Can you be sued for writing memoirs

southernwriter

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Y'all forgive me for not using the quote feature here, but there was so much to quote, I found it much quicker to simply copy and paste to Notepad.

Anthony said:

And it's not unusual that memoir serves dubious purposes: self-aggrandisement with minimal creative effort; inflating the author's sense of self worth (which too often turns into a "pig/lipstick" situation); highly personalised therapy; lashing out & venting.

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To which Sakamonda seems to take offense. Sakamonda, it may be true that your memoir is innocent of all these things. I haven't read a single word of it, so I am unqualified to judge. You may have the very best of intentions, but I urge you to take a look at some of the phrases you've used in your reply:

I will likely lose friends and alienate family / that is something I'm willing to live with

frankly not worried about these threats

None of my family members have the gumption, stamina, or financial ability to follow through on those threats

As far as some of the more tangential people in the book, I am frankly not worried about them, either.

I've decided that losing a few friends and alienating a few family members a worthy price to pay

it's not even that much of a loss.

I will not allow them to dictate to me

I won't change

That would go against my journalistic integrity.

I don't personally care much

I really have no motivation whatsoever to consider their feelings

the actions I describe show that they never, ever considered my feelings

I will have to expose some very ugly things.

I am not afraid to anger people or alienate loved ones to tell the truth.

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It may be true that you're not lashing out, but examine the words you've used in your reply. That's the way it sounds. (I can't help but wonder if you're Sagittarius. They have a thing about "the truth.") I understand where you're coming from because I come from an abusive, dysfunctional, mentally ill family, too. I know it hurts, and I know it leaves scars that nothing will ever erase. The unique situation these days is to come from a family that isn't one of those things. If you read Miss Snark's and / or Agent X's blogs, you will find that agents see a million queries for these kinds of memoirs. I urge you to go and find those posts.

You also said this:

the publishers who are looking at my memoir is the fact that despite the fact they find the story compelling and my writing of high quality, they reject the book because I am not already a celebrity with a large built-in media platform.

How fortunate you are to get that kind of feedback from publishers! It's quite a lot compared to the rejections most of us get. Did the publishers actually say they were rejecting the manuscript because you're not a celebrity or have a platform? Or are you assuming it?

******************************************************

Susan B said:

My reaction, I knew, was irrational--especially as someone who actually has written a memoir :) And I'd never tell my brother not to publish this. (My mother, on the other hand, told me she'd insist he not use my father's real name. So maybe she'd want my brother to use a pseudonym?)

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Hi, Susan.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if your father is deceased, your brother may write anything he wants about him. When a person is deceased, their right to privacy goes with them.

You also mentioned the difficulty in getting permission to use song lyrics in your manuscript. I think you and I had this conversation via private e-mail at one time. I have used them extensively in my ms, although in editing, many have been cut. You can use one or two lines. Audrey Niffenegger used them in The Time Traveler's Wife, Connie May Fowler used them in The Problem with Murmur Lee, and Lee Smith used them in The Last Girls. Many authors use a couple lines with no acknowledgement to the authors / composers. It's called "fair use." However, if you want to use more than a couple lines, this info should be helpful to you:

It’s not that difficult to get permission to use lyrics in your novel, and it’s not that expensive, either. I spent more than nine months getting permission before I needed to, but I didn’t know that at the time, so I learned from it. You can save yourself nine months and learn from me.

Unless you’re trying to quote lyrics from the Beatles, Eagles, or Fleetwood Mac, don’t bother trying to get permission first, just go ahead and write.

Then do this:

Go to the ascap website at http://www.ascap.com/index.html


Click on the Ace Title Search button, and when the page changes, click on Click Here to Search the Database >>>

It will take you to the search page, where you can search by title, writer, performer, publisher / administrator, or T-Code. When you find the song you’re looking for, keep a record of the information for future reference. Be sure to write down the T-Code. It will save everyone tons of work later on. You’re going to find that songs are often written by more than one person, and you have to get permission from ALL of them. On top of that, you’ll often find that each of them used a different publisher, so you could be writing four or five separate letters for each song you want to use. Don’t panic. Read this entire bit of information and you’ll learn the shortcut.

