Welcome to the group, Lila. We all look forward to answering your questions.

Via email, you asked me:

I want to find out the relation between ISBN and copyright.

ISBN is the number that identifies you as the publisher and your title to the book trade. ISBNs are available from http://www.myidentifiers.com. I recommend buying a block of 10 ISBNs because they never expire and you can use them for future books, future editions of your first book, and your eBooks. It is possible to buy one ISBN, but the moment you need the second one, you'll pay more than you would have paid for 10. It's best to use your own ISBN when publishing a book, and not be tempted to use free ISBNs offered by anyone else. Whoever owns the ISBN is the publisher of record for the title.

Copyright is your legal protection for the content of the book. Copyright is automatically yours by virtue of the fact that you wrote the book. You may also officially register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office here http://www.copyright.gov. Before the internet, it was relatively easy to discover if someone stole your words and used them for profit, but that's not the case any longer. An official copyright registration establishes you as the author and a date that you created the work in the event of a legal dispute.

Please let me know if you have further questions.

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Michele DeFilippo • 1106 Design, LLC
Author of: Publish Like the Pros: A Brief Guide to Quality Self-Publishing (Available at Amazon http://tinyurl.com/6q8vnez)
610 E. Bell Rd., #2-139
Phoenix, AZ 85022
Phone: (602) 866-3226
Fax: (602) 866-8166
Web: http://www.1106design.com