Writing Tips For New/Emerging Writers 6.0-- Getting Your Books Into Libraries
Hey folks:
This is an idea I proposed long ago to my fellow Bizarros, and it offers one possible solution to getting some more books out there-- both for yourselves as authors, or for your friends who have had their works published. In one sense it may seem small, but believe, it adds up. So, this isn't a typical writing tip-- more of a "now that you have a book out there" tip. Anyway, I hope it helps.
People need to go their local libraries and request these books. For my fellow Bizarros, titles from the three cornerstone presses: Eraserhead, Raw Dog Screaming, and Afterbirth Books are available through Ingram-- as are many other publishers-- so libraries would have no problem ordering them in. Also, many/most(?) libraries have online forms-- you just need a valid library card. Plus, be sure to tell your friends to do the same. Make up a list of titles you want and go down the list, every week or two requesting another book. You can even order a couple of books each time. And again, have the others do the same. If all of my fellow Bizarros started doing this, A LOT of books could be sold. Granted, there is no guarantee, the book(s) in question would be ordered every time, hence the importance of getting others involved. The more requests, the more likely they'll order the books.
The results... more awareness of Bizarro books by friends, by library staff, by the public... eventually. (Hopefully, the staff will also perhaps catch on and start ordering other titles on their own volition.) More books sold. Then, with the books on the shelves, others will see them, or seek them out. And while I am addressing the Bizarros, all can use these techniques.
So, you get to read the books without any money out of your pocket. All it takes is some time and patience. Everyone wins. And even if you have all the titles you want already in your collection, it still can't hurt to do this. I really hope everyone will give this a shot.
With public libraries, you can donate your book(s) as well, but they might just be sold off right away, rather than added to their collection. Doing the request is better because it's showing a reader's/patron's interest, especially if there are multiple requests-- rather than self-interest. (That is, of course, by having others request your books-- not you requesting your own.) Regardless, if you want to donate your book(s), then go for it. It really doesn't hurt. Public libraries are what I'm mostly thinking of targeting, since academic ones are run a bit differently, and wouldn't be as inclined to order up patron requests, whereas they are more open to it in public ones. Still, you can always check your local academic libraries and see if it's possible. Also, I'm Canadian, so our funding system is also different/better(?) than in the USA-- regardless, I don't think it can hurt to try, no matter what country you're in-- Canada, the USA, or anywhere else-- especially if there's an online service. It couldn't be much easier. Even if they don't order the book, you're still creating a little more awareness for these titles.
Also, I was thinking back to Michael Moore, and Downsize This. Harper Collins was delaying the title, trying to kill the book, etc, because of "political" pressure. There were librarians from across the USA who got together and petitioned HC to release the book, and it was through this national organization (the ALA) that put the book on the best seller's list almost instantly. Sure, this is a bit of an extreme example, but it's a sign of what's possible. (Just showing the power of librarians.) And we need all the help we can get.
As for titles that may seem, or obviously are more extreme, explicit and so on, you may want to hold off on requesting those titles for a while, especially if you're going down the list for a particular publisher. Still, if enough people were asking for it, then maybe they'd deliver. Plus, you never know who may be doing the ordering. It could be someone open to it. But on the other hand, remember too-- "any press is good press." Perhaps we'll see if we can get some books banned. In the USA, I'm sure that's not difficult. It's probably only too easy...
I'd also discovered with my local library system that if books are more than 2 years old, they recommend using their inter-library loan service instead of putting in a book request. Hence, another reason to hit libraries with requests sooner rather than later. However, if enough people are putting in requests in one system, they may still bring in the book.
Again, in the end, it can't hurt to put in a request-- whether for one book or for many. You just need the basic information: Author, Title, ISBN, a brief description of the book, etc. This is only one of many techniques to getting more copies of your books out there. It may seem small, but it doesn't take much time, and every book sold counts. You never know who may pick it up, read it, love it, and recommend it to someone else. Or, even though they've read the library's copy, they may end up buying a copy for themselves.
I've got a new writing tip blog in the works, that I'll be posting in the new next few days.