What I did was write to the publishers or administrators and ask for permission to use the lyrics. When you do this, they want to see the page preceding the lyrics, the page where the lyrics appear, and the page after that. It’s just like querying a lit publisher. Don’t send more than they ask for! They’re just as busy as lit publishers and won’t appreciate having to wade through an entire chapter to find the lyrics. Some won’t even bother. Most are very nice, very helpful, and I even made a few rock star friends along the way.

HOWEVER, although you can usually get them to say, “go ahead and write it, come back with the necessary information when you have it,” you will not get official permission until you have a publisher, run date, number of copies to be printed, page number where the lyrics will appear, etc. This information obviously needs to come from your publisher or agent.

The cost is actually minimal in most cases. Depending on how much of the lyrics you want to quote, it’s generally between two and five cents per book printed, although some are a little higher. I found a couple places that charge a thousand dollars flat fee and you may print as many copies of the book as you want. Some have even given me permission at no cost. There is a contract.

If you don’t find the lyrics you are looking for at ascap, try BMI at http://www.bmi.com/

You might find them there.

After I did all this, and waited months and months, and sometimes did not hear back from some of these places, I found out that permission for the majority of the lyrics I am using could be obtained much faster and easier from Universal Music Publishing. http://www.umusicpub.com/ My go-to person there was Melinda Mondrala. Being as ignorant as I was at the time about how all this is done, I must have sorely tested her patience, but patient she was, and soooo helpful.

She’s able to grant permission from all the places who had dicked me around and not replied in all those months – just as soon as the publisher can give her the information about the print run, etc. You’ll make her job easier if you supply the T-Code with your request.

I would start with her! Write and give her the name of the songs and the T-Codes, and ask her which ones she handles. If she doesn't handle them, then go back to ascap or bmi, and write to the publishers yourself.


MELINDA MONDRALA
UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING GROUP
2440 SEPULVEDA BLVD.
SUITE 100
LOS ANGELES , CA, 90064
Tel. (310) 235-4700

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And finally, Penny said:

Southernwriter,
You are the closest to getting the drift of what this is about.


I believe I do know, although I'm sometimes still surprised. My heart goes out to you. Yours is a difficult position to be in, and I can understand why you want so much to tell the story.


You said Paranormal romance, and you do have my attention. I may need to PM you so I can keep legal issue details out of the public here, but in a nutshell, I am sorry about your friend, reallly, and that goes to show what having someone's husband or wife find out something they never knew.


Thank you. Please, do pm me.


As far as mine goes, of course he knows the whole story in living color detail. He too has a great respect for this guy, knows how I came out of it, knows how what I learned changed his own life for the better, and gave him a better understanding of this world as a result of realizing there are other worlds and dimensions than this one. So, yeah, he does know and has been the one insisting it should be published, not to get melodramatic, but for "the betterment of mankind".


That's great. It must be a big relief not to have that hanging over your head.



I know, talk about egocentric about your own book, huh, but really this isn't about a book, it is about an event which I fear I can never share. Trying to do the right thing vs....?


I don't see why you can't share it, if you go about it the right way. I'm thinking, though, that you're adamant about using those real names. Is it really necessary? Truth is truth. If the story is true, changing the names won't make it less true, and won't hurt your chances of publishing.




And no this was no Mary Sue, at all, in fact, completely the opposite. Could I call it fiction? Sure, but if I did, there are better, scarier, more elaborate fictions...sometimes if it really happened, it is profound, scary and people would say "God, I hope I never go through that." But if you say it didn't happen, they will say, " I could have made up something better than that." And it would be true.


I see what you're saying. It's important for people to know it's true. You believe it will open their eyes to the fact that there are more things out there than we could ever dream of. I understand. But changing the names won't alter that, and you can still publish it as memoir. And I'm sure you know, some people refuse to believe something is true, even when it's staring them in the face. It's like those emotional memories memoirs are made of - the truth becomes subjective. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. Those who need to know it's true will see it as such, and those who don't, won't.



As for editing, I am at least going to start doing that and disguising descriptions as I go, also not mentioning any city or state.

I guess the question here is what kind of description you've given your setting. If I had read your ms, I might feel differently, but in most cases, I think we have to clarify for the reader where something takes place.



Trying to cut, yes, because it is 1500 pages double spaced, if you figure 250 words a page, so what is that...without a calculator about 375,000 words.

