with just a website URL. It looks good and kind of frames everything.

The above elements have been combined in an attractive, formatted copyright notice PDF template which is available as a free download.

Copyright applies equally to both print books and ebooks, so both formats should include a copyright notice. But as ebooks are a digital, consumer-facing medium, a copyright notice can be much less formal in an ebook, and should be, since it’s a page that is difficult to skip past in an e-reader compared to in a book.

The big publishing houses haven’t done away with the long, formal copyright notices yet. Initially, publishers placed a verbatim copy of the print edition’s copyright notice in the front matter of ebooks. The thought seemed to be that an ebook should mirror the print version in as many ways as possible. Then, some publishers chose to move the notice to the back matter of an ebook, after the book’s content, but still in its original, formal form. Finally, publishers have begun to place the copyright notices back in the front matter, but in a slightly less formal, abridged form.

Indie authors, however, have decided to rethink the purpose of the copyright notice. Many indie authors include informal, conversational copyright notices, written in the first-person by the author. These authors seem to understand the ebook medium better than the big publishing houses. Plus, without a board of directors or shareholders to keep happy, indie authors are more willing to take risks, and they aren’t beholden to tradition for tradition’s sake.

Here is a copyright notice in the style of Hugh Howey, the indie author of the bestselling Wool series.

Copyright 2025 Hugh Howey.

All rights reserved.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. If you’re reading this but didn’t pay for it, please consider purchasing a copy — or at least leaving a nice review, so I feel better about it.

Choosing a formal copyright notice for your ebook is a “safe” choice — readers won’t likely consider it either a positive or negative — but you might want to get creative and have fun with your notice if it fits your writing style and works with the tone of the book you’ve written.