Look into opening a business banking account. Make an appointment with your bank to discuss your situation. They'll be able to make suggestions on best package for your needs.

Consult with professionals. Depending on your situation, you may need to use services of lawyers, accountants or bookkeepers, insurance agents or brokers, and others.

This isn't an exhaustive list, but it's a good start. Many cities also have organizations dedicated to helping small businesses -- check your Yellow Pages or local Chamber of Commerce to see if there's one in your area.

Excerpted with permission from Online Business Basics, a beginner's guide to marketing a business on a shoestring budget. http://onlinebusinessbasics.com/

[END QUOTE]

Q. 2 - Do I have to get an "ISBN" number for my ebooks, and if so - how do I go about doing that?

No, you don't need to have an ISBN. You'll find additional information here... http://www.00ebooks.com/ISBN-copyright.htm http://publishing.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa062797.htm

Q. 3 - Are there rules and regulations to ebook publishing or writing - and if so how can I find out what they are?

I'm not familiar with any rules or regulations associated with ebook publishing specifically. Basically, you need to stay within limits of responsible legal and business behavior in general. Be truthful in your advertising, use disclaimers, and so on. You'll find details of various regulations in this free ebook: http://www.bizzydays.com/downloads/WebLawLinks.exe I hope this goes some way towards answering your questions.

However, it stamps work as being yours. It makes it clear to those who might be tempted to copy it, that they don't have that right.

Example of a copyright statement...

Copyright © 2003 Your Name (or company name). All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this e-book may be copied or sold.

Note: Some people use (c) (the letter 'c' in brackets) instead of official copyright symbol © (the letter 'c' surrounded by a circle). In many countries law does not recognize this as a copyright symbol and it's not a given that a court will accept it as valid. You should ALWAYS write word 'Copyright' in FULL as part of your copyright statement and you should use official copyright symbol.

You should also include a copyright page in your e-book. Take a look at copyright information in any e-book (or paper book) for ideas on what you should include on this page.

Another idea that may be useful - in a legal sense - is to print out a copy of your e-book on paper and save a copy on to a diskette (or CD-ROM).

Place both paper version and diskette in an envelope and mail it to yourself via REGISTERED mail. Hold on to receipt for mail and when package arrives to your home, put it away in a SAFE place (together with receipt) WITHOUT opening it.

This is proof that you had document in your possession at date of mailing. If you do this before your e-book goes 'live' then you're sure that nobody can have copied your work before this date.

Here are a few websites where you can learn more about copyright issues...

-The Publishing Law Center: http://www.publaw.com -The Copyright Website: http://www.benedict.com

Okay, I hope that this has helped you understand question of copyright a little better. In next articlee, I'll continue on question of ebook protection by looking at practical measures you can put in place to prevent people from stealing your ebook from your website.