Catwoman, it's not just a matter of ego. In the relatively unlikely event that a song (lyric) does make any substantial amount of money, it's only fair that the author get the $ credit, as well as the accreditation.
(I, for one, wish I had the copyright to "Happy Birthday,"--not because I would want the kudos for writing it, but for the royalties that have to be paid whenever the song is used in a commercial setting.)

The copyright registration is the easy part. Getting a song published by a company that will promote it is more problematic--and I'd love to hear advice from those in the know about that!

With the internet, it's much more feasible than it used to be to self-publish, but I'd like to know a lot more about those details that may contain devils.

Genie