In the mean time, I've been messing around w/ more film work. For now, I'm just doing short film stuff-- starting w/ promo films for my books, and so on. Partly to help promote the books (obviously), but also to get practice doing film work. Then, with each project, learning a little more, and moving on to bigger and more complex films. I have a few short promo videos in the works, and after they're done, I'll be moving on to longer pieces, perhaps using my short fiction as source material, or perhaps even something entirely new. I may even do some extra short films for friends of mine for their books. I have one mind for Nicole del Sesto-- a short one like below. Not sure if I'll pull it off or not. I have to talk to her first anyway.
In any case, I've had this one on my page for a # of days now. Check it out. Not full motion film or anything. Just a few hours work, piecing things together. I'm fairly happy w/ it, and think it looks all right.
Special thanks to Kasey for taking those photos of me in the first place. I found her sunglasses, and we were just goofing around, and she said just keep posing. So, without those photos, no video now. Thanks again. :)
Misadventures in a Thumbnail Unverse -- Released
Category: Writing and Poetry
Hi Folks:
My short fiction collection, Misadventures in a Thumbnail Universe has been published by Eraserhead Press. It's available at places like amazon.com, and shocklines.com for $9.95. Click on the cover below to take you to its page on amazon.com:
Here's a bit about it:
Come and experience the misadventures of a man with a fish-bowl for a brain, a woman who gives birth to bunnies, and Pterodactyl Man, who has raw egg for a heart. All of this and more in ten twisted tales from a master of Bizarro, Vincent W. Sakowski. Dive deep into the surreal and satirical realms of his neo-classical Blender Fiction, filled with television shoes and flesh-filled skies. You'll be both glad and disturbed that you did.
Back on Tuesday, March 27, some friends and I shot some video footage to help promote my new novel: Not Quite One of the Boys. The video is posted here in my Video section, and I'll be posting it elsewhere too. Feel free to share it, and let others see it. I'm planning to post it on youtube, and all those other video sites as well.
It's short, much like a movie trailer. We had some fun doing it, despite the crappy weather, which was for half of the shoot. Part of it was shot indoors, with Shaun MacDougall, and Mark Polachic for my bodies, and Arthur Slade shot the footage, while I directed, and in the second part, did a short monologue. A number of hours prep work, a couple hours of shooting, and a couple of hours of editing, all for 1 minute and 12 seconds, at next to no cost.
A good place for me to start.
I haven't done any kind of film work in the longest time, but I've always wanted to get back into it, starting small-- just like this. Then, learning with each film, making them longer, working with a bigger, better budget, and so on.
Arthur and I edited the film with iMovie. ie) Him doing the work on the computer, but with me telling him what I wanted, going through our options, looking at different takes, choosing credits, music, and so on. For the outdoor footage, the first take had the better sound, but my delivery wasn't as good as planned. In the second, it was much better, but as we changed the angle slightly, the wind was howling on the mic. So, we decided to double up the vocals, creating an odd pre-echo effect. (I say pre-echo, for if you watch the footage, you'll see the lines, come, then me speaking with the second set.) We tried this partly, because, even though the lines were mostly out-of-sync, the last line: "Strap yourself in baby-waby for some Blender fiction at its finest" was right on the money. So, we figured it be cool to double the vocals. Then Arthur showed me this mirror effect, which also worked very well with the doubled vocals, and it added to the overall Bizarro aspects of the piece. The film isn't perfect, but all things considered for time, resources, and so on, I'm quite pleased with it.
A big thanks to all three guys for all of their work, especially to Arthur-- for all of his extra time and effort.
In a couple of weeks, we'll be shooting another promotional video for my short fiction collection: Misadventures in a Thumbnail Universe. The book was just released at the end of March. I hope you'll check it out as well.
Meet-the-author chat session this Thu + other news (w/ Add-on)
Category: Writing and Poetry
Hey Folks:
I have a meet-the-author chat session scheduled over at The Lost and the Damned with Monica Smith moderating THIS THURSDAY, March 29. It's helping to promote my latest novel, NOT QUITE ONE OF THE BOYS, as well as Nicole Del Sesto, and her new novel: ALL ENCOMPASSING TRIP.
It's at 7pm Pacific-- 8pm Central-- 10 pm Eastern.
It would be great to get a lot of people attending, so spread the word! We'll be giving away one free book of each title to lucky participants.
Hope all are doing well, and hope to see you at the chat! The directions for how to get into it are below, in case you haven't done it before.
And when you get a login box, type your name and click log in.
In other news...
My short fiction collection, MISADVENTURES IN A THUMBNAIL UNIVERSE, should be available shortly from Amazon.com and other locales. (I just placed my own order from Lightning Source.)
