Question:
What about copyright?

Answer:
You have an automatic right to protect the text of the material you write. Ownership is claimed simply by the symbol © followed by your name and date. If however you use other peoples material in your book, manual, conference or training material you must obtain permission. This applies to illustrations, charts, maps diagrams other artwork and extensive quotation from other sources. It is advisable to start asking for permission as early as possible, the best place to begin is with the original publisher.

Further information on copyright can be found in “Writers and Artists Yearbook” or contacting the “Society of Authors”

http://www.acblack.com/Department/default.asp?dept_id=8
www.societyofauthors.net
www.bl.uk/services/information/copyrightfaq.html

If you are self publishing please see our section in services where you can request our fact sheet with useful information on the anatomy of a book, copyright deposit, ISBN numbers, public lending cataloguing and libel.