How to protect your creative work

Part 3 of 3

(3) What is the best way to protect your creative work?

The best way to protect your work is by publishing a lot of titles, getting famous, and making money to continue putting your message out there.

You can't stop people from sharing your ideas. There is no law that protects ideas. But the truth is, you don't want that anyway.

In other words, ideas can't be copyrighted. So anybody can steal ideas, and the law actually encourages this. Yes stealing ideas is encouraged.

The reason is: this is how the world progresses. One person gets an idea, for example: the invention of the light bulb. And the next person improves the idea, for example: to make fluorescent light bulbs that use less electricity.

Recently, I've been reading Steve Jobs biography. It is fascinating. Steve Jobs was the head of Apple, which is currently the most valuable company in the world.

In the book, you see that Steve Jobs and Apple actually stole Xerox's idea for a graphic user interface. This is what changed the computing industry at a pivotal time.

When I say stole the idea, what I mean is: Xerox brought the Apple people into their office and showed them the idea. And Apple went back to their labs and improved on those ideas to create the Macintosh. Which happens to be the type of computer I'm using right now to write this article.

So, did the world benefit?

Well, let's see. Apple stole Xerox's ideas and improved on them to create the Mac, which led to the iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc. Arguably, the greatest inventions of recent history came as a result of stealing these ideas.

In case you're wondering, why didn't Xerox make the mac? They had the idea for the graphic user interface, so why didn't they make their own computer. Xerox was focused on making photocopiers. They didn't have the vision that Steve Jobs had at Apple. Instead, Xerox did make a computer, but apparently it wasn't a success. Everybody's heard of the Mac. Did you ever hear about any of Xerox's computers? I never have.

Xerox could never have produced the Mac. This is why ideas are meant to be shared, stolen, borrowed, what have you... Because in the expression of the ideas, the ideas can get transformed into something far, far better.

And this leads to progress. Which helps everybody.

So what is the best way to protect your creative work?

Here's what I suggest:

Don't just blindly trust me, or anybody for that matter. It's important to do your own research in order to protect your manuscript.

You might want to get your copyright registered. I'm not a lawyer, it's up to you to do your own research. Do the best you can with this.

Then -- after you feel comfortable that you have done your research and your work is protected -- don't agonize and waste precious time worrying about protecting your manuscript.

Instead, it's much more productive to focus your energy on creating new work and better manuscripts.

Think about it this way:

If you've written a great book, your readers will recommend it to others. And you may be rewarded with fame and fortune. On top of that, you will develop yourself as a person. Sharing your message with others can you feel uplifted in life. Then, your success will be based on a feeling of joyfulness that comes from within.

To me, that's one of the best feelings ever.

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I hope this is helpful to you. Please let me know so I can help to serve my customers better. You can email me at michael@isbnagency.com

My goal is to help you become a successful self-publisher: get your message out there, get the benefits of expert status, and make money on your book.

Please keep watching for my next email with more useful marketing tips.

You can do this!

Thanks,
Michael

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About me:
As you know, I'm a self-publisher and work-at-home dad. I enjoy helping other self-publishers feel successful in their marketing efforts and protect their books by getting an official copyright.

I've been doing this since 2005 and I've learned from a lot of mistakes (including wasting money on advertising) that I want to help you avoid. My goal is to help you become a successful self-publisher: achieve expert status, have freedom in your schedule, and make a 6-figure income doing what you love.

P.S. Was this helpful? Please reply and let me know what you think. It really helps me to get your feedback so I know if I'm on target in helping you achieve your goals. You can email me here.

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