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Free toolCopyright page generator
Fill in what you know. Out comes the copyright page, in the order printers and readers expect it, with the ISBNs checked and the fiction disclaimer worded properly. Copy it, or take the Word file.
The person or company that owns it, not the pen name.
The page
This runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere, and there is no account to make.
What goes on a copyright page
The order is the order. Title, then who holds the copyright, then what a reader may do with it, then the disclaimers, then the imprint and the ISBNs, then the credits, then the edition line last. Printers, cataloguers and readers all scan for the same things in the same places, and a page that reorders them reads as homemade even when every line on it is right.
The copyright line is a name, a year and the symbol. "Copyright © 2026 Ada Rowe" is all it has to say. The year is the year of first publication. The name is the person or company that owns the work, which is why a pen name does not go on this line.
"All rights reserved" is not what creates the copyright. It survives from the Buenos Aires Convention, which every relevant country has now superseded with Berne, and it persists because readers expect it. The Creative Commons options here replace it with a licence that actually grants something, and each links to its own deed.
The ISBNs are checked as you type. Each one is validated on its check digit, a ten digit number is offered back as its thirteen digit equivalent, and reusing one number across two formats is flagged, because that is the error retailers trip over. The ISBN checker does the same sums on their own, and the barcode generator turns the print one into the symbol for the back cover.
The moral right line is a UK and EU habit. Under the CDPA the right of attribution has to be asserted in writing to be enforceable, and this page is where that assertion goes. It does nothing in the United States, and it does no harm there either.
None of this is legal advice. It is the wording books carry, assembled from what you type. If your situation involves a co-author, an estate, a work for hire or a contract you have signed, the page is not the place to work it out.
Nothing is stored. The page is assembled in this tab, the .docx is written on your machine, and a reload empties the boxes. Where it sits in the front matter is on the front and back matter checklist, and Galley keeps the same fields beside the manuscript in publishing.
For working things out, not for signing anything. Printers and retailers set their own rates and specifications, change them without notice, and none of them is affiliated with me or with Galley. I checked these figures by hand in September 2026 against the Berne Convention text at WIPO and the US Copyright Office's circular on notice . Confirm on the official page before you commit money to a price, a print run or a contract.
Questions
Do I have to register a copyright?
No. In every country signed up to the Berne Convention your copyright exists the moment the work is fixed, and the page inside the book is a notice rather than a registration. Registering separately, which the US Copyright Office offers, buys you easier enforcement, not the right itself.
What year goes on the page?
The year of first publication, and one year, not a range. If you revise the book later and publish a second edition, the new edition carries its own year and the edition line says which one it is.
Do I need the fiction disclaimer?
Every novel carries one and it costs you nothing. It is the line that says your characters are invented, which matters the day somebody recognises themselves in one. It will not stop a real defamation claim. Leaving it out helps nobody either.
Does each format need its own ISBN?
Yes. Paperback, hardcover and ebook are three products and take three ISBNs. Reusing one across formats breaks the retailer feeds that use it as a key, and it is the single commonest error on a self-published copyright page.
Which page of the book is this?
Page four in a standard front matter run: half title, title page, copyright, dedication. It sits on a verso, which is a left-hand page, and it is the one page in the book where small type and a ragged bottom are normal.
Where does my name go if I use a pen name?
The copyright holder is the person, so your legal name goes in the copyright line. The pen name goes on the cover and the title page. If you would rather not print your legal name, hold the copyright in a company or an imprint name instead and put that on the line.
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