Book Law for Authors

This is an excellent summary of the basic legal issues facing authors. There are more detailed references available, but this one hits all the right issues. While it is spot-on with regard to the law (I'm also a lawyer, although not a specialist in copyright and publishing), it does make the occasional odd remark about the business, such as: “While writers often submit their stories or poems directly to magazines and journals, book writers almost always need an agent.” That's true IF you want your book to be published by one of the large trade publishers. There are thousands of smaller presses that accept submissions directly from authors without an agent. In fact, some of the best literary fiction now is coming from smaller presses as the big publishers focus primarily on big commercial books that will make them a lot of money.

Other than that, though, this is a handy guide that I can recommend.

(Note: one of the authors is a former law partner of mine from my days at Sidley Austin)