Clearing permissions

Wait for your publisher to tell you; let the publisher know there's a rights issue, and try to come up with a work around just in case. See this thread; look for posts from Jaws.

I love Counting Crows. Adam Duritz (sp?) is a very good lyracist.

In my debut novel, I name-checked them playing on the radio in the background whilst my protag was mulling something over

You have to find out who owns the rights to the lyrics (probably Adam Duritz?) and send your letter of permission. Your publisher can give you a sample permission letter to use. I'd do it now, because it can take a long time.

A writer friend of mine had to pay the copyright owner a large chunk of money for the use of his lyrics in one of her books.

Turned out no one bothered to read that page; people flipped past it to get to the story. A very few glanced at it, then moved on without reading.

At the time she thought the quote was extremely important, that her book wouldn't make sense without it.

Since then she's found a dozen similar things that would have worked just as well that are in Public Domain, where no one has to pay for their use.

One non-cost alternative is to mention the song in question then readers can download to their iPods if they really want it.

As for ol' snarky editors like me--well, I've never heard of this group, so the ommission of this information is not likely to be noticed.

Otherwise you have to contact the copyright owner via formal business letter, explain what you want to do, and ask if it is possible. This can be a long process, and you may never hear from the person if he's really busy (or on tour or something). If he's really cool he might just outright grant you permission for nothing, but money is usually the bottom line.

Whatever price he quotes you for the use of his words, balance that expenditure against whatever advance you might get for your story collection.

If your advance is 1200.00 and he wants that much or more for his words, I'd suggest make up your own instead, it just ain't worth it!

I tried to use the theme from the Bradey Bunch in my first novel, the publisher's lawyers didn't want to deal with it. I rewrote the theme to a SF version of the Brady Bunch.

My cousin is doing a movie on the Grateful Dead, it has taken him years to get the permissions locked up.

My advice, skip the lyrics.

Lyrics

Using copyrighted lyrics just isn;t worth the time and the trouble unless you have the status of a Stephen King. I know editors who don't want copyright lyrics in a book, even if the writer does have permission.

I wanted to use lyrics to a song in my WIP, but decided to change the words, and it made the scene to the story that much better!

This topic comes up often enough that it should be in an FAQ. Oh, Benificent Moderator?

Bottom line (at this writing):

Yes, you must have permission for more than fair use. However, that's a complicated process. I've recommended before, and continue to recommend, that authors who want to understand the general scope of the permissions process consult Richard Stim's excellent book Getting Permission, which is due for revision soon and should be available through your public library.

However, for anything less than wholesale/whole work copying, rely on the publisher. That's not to say don't worry about it or plan for it — it's only to say that each publisher will demand that you follow its particular procedures, such as requesting exactly a certain set of rights. And sometimes the publisher blows it, as when the publisher says "North American English-language is good enough" when it knows full well that the book will be translated to Korean and published there...

Some quotations and reuses are fair use and do not, technically, require permission. At this writing, that includes uses of couplets that do not include either a proper name or the name of the lyric/poem in question, for lyrics/poems more than four lines long. No matter what the vampires at the Harry Fox Agency assert. Most publishers have internal guidelines that allow 250-300 words total to be quoted from a prose work of over 1000 words and count as fair use... but that's only an internal guideline, and IMNSHO skates awfully close to the adverse finding in Nation Enterprises (a 600-word quotation from the late President Ford's memoirs — a 100,000-word-plus book — was held to not be fair use, because it "took the essence" of the book). For images, assume that it will require permission; only professional stuntwriters should assert fair use with images, on a controlled word processor with no public presence. And if you're doing multimedia work, you desperately need a professional's assistance with the whole subject.

Even when it's fair use, consider common courtesy in determining what to reuse. Yeah, I know — "Why am I even considering advice on etiquette from a lawyer?" You'd be absolutely shocked how much almost all holders appreciate being asked for permission before the fact. Sometimes that can lead to valuable contacts and updates (such as finding out that a songwriter has withdrawn that particular piece due to an adverse libel verdict!).

I've never heard of them either.

Lyrics

I think the best rule to follow, particularly with poems and songs, is to avoid using them at all unoless the book simply doesnt work without them. Publishers do have internal guidelines, but for lyrics and songs, those guidelines often just say NO for new writers.

I don't trust fair use, even for long prose works, when something is used in fiction. Other than parody, not one word in fair use law mentions anything about using someone else's copyrighted material in your own fiction.

But for songs and poems, it's really taking a chance, and many editors do reject work out of hand that needs permission, especially if the publisher is expected to pay for it.

willietheshakes said:

There seems to be some confusion -- I'm not using these IN the fiction, but as an epigraph.

It's not essential, but it would be appropriate, and I thought I'd pursue it a bit...

Click to expand...

The same rules still apply. You have to go through a lot of pain for just a little gain. I'd bag em.