Copyright page template for a self-published book, UK and US

A copyright page for a self-published book needs a copyright line with the year and your name, a rights statement, the ISBN for that edition, the edition and publisher details, and, for a novel, a short fiction disclaimer. A paperback sold into the EU may also need the printer's details and an EU responsible person. The template at the bottom of this page has every line, with [square-bracket] placeholders for you to fill in.

None of those lines creates your copyright. In the UK and the US it exists as soon as you write the book, and the page simply records who owns it and which edition the reader is holding. This is not legal advice, so check anything unusual with a solicitor or attorney, or with the Society of Authors or the Authors Guild if you are a member.

What the law says in the UK and the US

GOV.UK says you get copyright protection automatically, without applying or paying a fee, and that there is no register of copyright works in the UK. You can mark your work with the © symbol, your name and the year, but GOV.UK says marking it or not does not affect your protection. For written works, copyright usually lasts 70 years after the author's death. Any website that offers to "register" your copyright in the UK for a fee is selling a dated record of your file, which the law does not require.

In the US, the Copyright Office says registration is generally voluntary, but you have to register before you bring a lawsuit for infringement of a US work. Its Circular 1 adds that registering before an infringement, or within three months after publication, makes statutory damages, attorneys' fees and costs available. As of November 2026 the electronic filing fee is $45 for a single author registering one work that they own, and $65 on the Standard Application.

UK authors should not assume this is only an American problem. Under the definition in section 101 of the US Copyright Act, a book first published simultaneously in the US and in a treaty country with an equal or longer copyright term counts as a US work. A KDP release goes live on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk together, so the registration rule may well apply to your book too.

Circular 1 also says a notice has not been required since 1 March 1989, but a published work that carries one stops an infringer from claiming they did not know it was protected. A US notice has three parts: the © symbol or the word "Copyright", the year of first publication, and the owner's name.

What goes on the page, and why

• The copyright line comes first. Use © [year of first publication] [owner's name]. If you own the rights through a company, use the company's name. A known pen name is acceptable under Circular 1.
• A rights statement comes next. "All rights reserved" followed by a sentence saying no part may be reproduced without permission is a convention that tells readers where to ask. Most authors add an exception for short quotations in reviews.
• UK authors should add a moral rights assertion. The right to be identified as the author is only enforced once it has been asserted, under section 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the copyright page is the usual place to do it.
• A novel usually carries a fiction disclaimer saying the characters and events are invented. It is a convention rather than a requirement, and it will not help you if a real person can recognise themselves.
• Each edition carries its own ISBN. KDP Help says each format needs its own ISBN, that an ISBN is optional for ebooks, and that a free KDP ISBN shows the imprint as "Independently published". Many authors list every format's ISBN with a label in brackets. Our guide to ISBNs for self-published authors covers which to buy.
• The edition line says when and by whom the book was first published, such as "First published in [year] by [publisher]". Add a new line when you publish a second edition. A corrected typo does not make a new edition.
• The page should name the publisher and give a contact address. An email address or a business postal address is enough, and you do not need your home address.
• The printer and an EU responsible person go here when the EU General Product Safety Regulation applies to your paperbacks. Our GPSR guide explains when you need these and when Amazon covers them.
• Credits for the cover designer, cover image, editor or illustrator go on the page too, along with any wording your stock image licence requires.

What to leave off

Leave off review quotes, the price, your ASIN and any claim that the copyright is "registered" unless you hold a US registration. Do not copy lines from a traditionally published book that are not true for yours, such as a catalogue-record statement you have not been given or the name of a printer you do not use. If you have used song lyrics or long quotations under permission, the permission credit goes here. If you have not cleared them, the fix is to get permission or cut them, because a copyright page cannot license someone else's work.

The template

Copy this into the page after your title page and replace every bracketed item. Delete any line that does not apply.

Copyright © [year of first publication] [author name or pen name]

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except for brief quotations in reviews.

[UK authors] The right of [author name] to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

[Fiction only] This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events is coincidental.

First published in [year] by [publisher or imprint name]. [Second edition [year].]

ISBN [978-X-XXXXXX-XX-X] (paperback)

ISBN [978-X-XXXXXX-XX-X] (ebook)

Cover design by [designer]. Cover image [credit as required by licence].

Edited by [editor].

[Publisher or imprint name]

[Contact email or business address]

[Website]

[Paperbacks sold into the EU] Printed by [printer name, postal or email address]. EU responsible person: [name and contact details]. Batch: [print run or date reference].

Check the finished page in the print proof and in the ebook preview, because a year carried over from an earlier draft is an easy error to miss and an awkward one to fix after the paperback has shipped.