I did some filming today with a few friends, to do a special promo video for NOT QUITE ONE OF THE BOYS, and hope to have it edited and posted in the coming week or so. One will be following soon afterwards for MISADVENTURES IN A THUMBNAIL UNIVERSE.
And for those who are still interested, yes, there are still more writing tips on the way.
Best wishes to all.
Vincent
Thanks to all who dropped by the Lost and Damned site last night and took part in the meet-the-author chat w/ Nicole Del Sesto and myself. The turn-out was quite good (better than I'd expected), and some old friends showed up, as well, as a bunch of people that were new to me, which is always great. Hopefully, we'll get a chance to do this all again sometime soon.
Thanks to Monica for keeping it well organized, and the questions flowing. I had to really be on my toes, especially as I can be rather verbose. There were quite a few laughs as well. So, it wasn't all serious discussion.
Congrats to Kasey, and to DJ, for winning copies of our books.
It was awesome getting re-connected w/ a couple of old friends of mine, whom I haven't spoken to in over a year: Jon Saklofske, and Chris Stroshein.
Thanks too to Nicole, who is always wicked devilish and fun. Aside from my dull replies, i got some good ones in there too, so it was all fun.
For my fellow Bizarros, perhaps we could/should start up w/ the Sun chats again, get together on more regular basis, stay in better touch, get better organized, and so on.
NOT QUITE ONE OF THE BOYS-pre-sale. And Other Writing News
Category: Writing and Poetry
Hi Folks:
First of all, I'm announcing that my novel Not Quite One of the Boys is available for advanced orders at Shocklines. ($13.95 USA) It will be out in the coming weeks, and I'll post a bulletin upon its release. Find it here for pre-sale:
One character dies, one is left for dead, and the other is kidnapped. And that's just the first chapter of this dark comedy. Sit back with Time, and watch as God and Satan gamble over everyone, following the misadventures of a couple of drug dealers. Add in a cop who has delusions of being the superhero Napkin Man, and his wife, a sexaholic junkie, a splash of Dante for a taste of not so classic literature, and you may get some idea of what this religious satire has in store for you. Strap yourself in baby-waby for some Blender Fiction at its finest.
Be sure to check it out.
For those who have read my first novel, Some Things Are Better Left Unplugged, this is where the story of the prophet begins. But this will be a different reading experience from Unplugged: lighter and looser, and told from two narratives.
As for some other news…
My short fiction collection: Misadventures in a Thumbnail Universe will also be available shortly from Eraserhead Press. http://www.eraserheadpress.com/
Here's a little more on that:
Come and experience the misadventures of a man with a fish-bowl for a brain, a woman who gives birth to bunnies, and Pterodactyl Man, who has raw egg for a heart. All of this and more in ten twisted tales from a master of Bizarro, Vincent W. Sakowski. Dive deep into the surreal and satirical realms of his neo-classical Blender Fiction, filled with television shoes and flesh-filled skies. You'll be both glad and disturbed that you did.
For those who've been reading my blogs on writing tips, yes, there are more on the way. I have rough drafts for two new ones, but I've had too much on the go getting these two new books ready for release, (amongst some other smaller projects as well), to have time to polish them up and post them. But there will be more soon.
That's about all for now. I hope you'll check out my work-- whether my books or the free stuff I have here and elsewhere online. (You can find links to some of my short fiction online in my first blog.)
Writing Tips For New/Emerging Writers 5.0- Writing a Synopsis
Category: Writing and Poetry
If you've written a novel and plan to submit it anywhere, you're almost guaranteed that you'll need to write a synopsis to go with your submission.
Basically, a synopsis is a summary of your story, but it's also a little more than that. ie) You can't just make a bunch of bullet points, outlining the plot of your novel. That is too dry, too dull, and more than likely, it will be far too long for the publisher to read.
The first point is then: as always, and I can't stress this enough-- follow the publisher's guidelines. They will say if they want a synopsis or not. If they do, they will often specify the maximum length, and perhaps even what they'd like to see for its content. The average length of a synopsis is one to three single-spaced pages. Rarely, is it longer.
So, it may turn out then that you have to write more than one synopsis, ie) one that is three single-spaced pages long, and one that is only a page. (Perhaps even more than this.) In my experience, I've only had to write ones that are a maximum of three pages, and I was able to use that for all my submissions. If you do have to write both a short and a long one, write the long first, as it..ll be much easier than the shorter one.
