A copyright page template for your book
Fill in six lines and you have a copyright page. Everything else is optional, and this page shows you which optional parts are worth the space.
You already own the copyright. It exists from the moment you write the book down, and nothing on this page creates it.
What the copyright page does is say so in public. It names who owns the work, when it was first published, and who to ask for permission. A reader who wants to quote you looks here. So does a librarian, a rights buyer, and anyone checking which edition they are holding.
The shortest version that does the job is one line: the copyright symbol, the year, and your name. Everything below that line is there because it answers a question a reader arrives with.
The six lines a copyright page needs
These six carry the whole job. Fill them in and you can stop, print the sheet, and paste the result into your front matter.
Every field is filled in for Frankenstein — Mary Shelley, 1818. Filled in as though Shelley were publishing it herself this year, which is the position most of these pages are written from. She was twenty and unknown, and the first edition went out without her name on it.
Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus
Start here
6 fieldsMary Shelley. Your legal name, or the imprint if you publish under one.
1818. The year this edition went on sale, not the year you finished writing.
Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor and Jones. Your own imprint name if you have registered one, or leave it out.
978-0-00-000000-0. One per format, so the paperback and the ebook do not share a number.
First edition. Say so only once there is a second, otherwise it reads as filler.
[email protected]. An address that will still work in five years, which rules out most personal inboxes.
The lines you add when they apply
None of these are required. Each one is here because it answers a question a specific reader arrives with, and the groups are ordered by how often that reader turns up.
Rights and permissions
3 fieldsThe paragraph most people copy without reading. It tells a reader what they may do without asking.
Rights and permissions
3 fieldsAll rights reserved. Plain, universally understood, and it does not need the paragraph of legalese that usually follows it.
Short quotations in a review or a critical article. Naming this saves you answering the same email every month.
Write to [email protected]. Repeat the address here even though it is above, because this is the paragraph people read.
Disclaimers
2 fieldsOne of these, not all of them. A page carrying three disclaimers reads as though the book is expecting trouble.
Disclaimers
2 fieldsNames, characters and incidents are the product of the author's imagination. Worth having if your setting is a real town.
The author has changed the names of several people who appear in this book. Say what you did, not a generic formula.
Credits
3 fieldsThe people whose work is on the book but not in the text. Leaving them off is the omission they notice.
Credits
3 fieldsBy Anna Reeve. Name the designer even when you commissioned the work outright.
Cover illustration by Theodor von Holst. A separate credit when the art and the layout are separate jobs.
Edited by Percy Shelley. Copy editors and proofreaders go here too if they want the credit.
Edition and printing
3 fieldsHow a reader works out which copy they are holding. It matters more once a second edition exists.
Edition and printing
3 fieldsSecond edition, revised. Only appears once there is something to distinguish it from.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. Traditional printers delete the lowest number at each run, so the smallest digit is the printing.
Printed in the United Kingdom. Some retailers ask for it, and print on demand services often add it for you.
Both files are blank and both are generated from this page, so the fields match what you see above.
Four sample copyright pages you can copy
Take one whole, change the names, and you are done. Each one is complete, so nothing is waiting to be filled in from another section.
Fiction, with an ISBN
Copyright (c) 2026 by Mary Shelley All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author, except for brief quotations in a review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental. ISBN 978-0-00-000000-0 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-00-000001-7 (ebook) Cover design by Anna Reeve First edition, 2026 Published by Lackington Press [email protected]
Fiction, ebook only, no ISBN
Copyright (c) 2026 by Mary Shelley All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author, except for brief quotations in a review. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Cover design by Anna Reeve First edition, 2026 [email protected]
Non-fiction, with a note on names
Copyright (c) 2026 by Mary Shelley All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author, except for brief quotations in a review or a critical article. Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of the people involved. ISBN 978-0-00-000000-0 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-00-000001-7 (ebook) Cover design by Anna Reeve Edited by Percy Shelley First edition, 2026 Published by Lackington Press [email protected]
Second edition
Copyright (c) 2026 by Mary Shelley First edition copyright (c) 2018 by Mary Shelley All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author, except for brief quotations in a review. Second edition, revised and expanded, 2026 ISBN 978-0-00-000002-4 (paperback) Cover design by Anna Reeve Published by Lackington Press [email protected]
Where it goes, and what sits around it
The copyright page in a book is the fourth thing in it, and it faces backwards. Half title, then the title page, then the copyright page on the reverse of the title page, then the dedication. In a printed book that reverse side is a left hand page, which is why the copyright page is the part of your front matter fewest readers look at.
