Library of Congress – Muddling By

Here I am, again, beginning the wait as the US Library of Congress decides whether to add my most recent book to the collection. This morning, January 22, 2026, I mailed off a copy of the book and the form to the other Washington (from where I am in Washington State). I’m sure if I check my notes, I’ll see how long it takes. I’ve done everything I was supposed to do – I think. With that, Muddling By is finished, again. I think I’ll celebrate with a cup, no, a pot of tea at an above-scale martini/wine/coffee/tea bar. Cheers.

Skipping the literary narrative, here is an edited version of my notes from yesterday’s submittal process. It might look boring, dull, tedious, and bureaucratic; and it is, but that’s because: 1) it is the US Federal Government, and 2) I am submitting a book to a library collection that may outlast me and every library. (Whether the Library of Congress will outlast the US of A, is a separate issue.)

• 11:15 AM
• Bring up the loc.gov web site
• Click over to copyright.gov
• Click on “Register Your Works”
• Log in to eCO (their registration site, which of course must have its own name)
  • failed (because the password expired since I submitted my previous book, Fire Race)
  • Use their autogenerated and incomprehensible password
  • Make a new password that is easier to remember (though not by much, and would be out of date at the rate I write books, so why change it to that and waste it?)
• Logged In!
• Copyright Registration / Register a Work / Standard Application
• Start Registration
• Type of Work – literary work – Continue
• They issue a tracking number, which I’ll obscure, but I’ll wonder why they don’t use the ISBN.
• Title (but not subtitle): Muddling By
• Published ? yes
• Year of publication: 2025
• Date of publication: 9/29/2025
• Country: US
• Identifier (because copyright can apply to other things than books): ISBN 979-8264948152
• Author – Add me (because it remembers me from other books)
• Not a work for  hire
• Citizenship (was this here before this administration?): US citizen
• Author (not someone else or some thing else) created text
• Claimant (still haven’t figured this one out, but evidently it is me?): Add Me
• No address change (Yay! That was a stumble during my move from Whidbey Island to Port Townsend.)
• If your work does not contain any preexisting material, leave this screen blank and click “Continue” to proceed to the Rights and Permissions screen. (OK, if you say so.)
• Add Me (again)
• Correspondent Add Me (again)
• Mail Add Me (again, but just because it is simple, don’t overlook it)
• no special handling (Life’s tough enough. Keeping it simple.)
• Name of card (and all that credit card info we are so practiced at.)
• Turn on the printer (because mine is rarely used it has to warm up before I start printing receipts and shipping labels.)
• Add to Cart
• $65 (Paying for the privilege. Not free, but considering the price of gas and food, not bad.)
• Print the receipt and the shipping label.
• Checkout before noon.
• Next Day
• Drop the book and the form into a manila envelope. Drive to the Post Office, where I get the good news/bad news that, because it is a book, I pay the lower rate, and because the single sheet of paper form was added, they’ll charge me an extra $0.75. Weird, but that’s the way it works. It is still cheaper than driving across the continent to deliver the book to the library.

As I mentioned above, “It might look boring, dull, tedious, and bureaucratic;…” And yet, as with most bureaucratic processes, each step is probably there because something went wrong before they decided to ask for the details. That also means some of the questions and terms look like they were written by lawyers. What could be simpler: one author, one book, here’s a copy, put it on the shelf. But evidently there are books with multiple authors, works that include other art, other countries, other this, other that. Still, it would be handy to have an express lane – and someone would use it rather than the long form, just like the person at the grocery in the ’12 items or fewer/less’ lane who has 42 things in their cart. 

But why do it? Why spend the money and the time?

Insurance and due diligence.

If you’re lucky enough, you’ll never have to defend your work from thieves. So, far, I haven’t had to. And yet, Amazon has shown more than eight producers of one of my books. The only legal entities who would have any claim to the book would be me, kdp or iUniverse or lulu, and Amazon. The rest are, simply stated, criminals. 

Being the creator is not enough, if the author wants to chase down faceless interlopers. The corporations don’t care. They provide some resources, but they aren’t policing the stores. I can protect mine, but none of them are making enough to warrant the time and money in chasing them into prison, as if they’d even be caught.

But, registering my copyright is like having car insurance. I hope to never have to use it, but it’s better to have it early rather than too late. Registering a copyright is not a defense, but it is proof that you staked your claim.

There are hours of nuances behind copyright. It is more than the little circle with a C in it, but in one weekend self-publishing class that I taught, we found that copyright issues could consume hours of questions that would be best answered by a lawyer in copyright law.

At its simplest, I am glad for an official acknowledgment that I wrote a book, that they’ve saved a copy, and I’ve joined the crowd of authors who are collected by one of the largest libraries in the world. Very cool.

I tend to not register copyright on my photo books. Partly, that’s because they sell fewer copies. Partly that’s because I concentrate more on the gallery sales of individual photos. Partly that’s because I’m busy enough with the art, the business, and life in general. Part of finding balance in life for me is to do just enough, and to not expect perfection – especially if it involves legalese. Yuck. I’ve got writing, photographing, talking, and dancing to do. 

Good luck with your path through the process. I hope this chronology helps.