Legal issues when self-publishing a book (e.g. on Amazon KDP)

legal issues self published author amazon kdp

My dear readers,

That is right – I am working on a book! I want to have it ready by the end of the month and hopefully, it will the start of the list Books. At this point, I have no idea when I will actually publish it because I am stuck with some legal issues. I had my Italian lawyer going through the first draft and at the end of it, I was more confused with what he told me than before.

Tips

There is no way to escape legal liability. When writting a book, you can, however, reduce the changes of conflict. So I wanted to summarize the tips I read so far on the Internet, concerning the legal aspects of publishing a book on Amazon (KDP) or self-publishing a book in general. Here they are (and I quote):

Do not quote people without explicit, written permission.
Do not use copyrighted material (images being the most obvious for a book) without explicit, written permission.
Get every permission from rights-holder (sometimes they may not be the person who created the content).
If you want to play extra-safe, never mention any real person, organization or event. Should you mention someone, don’t say anything bad about them. If you do say something about them, make sure you have written permission for.
Never, under any circumstances, claim the words of somebody else as your own. This is called plagiarism and puts you in big trouble.

Disclaimers

Put a disclaimer on the front of the book, making it clear that you cannot be held responsible for the actions that someone takes based on what you write.
A second disclaimer that makes it clear that you have not used anything based on any real person or event, other than yourself.

Most internet forums still advise having an attorney (preferably with a Copyright specialization) reading your book. I agree. A valuable website for self-published authors is The book designer (have a look at the top 5 forums for self-publishers post if you want to find forums). If you want a good book on this, have a look at Self-Publisher’s Legal Handbook (Affiliate link).