Copyright Date Issue

[Elle]

My book The Girl Who Swam to Atlantis was made available to the public on March 14, 2012. But the year that I indicated on my Amazon paperback and Kindle book's copyright pages is 2011: my misconception stemmed from the Copyright having been awarded to me in December of 2011. This incorrect date, of course, has implications (for example, contests). My question: Is a book's date of publication indicated anywhere other than the Copyright page? Or is it available from some official source that I could refer someone to if need be?

[vicki_girl]

On the book itself, no. However, I believe a work can be copyrighted even if it isn't published yet. IIRC, copyright is granted upon creation of the work. Many books published in January or December have the copyright date stated as the previous or following year.

If you the author can confirm that it was not published before March 14, 2012, then we can change the date. If the author is not on the site, we would usually use data from the publisher's website, if still available. Another resource is Worldcat.org. However, Worldcat would likely have the copyright date as printed in the book.

It looks like this one has been changed already.