I was wondering if anyone knew an easy way to find who holds the copyrights of a deceased author, who died about a decade ago. I found WATCH, but it wasn't any help; although there are some suggestions there that I haven't followed up on yet. If I can't find anything, then I will inquire with whoever published the last of his books.
finding a copyright owner
- Thread starter King Neptune
- Start date
You can try a search at the US Copyright Office, which often shows transfer of copyright after an author's death. It doesn't always, though--I spot-checked a handful titles from authors who died in the past few years, and some had the transfer info and others didn't.
Columbia University Library has a page with more suggestions here.
Columbia University Library has a page with more suggestions here.
You can approach the author's literary agent, who will probably know.
Is there a particular reason you need to know this? If you're going to quote from one of the author's books, you would probably be ok approaching the book's publisher.
Is there a particular reason you need to know this? If you're going to quote from one of the author's books, you would probably be ok approaching the book's publisher.
First, check with the publisher of the work in question. They often have an email address listed on their Web site.
Second, look for the author's agent, and contact the agent.
While you wait for a response, find the obituary. Look for the names of next-of-kin, spouse first, then offspring, then children. Looking for a means to contact them is your last resort.
I thank you for the two links. I had already looked at the Columbia site, and I also found the listing by a search on google that returned a catalog of copyrights.
I was hoping there was some simple method, but I searched the records and found the original record from 1974, but I didn't find any record of a transfer or a record of a change when the author died. There was a long list of his last name but not for what i wanted.
And how might one figure out who the agent of an author who died more than a decade ago was?
Contacting the publisher is my next step.
Yes, the publisher is the next step.
And how might one figure out who the agent was? I can track down the agent of an author who is publishing now, but it wouldn't work for an author who died more than a decade ago.
I'll leave that until after I try the publisher, and the publisher might have contact information.
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I start with spouse/partner, and children. From my experience, they always know, and most often, in fact, now hold the copyright.
If the deceased author wrote any SF/F, this page might be helpful:
http://www.sfwa.org/member-links/projects/estate/estates-contact-information/
http://www.sfwa.org/member-links/projects/estate/estates-contact-information/
I expect that they are the owners, but I have to find out who they are and go from there. I think that the publisher is the one who is most likely to have some kind of contact information for someone relevant.
To find out who the author's agent was, try Google.
If that doesn't help look in a few of his or her books: often a writer will thank her agent in the acknowledgements.
If that doesn't help look in a few of his or her books: often a writer will thank her agent in the acknowledgements.
Thanks, I'll look at acknowledgements. There was nothing on an agent on any of the search results, but I may look again and see what I missed.
It looks like I'll just contact the publisher. His agent also died, and there is not available archive of obits from the newspapers where he died.
He had his own agency, and that appears to have died with him. Some other agency might have acquired it, but I haven't seen any evidence of that.