Do publishers care if submitted work has already been copyrighted?
I'm getting ready to start submitting a book I've written. I copyrighted an earlier draft of it a few years ago (as in submitted it for official registered copyright). The final draft has not changed much from that draft. I know from submitting poetry to publishers that publishers don't usually want work that's been displayed or published elsewhere. Do publishers care if something has already been registered for copyright if it hasn't yet been published or displayed?
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If you live in a country that is a signatory to the Berne Convention (most countries are), then your work is copyrighted as soon as you create it, regardless of whether you go through any registration process. To a publisher, your work is already copyrighted, and if they want the copyright and not just publication rights, they'll have to ask for that in the contract.
If, however, you have assigned or relinquished copyright to anybody else -- for example, if you wrote something in the course of employment that belongs to your employer -- then the publisher will very much care, because it restricts their right to publish.
In general, you can negotiate with publishers over work that you fully own the rights to.
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