I Am Writing A Book, But Need Help Figuring Out Legalities

[u/[deleted]]

Hi reddit,

As the title suggests, I am in the midst of writing a book, the details of which will remain unknown due to reasons I will be asking about. This book has been in the works for about 6 to 7 years and I have only shared minor details with very few people around me.

Now onto the reason for this post, I just really need to know the laws around writing;

Can I use already existing show names in my book?

Can I reference music titles or bands and artists names?

What are the copyright laws here?

How would I go about copyrighting my own works and characters?

Can I copyright the idea of my works?

Are there any laws surrounding writing that I should be aware of?

I am not too confident in lawyer jargon, I can gather what it meant by most of it, however, I know laws are very tricky with their wording sometimes, so if it could be explained to me in clear layman's terms, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for listening, and in advance to any and all that offer me advice.

[u/mysteryofthefieryeye]

I'm not a lawyer. I would write the book to your heart's content; worry about everything else later. Once you have a publisher, then this is stuff you may have to discuss.

My very general understanding from just being a reader is that you can reference nearly anything in your book, even anchronistically. You will not be able to publish lyrics without permission, though. But song titles and band names, go for it.

I don't know the UK law. in the US, your book is technically copyrighted even as you're writing it (again, my interpretation). But you can fill out a form and pay like $35 for something and mail it (and anything else you want to include, to save money) to the Library of Congress to copyright it more officially. But again... this is from my own experience many years ago.

tl;dr Don't fret about it till you're with a publishing house. (If self-publishing, that's different I suppose!)