5 Legal Steps Self-Published Authors Should Take

As we discussed last week, authors have more choices than ever on how they want to get their books to market. Though traditional publishing is still viable, more and more authors are choosing the self-publishing route.

While this has many benefits including greater control over their work, higher royalties and the ability to determine their own marketing and pricing strategies, it also comes with a slew of potential legal pitfalls.

The reason is simple. Though everyone knows that publishers handle the promotion and distribution of the books they publish, many authors don’t realize the myriad of other mundane tasks that publishers handle. This includes copyright registration, handling of the ISBN, editing/proofreading and even designing the cover and the interior of the book.

For an author who just wants to sell a book, these can be daunting tasks.However, the failure to do them can be costly. For example, with the recent Anthropic settlement, authors without a copyright registration were left high and dry while those with one are eligible for roughly $3,000 per book.

So, if you are looking to self-publish a book, especially with the intention of it reaching a massive audience, here are five legal steps you should take, ideally before you hit “publish.”

1: Have Solid Contracts with Collaborators

Even self-published books are rarely solo projects. Authors often have others edit, proofread, punch up or otherwise improve their work. They also routinely hire cover designers and packagers to ensure that the book looks good when it hits the (virtual) shelves.

But while these collaborations can be essential to the success of the book, it’s important to have solid contracts in place with them to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

The goal of a well-written agreement is not to win a legal battle, but to prevent one. You don’t want your cover designer to sue you for unpaid royalties or to claim ownership of that cover.

To be clear, this is not just an issue for self-published authors. Hachette has been battling with one of its cover designers, showing the need for such agreements in advance.

It’s also worth adding that any images or outside material that you use in the book or on the cover should be properly licensed. Ensure that those images are either in the public domain or that you have the needed permissions to use them.

In short, make sure that everyone you work with, directly or indirectly, is on the same page about their involvement and their compensation. Don’t wait until after the book begins to sell to sort those issues out.

2: Register Your Copyright

If you plan to publish your work in the United States, which most authors do, you should register your book with the US Copyright Office.

In the United States, copyright is automatic after the work is created. However, if you want to enforce that copyright in a court of law or at the Copyright Claims Board, you will need a copyright registration. If you want the maximum amount of damages and the ability to collect attorney’s fees, you will need to do that registration timely.

Ideally, you should register your work either before you publish it or within three months of publication. If you’ve already missed that window, you can still register that work and the registration will still be timely for all future infringements.

For a single work with a single author, a copyright registration costs $45, though that amount is set to rise later this year. It is a relatively simple process and a small price to pay for the protection it provides.

3: Fact Check Carefully

This is primarily an issue for authors of non-fiction books but it can also be an issue with fictional works that have non-fictional or historical elements.

Careful fact-checking is not just about ensuring that the work is accurate, it’s about preventing potential legal issues, in particular claims of defamation.

Ideally, this would involve an outside fact-checker. Having someone else look through the work and retrace your steps is a great way to catch mistakes before they get to the public. However, that is not always practical.

At the very minimum, make sure that you have at least two good sources for any controversial claims that you make. However, in 2026 the most important thing to remember is to not trust AI to research or fact-check your work.

Even with the “best” AI models, the hallucination rate is still far too great and the stakes are far too high. There is simply no substitute for putting in the work, whether it is your own or someone else’s.

4: Perform a Plagiarism Check

It might sound odd to perform a plagiarism check of your own work. After all, if anyone should know how a book was written, it should be the author. However, doing a plagiarism check BEFORE you publish a book is ideal.

The reason is simple. Checking a work after publication means filtering out sources and matching text that came after the work was released. This can be extremely time-consuming and tedious, especially if the book is popular.

Doing the check before publication means that any matching text is guaranteed to predate the work. It also gives you the chance to remove or edit the text before publication.

While this is most important for works that rely on outside sources, it’s not a bad idea for any work that’s going to be published. Not only can this help prevent copyright issues, but it also shows that you conducted your due diligence before publication.

5: Preserve Your Work

Finally, it’s tempting, when you’re done with any big project, to purge yourself of the files and other materials that you’ve used to create it. Don’t.

If anyone challenges the originality or authenticity of your work, pretty much the only way you can prove your authorship is by showing the process you used.

This is especially important today as the most common accusation is the undisclosed use of AI. That can be an impossible allegation to disprove if you can’t show the drafts, notes and other materials you went through to create the final product.

But more than just defending yourself against allegations of AI use, keeping your materials shows how you developed your ideas and can help you defend yourself against copyright claims and also defamation claims if you can show the due diligence you went through.

Simply put, without that information, your process is a black box that no one can verify. This can have serious consequences both in and out of the courtroom.

Bottom Line

Even if your goals with self-publishing are modest, it’s important to plan as if this is going to be a major commercial success that draws a lot of attention, both positive and negative.

Simply put, when you publish a book, you don’t control the response that the book will get. It could get no response and dwell in obscurity for the rest of its years. Or it could become a phenomenon that reaches an audience you never imagined.

It is much better to prepare for the latter and have it not happen than the other way around.

Obviously, depending on the type of work you are writing, there are other steps that you may want to consider. However, these are five broad steps that, in general, are good ideas for any self-published author.

When it comes to the legal aspects of publishing, going alone can be very intimidating. If you are unsure or have questions, speak with a lawyer in the field. Any fees you pay will be worth it for the peace of mind that comes with knowing that you are doing everything you can to protect yourself and your work.

In the meantime, these are five good, baseline steps that you can take to protect yourself and your book. All of these are relatively low-effort and low-cost, but can make a world of difference should things go awry.

But, if you only get one thing from this article, make it this: Please consider the potential legal issues before you publish. This is a space where an ounce of prevention is worth well more than a pound of cure.