Copyright registration question

[Bramblethorn]

I'm thinking of registering copyright on an upcoming work, because I'm hoping to sell it and want to protect it first. (Not really looking for a discussion on whether it's worth registering; it's only $35 and I don't mind paying that.)

I'd prefer to keep my professional identity separate from the erotica bit, so I'd rather not have my real name available to anybody who checks the registration; OTOH, pseudonymous registration looks like it'd be harder to enforce since I'd have to prove I was the author.

So I was thinking: is it possible to just file under my real name, sending the full text to the US Copyright Office, but using a different title from the one I intend to use for publication? Seems like that'd give me the best of both worlds: it shouldn't be possible for people who read the story to find the registration easily, but I can still pull it out if I need to enforce it.

Or is there something I've missed there?

 

[sr71plt]

Yes, as long as the text stays enough the same to identify it as the same work. Copyright is usually done by the publisher late in the editing process for this reason--to be fairly confident the title will stay the same. But the title sometimes changes even after copyright has been filed. You might keep some element of the title in place to make it easier to identify with the original. Conversely, the chances of anyone who cares going around in the copyright office files looking for your work are very close to zero. (I have a cutout name and address I'd use, as I do for some other stuff.)

 

[JackLuis]

If you publish on Smashwords do they file for copyright, or is it up to you to do that?

I thought I read that they do the ISBN.

 

[sr71plt]

If you publish on Smashwords do they file for copyright, or is it up to you to do that?

I thought I read that they do the ISBN.

I don't know, but I would be shocked that they would. Most of what they publish doesn't make even the $35 in their share of the profit, I don't think.

 

[R. Richard]

Smashwords does offer a free ISBN.