How Writers Can Protect Their Legacy: Essential Steps to Secure Your Creative Work

From Edie: Learn how writers can protect their legacy by securing intellectual property, organizing digital assets, and preparing trusted access for the future. Discover essential steps to safeguard your creative work and ensure your words remain available long after you're gone.

How Writers Can Protect Their Legacy: Essential Steps to Secure Your Creative Work

by Robin Luftig @RobinLuftig

Watch an author’s eyes light up when you ask them about their work. They’ll talk about what’s published and what’s still growing on the laptop. They’ll tell you horror stories of rejection and tears of joy that were shared when a project was accepted. Sharing all aspects of their craft brings authors great joy. It’s often obvious… writing is not just what they do, it’s who they are. 

While authors spend time on writing, editing, marketing, and teaching, they seldom spend time on caring for the longevity of their work. Remember, your copyright lasts for years, even after you’re gone. What are you doing to make sure it’s available for publishers, movie producers, or historians? 

Be Prepared

Writers need to protect their writer’s legacy, because each line—published or not—needs to be safeguarded.

A writer’s property often categorized in three groups:

• 1. Intellectual Property (IP)
• 2. Physical Property (PP)
• 3. Digital Property (DP)

All of our IP—even our Works in Progress (WIP)—needs to be protected. If you could ask authors Steig Larsson(Millennium series) or Michael Crichton (Westworld, The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park), I’m sure they both would have solid opinions on the subject. Both died without clear instructions on who held the key to their IP. And after their deaths, both left fortunes that strangers benefitted from. 

It’s important to set your affairs in order, but the process may seem daunting. Where do we start?

Have to Give Protected Access

An easy first-step is to know how to access properly. In this day of sharing information electronically, an author needs to be forward-looking and know how to pass on security keys of prioritized information. There will be time to organize your work with lawyers for the waiting wills or trusts later. But taking care of this one item will simplify the process to access essential digital assets. 

Start with a Legacy Contact

The easiest first step is to set up a Legacy Contact in your phone* so a trusted person can open the door to your iCloud. This step gives this trusted person… your legacy contact … access to a wealth of personal information that is part of your digital legacy. Not only does your iCloud contains contacts, emails, and documents, but may also provide essential information required to ensure that your digital life is managed in the manner you want it managed.

The Legacy Contact feature is a thoughtful inclusion by Apple, recognizing the significance of digital assets in our lives and providing a secure and respectful way to manage them, aligning with your wishes and providing the opportunity to give you peace of mind that your digital legacy will be preserved for those you care about. If you pass away without taking care of this one item, getting into your different types of electronic properties may take certified copies of your death certificate and weeks of time.

Here are simple structured steps to add a legacy contact to your Apple, and in turn, your iCloud account:

Writing what God placed on your heart is a true act of trust and obedience. Honoring your legacy with caring for the words God gives you is important as well. By creating a Legacy Contact, you’re on your way to protect your work for years to come. 

* These are the directions for an iPhone. For instructions using Android phones, google Legacy Contact on Android. 

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How Writers Can Protect Their Legacy: Essential Steps to Secure Your Creative Work from @RobinLuftig on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Be grateful in everything—even the bumpy rides is Robin Luftig's mantra while either writing or speaking to audiences on the art of writing. Her first book, God's Best During Your Worst brought her the 2020 Golden Scroll for Nonfiction and the 2021 Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference Director's Choice award. Her first novel, Ladies of the Fire, was nominated for the 2021 Selah Award in the First Novel category. Her second novel, Ladies Uncover a Secret,released in 2022, and third of the trilogy, Ladies on a Mission, releases in the Spring of 2026. Luftig’s a leader and mentor for Word Weavers International. She’s a wife, mother, and grandmother who is hooked on chocolate and always looking for a replacement for her beloved Netflix series, “Sweet Magnolias”