Yikes. And I thought mine was long. You poor thing. You've got a lot to cut. When is the last time you sat and read the whole thing? Are you seeing it with fresh eyes? When I shared the word count of mine with other writers, I was constantly asked if I could make it two books. In my case, it wasn't possible. How about yours? Also, don't count your words that way. No one does, any more. Use the word count your software provides. Are you using MS Word? You'll find it under "tools." I can't recall where it is in WordPerfect; I haven't used it in so long, and suggest you switch to Word, if that's what you're using, because it's difficult to share those files.


Yes, must be whittled down and maybe I will be a better writer in the end as well. Thanks for jumping in here, and I may be pming you soon, if that is okay with you.

I hope you do. I'm curious to know if your experience was anything like mine. I don't login here often, though. You might reach me faster through e-mail. The addy is in plain site on my blog and my website.
 

Sakamonda

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Dear Southernwriter

Dear Southernwriter:

"You also said this:

the publishers who are looking at my memoir is the fact that despite the fact they find the story compelling and my writing of high quality, they reject the book because I am not already a celebrity with a large built-in media platform.

How fortunate you are to get that kind of feedback from publishers! It's quite a lot compared to the rejections most of us get. Did the publishers actually say they were rejecting the manuscript because you're not a celebrity or have a platform? Or are you assuming it?"

The publishers stated this explicitly. I have been rejected for no other reason than not being a celebrity. In these cases, my writing was praised directly by editors. In these cases, the rejection decision is being made by sales-and-marketing departments, not editors.

As to your other accusations, I choose not to respond. You have not read my memoir, and therefore cannot pass judgement on it, or me. The publishers who are seriously considering it (all top NYC houses) do not agree with your or Anthony's assessments, either. For what it's worth, I am proud of my book, and I am proud of what it reveals, and I am confident that I will have a publishing contract from a major NYC house before the month is out. Indeed, I already have one offer from a smaller house on the table, but I am hoping for a better deal from a major house. I'll deal with the legal issues once I have a publishing contract signed.

And indeed, ALL memoir writers, regardless of topic, generally have some legal ramifications to consider.
 

Susan B

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Thanks, John and southernwriter, for weighing in about the lyrics issue. (And yes, southernwriter, after looking at your very interesting website I realized we had corresponded about this before--thanks again!)

And yes, I do realize that someone who's no longer living does not have a legal right to privacy--whether it's my father or (more relevant to my book) my late musical mentor. His brother has known about my book from the beginning, has read parts of it, so I feel pretty comfortable with that.

I'm not really concerned with legal issues, with respect to the privacy issue. Mostly, I am concerned about how people feel, how I'd be perceived, maintaining good relationships in my music community.

As for my family, they aren't too dysfunctional and would never even threaten to sue. (We operate mostly with subtle diapproval, guilt induction, the typical family stuff :)

The tough thing with memoir really is "platform"--and I know that's been a barrier for me too. Yes, it's harder if you aren't famous; don't have famous friends or associates who people your book; don't have a unique window on some event that's of interest to a large segment of the public; don't have a personal story that's sensational.

It's harder: but not impossible.

So let's all wish the best for all of us! This "life story" forum has become pretty lively of late. I hope we can respectfully disagree without losing what seems like a nice mini-community here.

Susan
 

Sakamonda

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Not necessarily

"And yes, I do realize that someone who's no longer living does not have a legal right to privacy--whether it's my father or (more relevant to my book) my late musical mentor. His brother has known about my book from the beginning, has read parts of it, so I feel pretty comfortable with that."

----Not necessarily! Augusten Burroughs' right-to-privacy case (in which Burroughs is being sued by the heirs of the now-deceased psychiatrist who is featured---under a pseudonym---in RUNNING WITH SCISSORS) hinges upon whether or not a deceased person has a right to privacy. (I say they don't, but apparently that's not clear or this case wouldn't have been brought).

Indeed, there is also some question in that case whether all memoirs are protected from right-to-privacy claims by the First Amendment. (I say they are; we'll see what the court says.
 

southernwriter

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Dear Southernwriter:

The publishers stated this explicitly. I have been rejected for no other reason than not being a celebrity. In these cases, my writing was praised directly by editors. In these cases, the rejection decision is being made by sales-and-marketing departments, not editors.

I was serious. I think it's great. Not that it's been rejected, but that you're getting that kind of feedback. They say when you start getting feedback like that, you're well on your way to publication. I wondered how they put it ... "Sorry, Sakamonda, but you're just not famous enough?"


As to your other accusations, I choose not to respond. You have not read my memoir, and therefore cannot pass judgement on it, or me.

