Legal Pages

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Legal Pages

R. Ross Whalen • Mar 11, 2021

Today I want to discuss what goes into the legal pages of your eBook. All books no matter their format should have a legal page inside. The placement of this page is often debated. My preference is right after the introduction. If the book doesn’t have an introduction, then it should follow the title page.

Why put it there? Legal reasons of course. If the legal notices are placed somewhere other than in the front than it could lead to legal action by others over not being informed in a proper manner about the legal obligations necessary provided in the book.

So, what goes into the legal pages? I start with the obligatory disclaimer about being a work of fiction:

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

This disclaimer has taken many forms over the years. This one has been updated for the digital era we find ourselves in. I am sure it will change again.

This one is for fiction. Non-fiction works disclaimer goes like this:

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Then I place the name of the book and the fact the book is being published with the arrangement of the author. It is especially important to let the world know you published the work with the authors permission.

I usually place the copyright notice next:

Copyright © 2021 as a collective work by Robert Ross Whalen. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

I like this notification of copyright. It covers legal items not covered in the beginning disclaimer. I place a copyright notification on the title page as well. Copyrights are important. Don’t overlook these. Learn how to get them and keep them. Copyrights are the only way to protect your work. Period.

I like to add a disclaimer on this page if the material needs one. Here is an example:

This E-book features mature content and is not meant for anyone under the legal age to read such content. Nor is it meant for anyone who finds adult material offensive.

I will add more to this if I feel it is necessary. I had to do so in Ronnie’s Revenge since it dealt with rape. Such disclaimers keep you out of trouble. Use them as necessary.

The next thing I add to the legal notification page is about fonts. Most people don’t think about the fonts they use to write in. Especially among eBooks since eReaders provide their own. However, fonts are intellectual property. The fonts in Microsoft word have been licensed to Microsoft and belong to them. You need permission to use them in a commercial work such as an eBook. Which is why we use a font known as Day Roman and this is the notice, we post in the legals section:

Your E-Reader or App will use fonts they have installed. This book was written in a font known as Day Roman. A rework of a font created and used by Francois Guyot in the mid to late 1500’s and after by others. The creator of Day Roman allows the font to be used for commercial basis free and clear. All he asked for is if the project makes money then some be donated to the charity of the author’s choice. In compliance with their wishes, we at The Pyrateheart Press will donate a percentage of the proceeds to each of the author’s favorite causes.

Be sure you have permission to use the font you publish your work in. Then add this permission to the legal notifications.

Next, we cover the artwork we use up to and including the page breaks we use. Any artwork created by someone therefore it is owned by them. Each piece of artwork, even the free ones, have requirements for use. Post these inside the legals section and give the creators and the people who supplied it their due here as well. Here is an example:

Cover Art provided by and created on Canva.com. We thank those at Canva.com for the use of the artwork. We made the entire cover on Canva.com and recommend others to use their services. We have in no way been paid for this endorsement. We simply like their services.

Canva.com License Agreement can be found here: One Design Use License Agreement (canva.com)

The page break was supplied by: https://publicdomainvectors.org/en/free-clipart/Decorative-Border-Divider/61047.html

The license for use of this page break can be found at: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

I cannot emphasize it enough that you give credit and get permission for any artwork you use.

The next piece I want to tackle is ISBN numbers. An ISBN does not confer any rights. It is an identifier for wholesale distributors. Most publishers of print books require one and several of the eBook publishers also require them. Amazon creates something similar that is unique to them. We don’t use them unless the author asks for one or they plan to place their book into print.

There is one thing to be aware of. If you are self-publishing and you let the place you publish assign an ISBN it will become listed as published by them. Get your own ISBN and ensure our name is listed as publisher. Some will claim rights as the publisher listed and take your royalties.

There are several other items you can place in this page. The address of the publisher, the names of the contributors, etc. This I leave up to you. Don’t forget your legals. They will protect you.

I’m Ross, the Editor-in-Chief at The Pyrateheart Press and I’m out.

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