general publishing question (quick)

[mbillie1]

I dunno where to post this.

When bringing something to a publisher looking to get it published (book, fiction if it matters), is it necessary to copywrite what you've written beforehand, like will the publisher (or could they) attempt to just steal what you wrote and take total credit for it? Is this a non-issue in the real world? If it needs to be copywritten or protected in some way, how does one go about doing this?

If necessary just move this to wherever it has to go. Since 2+2 publishes books I figured somebody would know. Thanks.