Question about copyrighting

[Nispa]

I'm in the process of finishing my first book and wondered if I needed to secure a copyright on it before submitting to agents.
If not, what keeps your work from being stolen?

[Birol]

Your work is copyrighted from the moment it is written. What you're asking about is registering the copyright. It's completely unnecessary. Legitimate agents don't steal work. If they did, they would not stay in business long. Non-legitimate agents don't steal work either; they make more money by charging would-be writers fees and never submitting the work anywhere than they ever would by stealing a manuscript.

Additionally, registering a copyright can cause all kinds of headaches for any editor or agent who wants to publish your work.

If your work is worth publishing, someone will offer you representation; that's where the money is for agents, legitimate or otherwise, not in any individual manuscript. If your work isn't worth publishing, it's not worth stealing.

Answers about US Copyright laws can be found here.

[Nispa]

Thanks for the quick response. I definitely learned something today.