Kris asks: I write poems of varied nature and I am looking for someone to help me copyright them and then publish them. I don't know where to begin... Is there any way that you could assist me in these things?

Hi Kris,

Copyrighting poems is fairly easy. For one thing, the moment you write a poem it is copyrighted. However, you want to register that copyright in case you have to use it to protect a poem you wrote. The thing to do is get a TX form from the Library of Congress. You can download the form from this site: http://www.loc.gov/copyright

There is a $30 filing fee and you have to provide copies of the work you are copyrighting.

The good news is that you can copyright all your poems on one application.. Just get them in an orderly form and put a single title on the whole collection. As long as you are the sole author of the collection all the poems will be copyrighted.

Publishing them is a matter of finding outlets. The best thing is to get the Poets Marketplace from Writer's Digest. (Barnes and Noble, amazon.com, Borders, all carry it). You need to read through that and see if any of the publications look like they might publish the type of poetry you have. It's often a slow process but the longer you do it the more efficient it will become. The important thing is to jump in and do it and don't get discouraged.

Good luck in your writing!

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