I believe I said that. Yes, I did. -----> See? "I haven't read a single word of it, so I am unqualified to judge." I'm not accusing you of anything, really. Let me tell you this: I remember when "Maggie" told me she wanted me to burn my ms. I was mad as hell. She wanted me to throw away eighteen months of my life, my blood, sweat, and tears. She didn't care what it meant to me, but I was supposed to care what it meant to her, and after she'd given me so much history to add to it, I felt duped. She wasn't willing to compromise at all. I talked to one of the other characters about going forward with it anyway, and I still hear myself saying, "I can, and I will!" I was so mad at the time, I couldn't see straight. And in hindsight, of course, I know my voice reached a certain pitch, and my tone was not sympathetic, to say the least. I was lashing out.

I'm not saying your story isn't great, or well written, or undeserving of publication. I'm just saying be aware of how you're projecting your thoughts, because it sounds like you're doing the same thing, even if you aren't. When agents are so quick to reject ms's, particularly if they feel it's anything like what Anthony described, *I* wouldn't want to give them any more incentive to wonder if my novel was a tirade against the people who have hurt me. I want to sound as subjective about it as possible. You know what I mean? It's behind me. I'm over it. The rain is gone, and I can see clearly now. I can detach from it, and tell the story from the POV of a fly on the wall. Many professionals in the business do read here, and we can say our memoirs are subjective good reads, but if they see us using words like "I'm likely to lose friends and alienate family," and "I won't let them dictate to me," what impression does that give? It's none of my business, really, and I wish I hadn't said anything. I'm sorry.


The publishers who are seriously considering it (all top NYC houses) do not agree with your or Anthony's assessments, either. For what it's worth, I am proud of my book, and I am proud of what it reveals, and I am confident that I will have a publishing contract from a major NYC house before the month is out. Indeed, I already have one offer from a smaller house on the table, but I am hoping for a better deal from a major house. I'll deal with the legal issues once I have a publishing contract signed.


Good luck with it. I hope it all works out for you, and becomes a best seller.


And indeed, ALL memoir writers, regardless of topic, generally have some legal ramifications to consider.

I'm sure they do, which is why I decided to go the fiction route.
 

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"And yes, I do realize that someone who's no longer living does not have a legal right to privacy--whether it's my father or (more relevant to my book) my late musical mentor. His brother has known about my book from the beginning, has read parts of it, so I feel pretty comfortable with that."

----Not necessarily! Augusten Burroughs' right-to-privacy case (in which Burroughs is being sued by the heirs of the now-deceased psychiatrist who is featured---under a pseudonym---in RUNNING WITH SCISSORS) hinges upon whether or not a deceased person has a right to privacy. (I say they don't, but apparently that's not clear or this case wouldn't have been brought).

Indeed, there is also some question in that case whether all memoirs are protected from right-to-privacy claims by the First Amendment. (I say they are; we'll see what the court says.


That's not entirely correct. The privacy issue is with respect to the doctor's family, many of whom were children at the time of the events in RWS. All of them are alive now. There is no claim before the courts with respect to the deceased doctor's privacy.

The privacy claims are really quite complex. There's no clear answer.
 

southernwriter

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Thanks, John and southernwriter, for weighing in about the lyrics issue. (And yes, southernwriter, after looking at your very interesting website I realized we had corresponded about this before--thanks again!)

:hi: I thought it was you. Hi. Did you not take my advice? Well, you're hardly the first. I'm just full of advice, as you can tell.



And yes, I do realize that someone who's no longer living does not have a legal right to privacy--whether it's my father or (more relevant to my book) my late musical mentor. His brother has known about my book from the beginning, has read parts of it, so I feel pretty comfortable with that.

I'm not really concerned with legal issues, with respect to the privacy issue. Mostly, I am concerned about how people feel, how I'd be perceived, maintaining good relationships in my music community.

As for my family, they aren't too dysfunctional and would never even threaten to sue. (We operate mostly with subtle diapproval, guilt induction, the typical family stuff :)


That's great. I'm glad it's less stressful for you. Sounds like you have a decent family.



The tough thing with memoir really is "platform"--and I know that's been a barrier for me too. Yes, it's harder if you aren't famous; don't have famous friends or associates who people your book; don't have a unique window on some event that's of interest to a large segment of the public; don't have a personal story that's sensational.