The important question is: how do you summarize a 50,000-100,000 word novel into 3 pages, perhaps totally 2,000 words, and make the story sound so good, you'd be a fool to pass on the manuscript?
The first thing to do is maximize your format. Usually, publishers won't specify the borders on a synopsis. So, if you normally write with borders 1.25-1.5 inches, shrink it to 1.0 inch for the synopsis. You'll get in a lot more words. It's a minor detail, but even adding 100 words can make a difference.
With your pages set, do a rough outline of your novel, chapter-by-chapter, focusing on the MAJOR points in each chapter-- but NOT EVERY point. It's too much information, and will make the synopsis far too long. Get used to narrowing your focus, but also hi-lighting what makes your story unique-- whether it's plot twists, bizarre characters, unusual settings, the humor, the terror-- whatever the case may be. Whatever makes your work stand out.
After you have your story summarized, you can start working on the synopsis itself. You can even begin with formatting your outline, just to see what you're working with. How many pages you have. Likely, it'll be too long, but that may not necessarily be the case. Shorter can be better, even if you have 3 pages maximum to work with, if you can do it in less, then do so. By having it shorter, it also gives you room to be more creative.
Your outline is formatted, now comes the revisions. First, just read through your summary. How does it sound? [Read it out loud. You should do this with anything you write, especially when it comes to dialogue. If you're tripping over the lines-- unless you want that character to trip as well-- then you need to change them.] Do you have all the major plot points? How does the story flow? Does it make sense? Or, are there big gaps? [Obviously, if you..re writing some Bizarro book, where the story is (seemingly?) nonsensical, etc, there is some leeway as well with the synopsis.] In general though, your synopsis should flow easily.
How is your opening line? Does it grab the reader? If it doesn't, change it. From there, smooth out the lines, again, so it doesn't simply sound like a plot summary. Remember the basic rule of writing (even for a synopsis)-- show, don't tell. Be entertaining, not just the facts. If your story is good enough, and unique in its own way, these qualities should shine through in your synopsis.
As you're making the revisions, try to capture the feel/style of the novel as much as possible. By doing so, the plot summary is elevated into another realm, and into a captivating synopsis. Write it in the same manner-- ie) If your novel is a comedy, with a free-slowing style-- then do that, and make sure your synopsis is funny. Same thing for the other end of the spectrum-- a novel that is dark, atmospheric, terrifying, etc-- those elements have to be in your synopsis.
I used these techniques for each novel's synopsis. For Some Things Are Better Left Unplugged, which was very dark, surreal, and written in the present tense-- I included all of those elements in the synopsis, with one chapter/paragraph. For each chapter as well, it began with a different time of day: dusk, aurora, gloaming, etc-- so for each paragraph, my opening line was the same word, following the story.
For the soon to be released: Not Quite One of the Boys, the style was lighter, comical, and freer flowing than Unplugged, so again, this style was reflected in the synopsis. Some chapters were even summarized in a couple of lines. Remember: sometimes less is more. Much more.
Another technique you can use is actual lines from your novel, including lines of dialogue. Don't overdo it, and stick to the best lines-- ones that will really grab the reader-- either through humor, wit, poignancy, or it just happens to be a totally kick-ass line. Don..t be shy about using a line from 100 pages into your novel-- as you can't wait for an editor to get there. Remember: use your best, but also do it sparingly. I did this with Not Quite One of the Boys, and with another novel of mine yet to be released.
Think: teasers.
Blow your reader away.
So, after you've done all this, again, look at how long the synopsis is. How does it read? Are you still stumbling over some lines? If it's too long, see what fat can be cut. If it's short, see if there is anything ESSENTIAL to add. Something to beef it up even more. And even though your synopsis is based on a summary of your novel, your theme(s) should shine through as well. Not necessarily every nuance in the story, but the reader should have a good idea of any deeper meaning to your story aside from the action on the surface.
Also, since you..re single-spacing the lines, if you have a lot of extra room, add a space in between each paragraph. It helps to break up the pages more, and makes for easier reading. Easier reading makes editors and publishers much happier, as does brevity-- especially if you can score in shorter words.
