Thursday’s Pre-Publication Post: Permissions, Continued

by Erika Dreifus on
2

So, last week I told you about my initial foray into the world of permissions. I’m glad to tell you that there’s already an update to share.

Briefly: I have, indeed, heard back from the Big Publishing House I mentioned last Thursday. They e-mailed me with a request for further information. And here’s what they asked for:

–the page number in the book where the excerpt appears
–anticipated number of book copies to be published
–whether the book is a trade volume, a textbook, or a scholarly work
–estimated price of the book
–the book’s market (U.S., Canada, worldwide)
–whether the book will be published in hardcover or paperback (or both)
–scheduled date of publication
–daytime phone number
–desired term of license

After some consultation with my publisher, I sent off an e-mail with the replies. Now it’s back to waiting. I really hope the Big Publishing House comes back with something generous (or at least, reasonable). Think good thoughts for me, please!

Thursday’s Pre-Publication Post: Permissions

by Erika Dreifus on
7

My story collection, Quiet Americans, begins with two quotations (epigraphs) leading into the larger work. I’ve always wondered if I’d need permission to use them, but until recently, I didn’t have a particularly urgent reason to find out.

Well, now that my book is slated for publication, a reason has arrived! The press that will be publishing my book is too small to have a full-fledged legal department of its own, so my first impulse was to send an e-mail message to a group of lawyer friends. But I soon decided that I should just keep digging on my own. Directly.

Both of the quotations are quite short. One is taken from a translated novel; the other, from a translated Nobel lecture.

A few days ago, I contacted the U.S. publisher of the translated novel (a publishing company which is big enough not only to have its permissions/rights department referenced on its site, but which also requires several weeks to process these requests). So, I wait.

For the Nobel lecture, I simply e-mailed the specified contact in Sweden and explained that I was writing to find out what I needed to do in order to include the line from the lecture as an epigraph for my collection. The response was swift and sweet: “You do not need our formal permission to make quotations.”

Wonderful! Let’s hope that the other response arrives soon and proves to be equally uncomplicated.

I’d love to hear from other practicing writers with permissions tales to tell. Or perhaps some tips or resources to share?