When you open up any book, you’ll notice that a couple of pages in will normally be the copyright page, now, most of us will completely overlook this and go straight to the table of contents, introduction or chapter one, but as a writer this is something that you should be familiar with and definitely have within your own book.

So, what goes into this page and what details should go there?

​Well for most books there are standard details which you should include, this can differ between non-fiction and fiction (and again with memoirs too), but you should give some thought to and ensure you have the details ready when preparing your manuscript for publication.

One – Copyright

The first line of detail normally is quite simply letting your reader know that you have the copyright to the book, this normally reads quite simply as:

Copyright © Your Name Here, 2020

It shows the word ‘Copyright’ the copyright symbol, your name and then the year of publication.

​Two – All Rights Reserved

This part of the page indicates that the copyright holder reserves all rights to reproduce the book or elements within the book. You can simply place the words ‘All rights reserved’ or expand upon it, as below:

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form either by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
 
Three – Disclaimer

This element is proving popular with most authors and again, is something you should also consider, here are some basic examples, but we would recommend seeking legal advice before you add yours to your book:

For fiction books, the disclaimer looks similar to the following: This is a work of fiction. Characters, Names, incidents and locations are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is completely coincidental.

For Non-fiction books the disclaimer looks similar to the following: The publisher and author are providing this book and its contents on an “as is” basis and make no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to this book or its contents. The publisher and the author disclaim all such representations and warranties. In addition, the publisher and the author assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any other inconsistencies herein.

Again, we would advise seeking further legal advice regarding your disclaimer, for example, a disclaimer for a book on new age thinking will be very different from that used in a book about fitness and diets.
 
Four – Edition

Here you should state which edition this specific copy of the book is and the year of publication
 
Five – Credits

Here is where you acknowledge the people and services that helped to produce your book, you’ll also need to have certain copyright notices placed here too, these will be for any copyrighted images, artwork, illustrations, excerpts from other material and forewords etc.

Six – ISBN & LCCN

Your ISBN (International Standard Book Number) should be printed next followed by the LCCN (Library of Congress Control Number) should you have a LCCN.  
 
Seven – Publisher details

Here is where you’ll add the details of who published your book, if your self-publishing (even if you’re using KDP or Ingram Spark) this will be your details, please note that you don’t necessarily have to place your address here if you don’t want to.
 
Eight – Website and contact details

At the very bottom of the notice you should use the space for your author website and contact email (it’s worth keeping social media addresses to your bio and not on the copyright page).
​

Copyright © John Smith, 2020
 
This is a work of fiction. Characters, Names, incidents and locations are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is completely coincidental.
 
 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form either by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
 
First Paperback Edition Feb 2020
 
Book Design by JD&J Design
Foreword by Jennifer Roberts
 
ISBN: 978-1-1234-5678-9 (Paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-9876-4321-9 (eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 00000000000
 
Published by JD&J Publishing,
​123 Book Street,
Novel Town, FL 32100
www.jdandj.com
​

The way in which we both read and write books has changed so much over the past 25 years, for those who write, the landscape has shifted and the tools now available for you to be able to create is growing very quickly. This is not to say that writers don’t use pen and paper and there may be some who still use a typewriter, but on the whole, we have adapted to new technology and embraced the new options it has given us.
​
And this leads on to our obsession with cell phones, we have them with us at all times and use them for more and more tasks, so why not use them to help with your writing and publishing?

Now we know that most of you won’t want to try and write a 90,000 word book upon your phone, I’m sure after an hour of typing, your hands would cramp up and you’ll wonder why you ever started! But there are apps out there (many of which are free) that you can download and use to help with your journey as an author.

Here are ten apps that you might find useful:

Writer Plus
​This App allows you to capture and write ideas down wherever you are, the app has been designed to be simple and easy to use without the fuss of standard word-processing software (which doesn’t always transfer that well to a cell phone). 

The Brainstormer
This app is a story and idea generator created to help you focus towards your next book/short story, it uses a wheel which gives three random ideas for you to think about with your writing, these individual ideas have been carefully chosen to challenge creatively and get the best from each writer.

