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I have finished my first book-a memoir. My question is this....should I copyright my manuscript before sending it to publishing companies to see if they will pick it up? Or is it better not to self copyright it?

I am not a lawyer nor even get to play one on TV, but I am one who is quite afraid to show my manuscripts to any stranger before I get it published with at least at ONE reputable online publisher (like smashwords or kindle). I think you can either,

a) Pay and get your work copyrighted



b) Publish at one of these reputable companies first (such as Amazon) which is a good enough proof of your ownership, and free too

OF course, there is a flipside to the coin too: some publishers hate the amazon/createspace group so may not accept your manuscript for that reason alone.

Theft of intellectual property of someone without giving any credit to the author is so rampant in the country I live in that you won't believe. LOL. It can be anything: music, arts, book; if you are not cautious enough...