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Adele, couldn't agree more

Dan Holloway — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:26:55 +0000

Adele, couldn't agree more about song lyrics. I wanted to use just four words of lyrics in one of my books. I contacted the management of the band in question, got no reply, so didn't use them.

I also agree that many "good" self-published books could use a really good editor - some are at least 30% too long or have flimsy - or too many - secondary characters. But not all of them.

It is a bit poor, really, not

old school — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:18:45 +0000

It is a bit poor, really, not knowing something like that.

This is complete BullShit!

Taay — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:03:57 +0000

This is complete BullShit! Pottermore is supposed to already be open!! And now were going from February to March 2012 and it's still not open!!!

@AM I think what "Truth" is

Hello Autumn Friends — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:47:44 +0000

@AM I think what "Truth" is trying to say is that the manager of a bookshop didn't know William Shakespeare wrote it. We wonder why knowledgable booksellers don't have promotion or give up!

Self published authors are

Adele Ward — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:09:15 +0000

Self published authors are taking serious legal risks too, from what I can see. All of the books I'm reading seem to quote song lyrics, and this can only be done legally by asking the music companies for permission. They will usually let authors quote lyrics, but it's expensive and it's rate charged per book sold and per song quoted. You even have to get this permission and pay for it if you quote just a few words. Usually authors are advised to cut the song lyrics if they possibly can, and it's ok to quote song titles so that can be a way round it. But for the novels already self published and sold, the music companies will catch up and it's going to be expensive. It's generally about 50p per book and they expect you to get written permission from them at the outset and to pay an amount based on your estimated sales. If you quote a few lyrics and need to approach a few different music companies they will each charge you this kind of amount and expect you to get written permission. They also need to be credited in the copyrights section of the book. There are other legal problems I can see authors are facing, but the quoting of lyrics is a basic pitfall publishers avoid or work around and it's so much a part of our culture to be thinking of song lyrics that they do turn up in most books unless the author is aware of the legalities.