How to timestamp a manuscript
Writers hand manuscripts to agents, editors, beta readers and contest judges — usually before any contract exists. Dated proof of what you had, and when, costs almost nothing and is worth having before the manuscript leaves your desk.
What you already have, and what you don't
Copyright in your manuscript is automatic. The moment you write it down it is protected, with no registration required. That part is settled and free.
What you do not automatically have is proof of when. If a dispute arises, the question is not whether the work is protected but whose version came first — and a file modification date on your own laptop proves nothing, since you control the clock.
The old advice, and why it fails
Mailing yourself a sealed copy — "poor man's copyright" — does not work. A postmark proves an envelope travelled through the mail, not what was inside it. Envelopes can be posted unsealed and filled later. Courts have consistently given it no weight, and the US Copyright Office says plainly that there is no provision for it. We wrote about this in detail in poor man's copyright.
What works instead
Publish a fingerprint of the manuscript file somewhere nobody can alter after the fact:
- Hash the file. SHA-256, computed in your browser — the manuscript is never uploaded, which matters when it is unpublished.
- Record the hash on Ethereum. Permanent, public, and revealing nothing about the text.
- Keep the certificate with the file, archived untouched.
The published hash discloses nothing — not the title, the genre, the length, or a single word.
Timestamp drafts, not just the final
This is the part that actually decides disputes, so it is worth doing properly.
A single timestamp on a finished manuscript is thin evidence. A sequence of dated drafts — the outline, the messy first draft, the restructured second, the polished submission — is evidence nobody else can produce. A person who copied your finished book has the finished book. They cannot manufacture the eighteen months of visible evolution that preceded it.
So: timestamp the outline, timestamp at the end of each significant revision, and keep every certificate. It costs little and the trail compounds.
Before you send it anywhere
Timestamp before the manuscript leaves your control:
- Before querying agents.
- Before submitting to a contest or an open call.
- Before sharing with beta readers or a writing group.
- Before posting excerpts publicly.
And keep the record of what you sent: hash the exact file you attached, on the day you attached it.
Registration as well
For a manuscript you intend to publish, register the copyright too. In the US, registration is required before you can sue, and timely registration unlocks statutory damages — without it, recovery is limited to actual damages, which are hard to prove for an unpublished book.
The sensible division: timestamp continuously because it is cheap and you cannot know in advance which draft matters, and register the finished work because that is what gives you legal standing.
What the record proves
That this exact file existed by that date and has not changed since. Not that you wrote it — see proof of existence vs proof of authorship.
Combined with your drafts, your notes and your research files, though, the gap closes almost entirely. Authorship is proven by an accumulation of consistent evidence, and a dated trail of your own working process is the most consistent evidence there is.
Practical routine
- Timestamp the outline the week you start.
- Timestamp at the end of each draft.
- Keep archived copies byte-identical; edit duplicates.
- Timestamp the exact file before every submission.
- Register the finished manuscript before publication.