Permissions and Persimmons--Bah Humbug!
Christmas season has passed, and so has the December release date for my debut novel! Now that it’s 2023, a whole year of possible release dates stretches forward. Publishing has involved delays and glitches, agonies of editing and revising, but now the ball is in the publisher’s court. As a fellow author astutely commented, “the best moment is definitely when you get the contract offer. All the rest is an uphill battle with knuckleheads.”
One of my biggest hurdles was the obtaining of copyright permissions. I wanted to use a mere two lines of lyrics from each of two 1940s popular songs and a couple of stanzas from a 1919 poem by Robert Graves.
To use the lyrics, two music companies required, among other things, the following: 1) the number of books in the initial print run, and whether my novel would be distributed digitally; 2) a synopsis of the publication and a PDF excerpt of the lyric reprint with surrounding text to show context; 3) a complete list of all songs and writers that would be reprinted in the novel; 4) the title of my book and territories where it would be distributed; 5) my postal address.
And after all of that, I assume there would have been a price tag. I decided to write my own song lyrics! *
As for the poem, it is in public domain in the USA but not worldwide. So I chose not to quote the poem, although it would have been a perfect fit for a critical scene in my novel. Instead, one of my characters paraphrases the poem to another character. I think it works OK.
A bump in the road that could lie ahead: Collecting royalties. My oft-quoted fellow author related that he had to sell about 160 books on Amazon to make the same profit from directly selling 14 books himself.
So, WHEN my novel “Promise Full of Thorns” is released and IF you wish to purchase it, please order directly from me. I will accept pre-orders any time. Thanks. And Happy New Year of reading and writing!
PS: The Writers’Mill 2022 anthology, “Millworks framing life,” is now for sale on Amazon!
*PPS: Song lyrics prior to 1926 are in the public domain.
One of my biggest hurdles was the obtaining of copyright permissions. I wanted to use a mere two lines of lyrics from each of two 1940s popular songs and a couple of stanzas from a 1919 poem by Robert Graves.
To use the lyrics, two music companies required, among other things, the following: 1) the number of books in the initial print run, and whether my novel would be distributed digitally; 2) a synopsis of the publication and a PDF excerpt of the lyric reprint with surrounding text to show context; 3) a complete list of all songs and writers that would be reprinted in the novel; 4) the title of my book and territories where it would be distributed; 5) my postal address.
And after all of that, I assume there would have been a price tag. I decided to write my own song lyrics! *
As for the poem, it is in public domain in the USA but not worldwide. So I chose not to quote the poem, although it would have been a perfect fit for a critical scene in my novel. Instead, one of my characters paraphrases the poem to another character. I think it works OK.
A bump in the road that could lie ahead: Collecting royalties. My oft-quoted fellow author related that he had to sell about 160 books on Amazon to make the same profit from directly selling 14 books himself.
So, WHEN my novel “Promise Full of Thorns” is released and IF you wish to purchase it, please order directly from me. I will accept pre-orders any time. Thanks. And Happy New Year of reading and writing!
PS: The Writers’Mill 2022 anthology, “Millworks framing life,” is now for sale on Amazon!
*PPS: Song lyrics prior to 1926 are in the public domain.
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Liz
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Jan 02, 2023 02:40PM
Ah, the ins and outs of publishing--who knew? I bet you've learned a lot. I'm glad you kept at it and your book will be published. We'd love to pre-order a copy. I will email you. Congrats!
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Thanks for reading and commenting, Liz. And thanks for your pre-order. I have replied to your email.
Copyright permissions are something I ignore. I don't quote anything that would require permissions. This was the advice of a well-known writer friend. I have obscurely referenced published works, but nothing directly. I got the point across in a conversation between characters.And congrats on getting the book out there. What a cool accomplishment. I look forward to reading it.
Thanks J.R. You are smart to avoid direct quotes. I wanted to use some quotes to add realistic ambience to my scenes, but it wasn't worth it. From now on only paraphrases and quotes from the public domain. Thanks for your comments!
