I have designed a few crochet patterns and would like to post them to a site, but need to copyright them before the site will accept. How do I get a copyright on a crochet pattern? How much will it cost? Also, where would I get a book of patterns published?
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Unlike a patent you don’t need to pay for a copyright you simply indicate that it is copyrighted in your name. This is legal for you to do as long as it is your original work, not a variant of someone else’s pattern.
As for publishing, well, you can self-publish, using one of the companies that also does charity cookbooks, or you can approach Martindale Books or Interweave Press which do publish books of this type. It can be more difficult and costly than you might think. Crochet is taking off again, but pattern publishing is not fast moving or exceptionally profitable market.
A simple way would be to mail the originals to yourself. By doing so, the post office places the date stamp on the envelope. As long as you file these somewhere and don’t open the envelopes, the date stamp provides proof of date in case anyone tries to say they came up with the design first.
Be sure to mark on the envelope just exactly what design is inside.
Anything you have written yourself is copyrighted as long as you wrote it yourself. All you need to do is indicate that you hold the copyright. If you want it legally copyrighted it is cheapest to wait until you have a goodsized collection and mail them off to the copyright office along with the proper forms and payment. You can google for that info. Just make sure the site ends in .gov
As for getting the books published, you can contact publishers that do crochet patterns, you can submit to magazines, or you can print and bind them yourself (not hard to do) and sell them on a website or ebay.
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