First Husband Passed Before Publishing Novel

[Peter May]

Maybe its just enough to have the book in the public domain, but Kevin has noted areas for improvement to get greater sales

It's a good price for a 350 page book, but if you used single spacing which is normal  (instead of double spacing) then you could reduce the page count - and thus the cost of production - considerably, leaving you the option to reduce cover price or increase charity contribution..

[kevinlomas]

Since copyright lasts 70 years after the death of an author then it must be passed on to the estate.

Good point Peter! But have you noticed that as a writer gets close to death for any reason, they start to include their partner's name in the copyright? There has to be some legal reason for that.

[scamdetectives]

That's because copyright will continue to exist in the work for 70 years after the death of the surviving partner, thus extending the period that their estate will continue to receive royalties.

[Ron Miller]

The lady did exactly the right thing.

Everything anyone needs to know about US copyright law can be found here: http://www.copyright.gov/

Copyrights can indeed be inherited, placed in wills, sold, given away, etc. etc....just about anything you can do with a piece of property can be done with a copyright.

[Dennyson]

Thanks again to everyone for their input, advice and suggestions.

It is now single space, other formatting issues are gone (hopefully), title page and copyright page inserted.

My current husband is a graphic designer and artist, so he will be creating the cover for me.

This was all about getting the book out there.  Now, I will spend the time to market it correctly.

Thanks everyone!