I'm going to leave this one alone, okay? I know it's hard for any new, unpublished writer to be accepted (and even harder to sell books, if they are), and I'm glad I don't have that extra obstacle to get through.



It's harder: but not impossible.

So let's all wish the best for all of us! This "life story" forum has become pretty lively of late. I hope we can respectfully disagree without losing what seems like a nice mini-community here.

Susan


Absolutely. Here's to all of us. May we all succeed, and may all our dreams of publication come true.
 

johnrobison

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You know, what you call platform may get you in the door, but it's the writing they are going to buy.

The fact that my brother is a famous author was certainly enough to get editors to read my book in a timely fashion, but the bidding frenzy that followed was 100% based upon what they read.

And in that, I am not famous, just reasonably successful. The writing sold itself. I'd hope others could find inspiration in that.

My next books will delve more into the creative process, Aspergian behaviour, and some of the things I learned on the way to becoming successful. So those will be non-fiction, but not really memoir.

In all of them, however, I will continue to be sensitive to the feelings of those portrayed in my work, just as I have advocated here. I think that's a good thing, whatever you write.
 

Susan B

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You know, what you call platform may get you in the door, but it's the writing they are going to buy.

The fact that my brother is a famous author was certainly enough to get editors to read my book in a timely fashion, but the bidding frenzy that followed was 100% based upon what they read.

And in that, I am not famous, just reasonably successful. The writing sold itself. I'd hope others could find inspiration in that.

My next books will delve more into the creative process, Aspergian behaviour, and some of the things I learned on the way to becoming successful. So those will be non-fiction, but not really memoir.

In all of them, however, I will continue to be sensitive to the feelings of those portrayed in my work, just as I have advocated here. I think that's a good thing, whatever you write.

John,

I completely agree--with everything you say. If something isn't well written, it won't get published. And your success is truly inspiring to all of us. I also appreciate your advocating for being sensitive to those who appear in our books. (I'm also very much in that camp.)

About "platform"--I use it in a broad way. Does the writer have potential access to a lot of readers who will be interested in his/her personal story--perhaps because of the subject matter itself, perhaps because of who the writer is (an expert in the field, a well known person, etc.) Any combination of the above can help.

Just a simple outline of your story, for instance, is fascinating and unique in so many ways. Other stories are less so, no matter how personally meaningful to the writer himself. That's all I was trying to say.

Susan
 
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Sakamonda

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I stand corrected

John, I stand corrected re: the deceased psychiatrist issues. I am basing that on media reports/analysis I have read about the case, which may or may not have been accurate.

Re: the platform issue, I've been rejected on that issue and that issue alone; indeed, when that's happened, the editors praised my writing, but explicitly stated they could not get buy-in from the sales/marketing department (the ultimate decisionmaker at many houses these days) because I lacked platform.

Still, at an equal number of houses as those that rejected me for not being famous already, I am being seriously considered based on my writing alone. So there is hope. But it is a lot harder (and my agent has been very frank about this with me) to sell a book in NYC these days if you are not already famous in some way.
 

sommemi

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Thank you Penny!

Penny, I just wanted to thank you for bumping this... and how is YOUR book doing?

I have a memoir-type book that I am working on with my father (HIS memoirs, but also... well, another post). It wasn't until reading your post that I realized there might be many many implications of including all the people in his stories in there by their real names. There are some great stories that are really complimentary about people, and then other stories that are quite... unique... unique enought that they might not want them out in 'public'. But since I wasn't considering publishing this until the last year or two, I didn't realize it would be an issue until now. I'm so glad you bumped this! Unfortunately, I have other questions that aren't answered here that might warrant a new post so that the topic can take it's own 'path' so to speak. But I just wanted to thank you for the bump...

I hope all in this post have had great success with their own stories! Please update and let us all know! I'm a newbie so have very little familiarity with the personalities out here and would love to get to know you all better!
 

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Hi Sommemi,
Thanks for your post! Welcome to the cooler.I'm still trying to cut down the size of the book so I figure everyone will have died of old age by the time I get that finished. However, the privacy issue is something I will have to contend with eventually. I didn't realize I bumped this back to the front...I had been wondering how Sakamonda's book publishing went. I'll check out your new thread soon as I finish this post. I've gone so far as to change names and descriptions of the people and eliminated completely the city and state when it all happened. I'm sure, if a publisher ever was interested, he'd want to know why so I'm just forging ahead changing as much as I can to disguise everyone. Like your book, there things that happened in the seventies and things people did all the time that was "normal" then but frowned upon now, so yeah, there are some issues I'd worry about. I guess I'll burn that bridge when I get there. I'm going to check out your new thread. Thanks for the message.
 