[In the case of a single page synopsis, you have to be even more ruthless, perhaps switching your focus more to the central characters and themes of the novel, rather than including much, if anything on supporting characters, and subplots. Even for a single page, you can still capture the essence of your story, the main plot(s), and so on. And since you have fewer words to work with, make EVERY line count. No fat. Your best lines only. You have ONE page, so make it count.]
Anyway, make those final edits, and re-read it again. Have a friend (or more) read it as well. After reading the synopsis, would you/they want to read this novel? Would you/they buy it? Be honest. Be brutal if need be, but NOT destructive. You want to get this book published, right? Writing a kick-ass synopsis can help you achieve that goal.
Tips For New/Emerging Writers 4.0- Are you good enough?
Category: Writing and Poetry
Today, a poet asked me: how do you know if youre good enough to get published? (Shes working on a collection of poetry. Like many writers, she was also afraid of rejection.) She asked what someone could do to find out This is my response, and while it addresses her issues, Ive also edited it to apply to anyone looking to get published.
There're a couple of things you can do... Has anyone else read your work... family, friends, etc? That may be the easiest place to start. Whether they are fellow writers, or haven't even read much poetry before. Sometimes just getting a basic reaction is fine too. It may not be the most objective opinions, but it's a start. Whether they say a little or a lot, specific or general, take what you need to improve your work, and not everything that everyone says, as that can do more harm than good.
In Canada, in many cities, including mine (Saskatoon), we have a "writer-in-residence" program-- where a pro writer is paid to hold hrs, and read others' works, (usually 20-30pgs, at most), then sit down and critique them w/ the writer... helping them out. (As well, as working on his/her own book throughout the months.) The W-in-R, changes each year, sometimes its a novelist, sometimes a poet, sometimes a non-fiction writer so some may be better suited for you write. Regardless, if you have this program in your city, you should take advantage of it, as its a free service, providing advice from someone whos been established, and wholl (hopefully) have an objective critique of your work. Do you have anything like that locally?
While your working on the book as a collection, have you thought about submitting some of the poems out to magazines and anthologies? As for things like poetry or short fiction collections, having some or most of the works previously published before is fine, and is common-- as it doesn't hurt sales, since the works are usually published all over the place-- different magazines, etc. (In some cases, all the works have been previously published, sometimes a story being published more than once.) Plus, it shows the book publisher that there is interest in your work. The same can be done with novels, though it isnt as common. ie) Trying to submit a chapter or section of a chapter as a stand-alone short story.
Anyway, the best thing to do is go to your local libraries, (public and college-- as the colleges will have a greater selection of journals), and see what they have for journals/magazines. Read them, see if what you write fits in with what's published in these journals. You can do similar research on the net-- finding journals, anthologies, etc. There are e-zines as well (electronic-magazines) that also publish poetry, and some even pay, so it's another place to find somewhere to get your work published. Then check out bookstores, look at the poetry section, and see what publishers are publishing poetry, and the kind of poetry they're publishing. As they'll be carrying what's new, which is very important, so you know who's still publishing poetry books. Then more market research to see if they accept unsolicited submissions, etc. (And again, for any other kind of writer-- whether writing short or book-length fiction-- look at what the bookstores are selling in your field.)
There are often writing contests as well... but usually there's a fee to enter, so don't bother w/ those, unless: a) you don't mind spending the money, b) you think your work is really that awesome, and c) that you can handle not winning, or even placing. Not a big deal, but just saying not to get your hopes up for a contest, as they are even more selective than a journal.
The point is, you won't know you're good enough until you actually send something out there-- whether to magazines or book publishers. At the same time however, for most magazines and publishers, if you're work is rejected, it'll come as a form letter, with little or no extra comments. If there are comments, pay attention to them... not that they are the end-all be-all, but you may find something useful to help your writing. Also, too, if they have taken the time to comment, it usually means that they have seen potential in your work. And they may want to see more. If so, they will often say exactly that: Close, but not quite. Please send more.
Most magazines, etc, have an acceptance rate of 1-3%-- ie) for every 100 submissions they receive, they'll only accept 1-3 of them-- which emphasizes how good your work needs to be. For some, it may be a little higher, but not much higher than that. Rejection is a (big) part of the process. It happens to all of us, and even pros get rejected. Im not saying you have to like it, or that youll get used to it, but youll have to accept it, as its going to happen-- a little or a lot. But, don't take it personally it your work is rejected, as there may be many reasons your work is rejected.
