I recently wrote a long email to a friend who is looking to publish his first novel as as an ebook and asked me for some tips. Over 1600 words later, it dawned on me that other people might find this information helpful, so here’s a slightly edited version. This deals exclusively with publishing ebooks only. I may write up a similar resource for self-publishing paper copies. Copyright, ISBNs, imprints You don’t need to do anything to copyright written work; in fact, there’s nothing you can do. However, when you make a digital or paper copy, ensure you have a copyright statement at the beginning (usually right after the title page/title matter). It looks like this: Awesome Novel Title by Author Name Copyright 2012 Author Name Published by imprint ISBN 978-0-9999999-9-9 You’ll notice two things: the “published by” and ISBN. The first is optional, the second mandatory.