WordLover

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As a general rule, libel consists of writing something false and damaging to another person. Truth is a defense, but there's a cost to proving that defense (i.e., hiring a lawyer), so you need to discuss the risks and the benefits with someone who knows the law in your jurisdiction.
I have been wondering about this as well.
My story includes real first names but some have been changed, along with including events which did not happen. So, I wonder if I could be in trouble if people recognize themselves in the characters.
 

Bufty

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Events that did not happen? How can someone recognise themselves there?

How can that cause offence or be libellous to anyone?

And millions of people have the same first name. If there's any doubt in your mind on that score - change the first names.

If the real life character is Joe Smith, who stammers, works in the china department of the local store, has one leg, blue hair and one green eye and the other glass, and your fictitious character is called Joe Henderson stammers, works in the local store, has one leg, blue hair and eyes of different colours you are probably asking for trouble depending upon how Joe is portrayed.

Is it worth the risk? Does it matter to 99.99% of your readers whether the characters are real or not. Are you a celebrity -are any of them celebrities?

I have been wondering about this as well.
My story includes real first names but some have been changed, along with including events which did not happen. So, I wonder if I could be in trouble if people recognize themselves in the characters.
 
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Penny Graham

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It's not about libel or slander...it's about Invasion of Privacy which is a new thing these last few years...If I'd have published 35 years ago I could have been okay, now if I mention a newstand owner who sold me a paper without his permission....unfortunately that's how it is nowadays. You can change names, locations etc, even add things that didn't happen, but if someone recognizes themselves in events that DID happen, it doesn't matter if you changed hair color, eyes, size, or anything else, they can come after you.
 

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If you want to see an example of the acceptable use of lyrics in a modern memoir, read Rob Sheffield's book:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1400083028/?tag=absolutewritedm-20

That particular book was edited by the same crew at Crown that did my book. The significance of that is simply that I know them to be a very thorough, careful, and professional group. And the uses of lyrics were vetted by Random House's legal team - one of the best in the business.

And to answer an earlier post, the chapter title "Excepting Alice" would be perfectly fine. But in general, you have to be careful with lyrics, limiting yourself to a few words, or else license them. And that gets expensive.

Unless you have inside knowledge that those songs weren't licensed, I would bet that Rob Sheffield's publisher's legal team simply paid for those songs--i.e., that his book is not an example of how much you can use without paying. The simplest thing to do, if you want to use song lyrics, is just go ahead and pay for them. A well-known writer I know who used about 5 lines of a song in one of his novels told me it cost $500. If you use song lyrics sparingly, the licensing cost would just be a blip on the publisher's computer screen, nothing to be concerned about.
 

metamemoir

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This is an old thread, but does anybody have an informed guesstimate on how much the settlement for this case was?

I know the original lawsuit was for $2 million in damages...
 

metamemoir

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Phillipmichael...Which case are you referring to? Was someone actually sued??

Oops, sorry I should have been more clear.

I am referring to Running with Scissors author Augusten Burroughs, who was sued for damages of $2 million by the "Finch" family that his book largely focuses on. His brother "johnrobison" made a few posts within this thread about the case as it was playing out.

The media reported that there was a settlement, but it does not disclose how much money (if any?) was agreed upon.
 

M. Scott

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Not to be too much of a smartass, but you can be sued for writing anything. The question is whether or not you would be found guilty, etc. In these days, many are sue happy ;) Even if you are legally within your rights, I'd try to abstain from writing anything that would make a person/organization want to sue you, just to save the hassle. Of course, it depends on the level of risk you are willing to accept.
 

PinkAmy

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Not to be too much of a smartass, but you can be sued for writing anything. The question is whether or not you would be found guilty, etc. In these days, many are sue happy ;) Even if you are legally within your rights, I'd try to abstain from writing anything that would make a person/organization want to sue you, just to save the hassle. Of course, it depends on the level of risk you are willing to accept.

Right--and if you have the money to pay a lawyer to get it thrown out of court and who takes on the liability to pay the lawyer and if getting sued would get you black listed from future projects etc. etc. etc.