1) It doesn't fit in with what they are publishing. (Which is why it's VERY important to do your market research, and be honest with yourself-- so that you're sending your work to most likely places that'll be interested in your work. (As an absurd example to illustrate: if you write horror, don't send it to a romance publisher, because you think they'll change their mandate for you, just because you've written THE BEST horror story. They won't.)
2) You didn't follow their submission guidelines-- such as submitting at the wrong time, not following their formatting your work is too long or too short, etc etc. Always remember: follow the guidelines of that particular magazine or publisher. There are certain common standards, but some places can be VERY specific with their formatting etc. And if you don't follow them, that's a strike against you... the more strikes, the more likely you're going to get rejected. Sometimes one strike may be enough. Remember that 97-99% are going to be rejected, so not only are they looking for works to accept, but works that are easy to reject.
3) They've already chosen something similar for their current issue, or a recent past issue, or an upcoming issue. And/or they've seen a lot of similar work before.
eg) One time, editing an e-zine, I received three VERY similar stories, from three separate authors. I was stunned at how similar they were. Actually, I don't remember if I accepted any of them. Regardless, obviously, I couldn't accept all three-- even if all of them were incredible, which they weren't-- so at least 2 had to be rejected.
4) Perhaps, and just perhaps, your writing isn't to their standards. It doesn't mean you're bad writer. And we all can improve on our writing. Writing is VERY subjective. And the publishing world can be (very) harsh. But the truth is too, there are A LOT of bad writers out there-- and sometimes too, even bad writers get published. (Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code comes to mind-- and he's made tens of millions with that poorly written book. If you enjoy it, thats fine, but I have several reasons to say why its badly written. But thats for another blog perhaps.) Anyway, you have to write your best, be honest with your abilities, do the work, and in the end, if your skilled, and youre lucky, you'll hit (and keep hitting) the right editors and publishers. And if not, it doesn't necessarily mean you're a bad writer, but you'll have to work more, work harder, and persevere. (And perhaps, be inspired by writers like Dan Brown.)
There may be other reasons they've rejected your work as well, but at least that gives you some ideas.
So, you may never know if you're good enough, because it's all very subjective... but if you're interested in getting your work published, and if you're committed to your writing, do the research, be courteous and professional, you may get your work published. And if being published to you means being a good writer, then take comfort and satisfaction in that. But you may also be a good writer that doesn't get published... It all depends on whether or not you want to throw your hat in the ring. You won't know until you send something out there. So, you have to take that chance. Best of luck.
I've been busy working on revisions for two books I have coming out this fall, so I'm behind on my "tips for new/emerging writers." I have more in the works, but none are ready yet.
In the meantime...
I came across this quote on another profile. It's by Hermann Goering, Hitler's Reich Marshall, from the Nuremburg Trials after WWII. (I checked it out on the net afterwards too.)
"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
He also said:
"Education is dangerous - Every educated person is a future enemy"
Tips For New/Emerging Writers 3.0-- copyright and your work
Category: Writing and Poetry
This wasn't my planned topic for this week, but I ended up posting part of this in a writer's group, so I figured I'd add it here in my blog.
The question had concerned copyrighting your work, and one way suggested to protect yourself, was to mail the story, book, etc to yourself (through registered mail), and of course, don't open it.
Actually, doing the "mail it to yourself" doesn't really hold up. (That's a bit of a myth.) I've discussed this many times time w/ other writers, editors, etc. Doing this method is no legal guarantee that you own the copyright to the work. It's just some paper in an envelope.
I was tempted to do this many years, but never did. Nor do I plan to. Nor dod I know of any of my writer-friends that do this either.
If you want to, you can pay the fee, and register your work w/ the copyright board. (Laws vary a bit between the USA and Canada, w/ Canada having better copyright laws. Still, overall, you're well-protected in the USA.) Not sure if they want a copy or not.
Years ago, they didn't. So a LONG time ago I paid $35 for copyrighting a collection of short stories, and I received a very nice piece of paper w/ an official stamp and signature on it, the title of my work, etc.
It was a waste of money. (Especially as I never did anything with that work.) I was a teenager, and didn't know any better.
Still, though, if you really want to do it, go ahead. If it'll give you peace of mind, maybe it would be worth the expense.
