When is it really copyrighted?

There is a common misunderstanding among some writers that to protect their work, they must 'copyright' their book with the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. What many fail to realize is that since the 1970s, your work is copyrighted the moment it is set down.... in any form. What the Library of Congress does is to register the copyright that you already own. It's not a bad idea, but as long as you can show you were the first to have the work, there is unlikely ever to be a problem. So do it. Register. But don't be paranoid about it. You would be the luckiest writer in the world if you wrote something that was so profound that someone would be willing to risk their fortune and reputation to steal it from you and pass it off as his own!