Circulating a book before publishing

[upperscore]

I am a university lecturer. I have been giving a set of notes in the form of a text book to all the students who enrol in my unit. I now intend to "publish" this text book and it would happen only in 2014-15. In the meantime I want to continue giving the unpublished book to my students. What is the best way that I could sort of copyright them in the interim.

[Quill]

It is automatically by law copyrighted the minute you write it, is my understanding.

I would also put a copyright notice on any copy of the work that you hand out. Make sure it also says "All rights reserved" which by my understanding protects it in other countries especially.

There may be other simple ways of establishing the date on which you wrote it, such as publishing excerpts or parts online, or emailing the files to yourself, or have it notarized, if you are worried about plagiarism or theft. This might be something to consult an IP lawyer (intellectual properties) about if you are really concerned, to find out what forms of proof constitute proof of authorship in court.

You could even set up an advance copy on Createspace and print proof copies of whatever part of the work already exists. Then you could update the file when you go to actually publish, and insert your actual cover then.

[upperscore]

Thank you indeed. I am doing this for the first time. It is very much valuable information that you have provided.