A friend of mine is working of a book and is publishing it on a private forum, just for his friends to comment on, now although it is based on friends we all know that problems can arise when money and success is involved, how can he protect his publications on the site so all info remains his at all times ? The book could be huge and is a great story line, please advise with relevant links and prices, thanks
Your asking rather a lot for a discussion forum. You are asking people to search and do the leg work for you for free? It's called Google, search yourself on how to protect copyright and publication issues. What you are asking is for a 'consultant' type person to give you all the answers. It is also dependant on your country. You need a agent/publisher, they should have relevant contacts etc. And the book may be the best in the world but without backing, advertisment and distributers it will go nowhere unfortunatly. Goodluck.
Basically, he automatically owns the copyright to everything he writes (at least in the US). To help protect him legally though, if anyone tries to steal his ideas, he can register the book with the US Copyright Office: http://www.copyright.gov/
I asked for advise because im from the UK and he is in the US, if you havent got anything worth posting please refrain from boosting your post count, i have searched google and was alittle confused by what i read hence asking here. Thanks for the reply, yeah i had alook around that site and it just looks to me there isnt really any protect to stop people from calling it their own work ?
People can do that, sure. People break copyright laws all the time. If your friend is concerned, he probably shouldn't be posting it online or allowing anyone he doesn't trust completely to read it. Most authors don't share their work (other that short excerpts) with many people before submitting to an agent or publisher. Part of what he could do is create a blog where he promotes himself as an author. He could write about his creative process and inspiration, and that could help establish his book as his creative work. What I don't think he should do is register the copyright if he is interested in having it published by a regular publisher. My understanding is that publishers and agents see that as a red flag of an amateur. On top of that, his work is almost certain to be modified during the editing process, and he should have the registered copyright on the final version, not the draft he is sharing with friends.
probably the best advice. personally i'd only share it with people i know i could trust - and from the sounds of things he/you seem worried about the integrity of your friends