The thing w/ copyright, is do your market research properly, and make sure before you submit your work, what rights the magazine or book publisher are interested in.
eg) For most magazines in North America, they want first North American serial rights, meaning that that magazine is the first to publish it in (in English) North America. Or they may also ask for 2nd (AKA reprint rights) as well. In any case, any reputable publisher will "purchase" these rights, w/ all rights reverting to the author. This is standard, and isn't anything to be concerned about. So, again, you don't need to register your work.
So, say a magazine publishes your story in a magazine in New York, buying first NAS rights. They may also state/request that you don't try to get that story republished for 4-6 months after the issue comes out. Again, this is a common courtesy. After that time though, you're free to sell your story again to other magazines or anthologies, (in North America and elsewhere) but being sure that when you submit it that you notify the publisher that the story has been published before, including when and where.
eg) "Story X" in Magazine Y, Issue 3, May 2006.
And here in Magazine Y, you'll see that your story is registered with the copyright in your name. Often, it'll simply say in the magazine:
(c) 2006, on behalf of the authors.
Copyright reverts to author upon publication.
And there you go. Your work is protected by copyright laws, BUT, of whichever country the work is published in, not by the country you live in.
The publishers to watch for, are the ones that ask for ALL RIGHTS. Often, they will pay more money to get these rights, but NEVER do this. Rookies get sucked into this, as they want to get published, and the extra money is appealing, but again, NEVER sell your work for ALL rights, unless you truly want to surrender ALL of them. (Which you SHOULDN'T want to do. If your work is good enough, you'll find the right magazine or book publisher at some point.)
Some magazines and book publishers offer contracts, others don't, especially magazines. Again, if you've done your research properly, you'll target the right places. You don't have to worry about losing your copyright, even w/out a contract... remember, no contract also means you haven't signed over anything in writing.
In any case, again, ALWAYS read the submission guidelines, and judge accordingly.
Many years ago, I was more paranoid about the copyright issue, but in North America, generally speaking anyway, this isn't a problem. Plus, anyone that starts to ask for more, or screws anyone over, word travels fast, and people learn quickly not to submit there. Just don't be one of the chumps.
I faced a magazine like this once. It was a new magazine, that paid well, had a contract, but wanted a ridiculous amount of rights, etc. I tried to negotiate with them, but they backed out, unwilling to negotiate on a couple of points. So, I lost a publication. I'm not happy about it, but there was no way I wanted to surrender as much as they were asking. After which, due to my experience and from others, the word spread, people were warned about this magazine, and some things changed. One change was that, the magazine had a copy of their contract for writers to see before they even submitted. (This wasn't available before, and if I had seen it beforehand, I would've never sent them anything.)
Another question raised was about copyrighting characters... which is not usually done separately either. It may be possible, but none of the writers I know do it. Granted, there are characters, say, for Star Wars, Star Trek, etc-- though I'm not sure that they have a special copyright on the characters. People just don't touch them, (aside from satire, etc), b/c they know they could get sued from those major companies. Besides, if you really want to write about those characters, you can just end up getting their bible, and writing for them. So, again, I wouldn't necessarily worry about copyrighting your characters. [You can check into that more though if you like, if it's an issue that concerns you, especially if you plan on writing a long series of books. Though again, I doubt that writers like Robert Aspirin w/ his M.Y.T.H. series, or King w/ The Dark Tower registered any of their recurring characters.]
Remember too, titles aren't copyrightable, and neither are ideas.
Trademark(s) is another matter entirely, and I'm not going into that issue now.
One thing to (possibly) watch for, though not to stress about, are foreign markets attaining your work and publishing it w/out your knowledge, not paying you anything, etc. Generally, this isn't a problem, but I remember many years back (in the early 90s, I believe), some Russian book publishers were desperate for material, so they were basically stealing works from non-Russian authors, and publishing their books w/out the authors' knowledge, w/out payment, etc-- in Russian. One of these authors was Harlan Ellison, and he fought for his books. The point being is that, if you find out this is happening, you only have a short window to assert your copyright on your work (most likely involving lawyers, major expenses, etc). I forgot how long you have, though it was no more than 2 years, likely a year. If, for example, Harlan hadn't fought the Russian publisher w/in this time-frame, he would've lost the copyright on his work. Granted, this was an extreme case, but it did happen.
Anyway, in the end, in the big picture, you can save the postage, save your money, and relax. The best thing you can do, is just get your work published, then, it is protected under copyright laws.