Ebooks break that arrangement. There are no left and right pages, so the copyright page becomes another screen between the cover and the first line. Some writers move it to the back of the ebook for that reason, and retailers allow it. If you leave it at the front, keep it to the six lines and let the reader reach chapter one.
There is a practical reason to think about this. Kindle opens a new book at what it decides is the beginning, and the sample a shopper reads is measured from the front of the file. Every screen of front matter is a screen of your sample spent on something other than the writing. Check the preview after you upload, not before.
Two more pages usually sit near this one. The dedication comes straight after the copyright page and belongs to you, so there is no wrong version of it. Keep it short. A dedication running longer than a paragraph reads as an acknowledgements section that arrived early, and the acknowledgements have their own place at the back.
The author bio is the other one, and it moves. In a printed book it goes at the back, facing the last page or on the inside of the jacket. In an ebook it works harder at the back too, next to a link to your next book. It is close to the paragraph you already wrote for your query letter, so start from that rather than from nothing. What it should not do is open the book. A reader who has not started your novel yet has no reason to care where you live.
None of this applies if you are submitting to agents rather than publishing the book yourself. A submission has no copyright page at all, and what it needs instead is standard manuscript format.
One last thing worth saying plainly. None of this registers your copyright. Registration is a separate process, it costs money, it varies by country, and it matters mainly if you expect to go to court. The page in your book is a notice. Writing it well is worth an hour, and worth no more than that.
What goes wrong on a copyright page
The first group causes real trouble later. The second is the omission people write to you about. The third is the one that makes a book look rushed.
Causes trouble later
- the year you finished writing, not the year you published
- one ISBN shared across the paperback and the ebook
- a personal email address that stops working
- no name at all, only the imprint
- a second edition still carrying the first edition's year
The omissions people notice
- no credit for the cover designer
- no permissions address
- no edition statement once a second edition exists
- an illustrator credited nowhere in the book
Does not belong here
- the price
- a line of marketing copy
- the dedication
- three separate disclaimers
- a paragraph of legalese copied from a publisher
Questions & Answers
- How do you write a copyright page?
- Start with one line: the copyright symbol, the year of first publication, and the name of the copyright holder. Add the reservation line, your ISBN if you have one, and an address for permission requests. That is a complete copyright page. The template on this page fills in the rest if you want it.
- What does a copyright page look like?
- A copyright page in a book is a short block of left aligned text, usually six to twelve lines, sitting alone on an otherwise empty page. There are no headings and no paragraphs of prose. The four examples above are what one looks like in full.
- Do you need a copyright page in a self-published book?
- No, and your copyright exists whether you include one or not. It is worth including anyway. Retailers, libraries and anyone wanting to quote you all look for it, and a book without one reads as unfinished to people in the trade.
- Where does the copyright page go in a book?
- On the reverse of the title page, which makes it the fourth page of the book and a left hand page in print. The dedication follows it. In an ebook there is no reverse side, so it sits between the title page and the dedication, and some writers move it to the back instead.
- What should a copyright page say?
- At minimum, who owns the book and when it was first published. Most also say that rights are reserved, give an ISBN, credit the cover designer, and name an address for permission requests. It should not carry a price, a dedication or any marketing copy.
- What is the copyright page of a book called?
- The edition notice, or the copyright notice. Printers and librarians use those names. Most writers say copyright page and are understood either way.
- What goes on a copyright page?
- Six things carry it: the copyright holder, the year of first publication, the publisher or imprint, the ISBN, the edition, and an address for permission requests. Credits, disclaimers and a printing line are optional additions, each answering a question a particular reader arrives with.
- What is the front matter of a book?
- Everything before chapter one. The half title, the title page, the copyright page, the dedication, and a contents page if the book needs one. An epigraph or a foreword can sit there too. Front matter is where a reader decides whether to keep going, so the shorter it runs the better.
One place for the whole book.
Open a chapter and everything it needs is already beside it: the cast, the places, the rules you invented, the note you left yourself last November. Nothing to hunt for, nothing to keep in sync by hand — and with the friction gone, the days you write start adding up.