This page gives you some information about what copyright is, and what it means for you as an author.

When you write a story, a poem, or an essay, those words, in that exact order, about whatever topic, are yours. That story, poem, or essay is yours. It belongs to you just as your pen or your socks do. Copyright means the right to decide if your work is copied. You, the person who wrote that work, are the copyright holder.

That means that, when you submit your writing to InkSpark (or anywhere), you get to decide what happens with it. Here at InkSpark, your work, if it is accepted, will be published online for anyone in the public to read. You (and your parents or caregiver) give InkSpark permission to publish it online. It does not give readers permission to print it or make their own copies, because it still belongs to you. Anyone who sees your story and really loves it must ask your permission if they want to print it to read later. They must also ask your permission to show it to someone else.

After your story is published with InkSpark, you can decide what you want to do with it next. If you want to send your story to another magazine to be published, you can. Your writing will still be here, on InkSpark, forever. After one year, if you decide you don’t want people to read it at InkSpark anymore, you can ask (with your parents or caregivers) to have it removed. You can do that by emailing us here.

You can learn more about copyright at this website.

What about books?

One day, InkSpark might publish the stories and poems we love best. They could be turned into a book for writers and their families. In that case, InkSpark will contact your parents or caregivers to ask permission. In that case, once a book is published, your writing is out in the world forever. We can’t just delete it anymore. It’s pretty cool to have a book with your writing in it! But the rules of copyright change just a little bit then.

InkSpark will never stop you from sharing that story somewhere else. But it’s important to remember that it is already out there in the world with your name on it. InkSpark has a little bit more control over how your story is shared. InkSpark would also be getting paid a little bit of money for these books. That money would be used to keep the InkSpark website running. It would also help with printing more books in the future. This supports other writers in seeing their stories go out into the world.