Am I overthinking things?

[JCGAuthor]

Am I missing something?

I am going to be self-publishing (via ebook) a short fiction collection and the first part of a novel this fall\summer. I'm entering the phase where it seems like a thousand different things are needed. Is there any of this stuff I don't necessarily need?

1) A registered copyright on the work -- and does anyone know if I have the manuscript copyrighted, do I need to then have the whole finished book copyrighted once it is done?
2) An ISBN number (I would assume this is critical)
3) A blurb (the reverse text, I take it)
4) Cover art (duh).
5) Formatting for the various platforms.

I swear I'm forgetting something else.

What I was trying to find on the boards -- forgive me, I searched -- was like a checklist for creating an ebook.

I apologize if this post retreads old ground, or if I'm missing an obvious section \ sticky on this stuff.

Also, if anyone can recommend a great cover artist to make some unique cover art (speculative fiction collection & also a novel series), I'd greatly appreciate it. I didn't see a sticky for it.

 

[brainstorm77]

There is a self-publishing section here. I'm sure many there will be able to answer your questions. Good luck.

 

[Katie Elle]

You really don't need a registered copyright, just a copyright statement gives you a reasonable amount of protection and doesn't cost money. Just my opinion, chances are that very few of us will ever mount a lawsuit based on copyright. Most of the problems we'll have are with pirate sites distributing the ebook and they (or their ISP) will cave immediately to a DMCA request or they'll be something like a torrent where you have little or no chance of stopping the piracy whether or not you're registered.

As for an ISBN, Amazon/KDP and B&N/Pubit don't require one and Smashwords will give you a freebie naming them as publisher and use that to distribute to iTunes etc. There's no reason to get one at all that I can think of. It's main use is so a bookstore that wants to stock your book can find you the publisher to make an order. Not really relevant.

There's a tutorial on simple cheap covers in the self pub section btw!

 

[merrihiatt]

Beta readers and editing weren't on your list, nor a marketing plan.

 

[brianjanuary]

Your creative work is automatically copyrighted at the moment of creation, so you don't need to register the copyright unless you truly feel that someone will steal your material and you'll wind up in a legal situation.

 

[JCGAuthor]

Thanks, folks. Let me first apologize to the mods for having to move this thread: epublishing and self-publishing seem to straddle a lot of the same turf, and I'm still learning my way around here.

Brian and Katie: muchas gracias!

merrihiatt -- forgot to mention that the betas are all done and the manuscript is out for editing at the moment. Marketing plan is already in plan and more components will be ramping up soon.

Thanks, all!

No one has any references for outstanding cover artists, by chance?