Werdsmith
Is a free app for Apple users (both phone, tablet and even watch), it gives you options to put your saved documents in to categories, it gives details on word counts and even the time you’ve spent writing, it allows you to create small documents and up to novel sized works.

Novelist
Completely free and currently without ads too, it gives you the tools to plot, outline and organize your story, you can schedule goals with dates for when a specific word count is due. It will allow you to back up to Google drive and also create templates for you to use.

JotterPad
This is a plain text editor which keeps things very simple (as you’re using a smaller device to write with), again, this app can sync to your cloud storage (such as Google drive, Dropbox and OneDrive) keeping everything backed up for you. They offer a free version, but the paid app gives more for the author.

Cold Turkey
This great app will temporarily block everything on your phone, so if you are easily distracted when trying to write, this is a must.

White Noise Generator
With this app you can slip on your headphones and let the noise of the outside world slip away as you write, you can mix their chosen sounds to your own preference, choosing from the sound of rain, wind, ocean, night, forest and many others.

Dictionary.com
The leading free English dictionary for Android, this app also offers a thesaurus and you can search for words using your voice, they offer a paid version which will give advice and tips on grammar, a rhyming dictionary, idioms, phrases and more. 

Grammarly Keyboard
This works throughout your cellphone/tablet and ensures what you’re writing looks great, it also works with swipe typing (if you use this), it’s used by millions of people and integrates smoothly with your other apps.

Calm
If you’re struggling with writer’s block, this app could be for you, Calm offers guided meditation sessions for countless situations, it gets you to relax and leave stress behind, they have a free version of the app, but of course you will get more services for the paid one.

The beginning of a new year always makes us think of resolutions and goals for the next twelve months, for many this will involve diets and maybe the search for a new job, but for an author (or those who want to become authors) it fills us with the inspiration that this should be the year of publication.

They say that we all have a book within us, so what’s stopping you from completing yours?

But the key in starting any resolution or goal is in keeping the momentum and making it past a very enthusiastic first week, as with those who take up a new form of exercise, the first couple of weeks is full on, then you tire, lose interest and go back to sitting on the sofa watching TV.

So, trying to complete your book in a month (unless you absolutely have to) is not always the best idea, overburdening yourself when you may well have a full-time job or others to take care of is a fast track to failure. And this is important to remember when you have other priorities, if you can’t write full time, don’t try to. 

This is all about setting realistic goals for yourself, there is a great method of goal setting with the acronym of SMART it stands for Specific, Measured, Achievable, Realistic and Timed, this standard of goal setting is used within the business world and is done so for a reason….. It works!

But how would a SMART goal look for an author? Below we have a great example that you might want to consider for yourself.

Specific

This is what you want to complete, for most authors it will be the obvious of wanting to write a book and then have it published (either through traditional means or by yourself and print on demand). Set your Specific along the lines of ‘I want to publish a book on ………….’.

​Measured

This is how you’ll acknowledge if you’ve completed the goal or not, your measurement here will be a target of having a book of no less than 60,000 words (or however many words you want as a minimum), having this book edited, formatted, proofed, a book cover designed, advertising created and published. This section should be of elements that you either complete to achieve your goal or don’t to miss it, setting tangible measurements puts things into black & white, you either complete them or you do not, making it very clear on what needs to be done.

Achievable

Having a goal which is achievable is so important, there is nothing worse than setting an unsustainable target, if you overburden yourself you will burnout and your goal will not be achieved. So be realistic, if you can manage to write for just 30 mins per day then commit to that (or to a time frame to honestly suits YOU), it may take a little longer to write your book but you will get there.

Realistic

This is similar to the Achievable target, you should look at the goal your setting and honestly ask yourself if it achievable for YOU, yes you should definitely push yourself and be optimistic, but if you set a target of writing eight books in one year that will all make the New York Times Best Sellers list you may be setting yourself up to fail, so set clear goals that (with focus and work) you have a chance of achieving.

Timed

Set yourself a deadline for your book, you don’t have to tell anyone else (although if you do it will increase your chance of completing it), but set a specific date when your book will be complete, now you may set this date for when the draft is ready and this is fine, just set a date and then stick to it.

Setting SMART objectives do work, we use them ourselves and have done for many years, so why not give them a go and let us know what your goals for 2020 will be.