Permissions

As you write your own book, you may find you want to use material that has been previously published. You might want to cite a research study, or use a quote from a famous person. In some situations, you are free to do that, but in many others you have to request permission from the organization that published the information or from the person who you want to quote.

These are some general guidelines to help you determine what materials require permission, and to give you some tools for doing that. You should have your manuscript reviewed by an intellectual property attorney or permissions professionals if you have any doubts about whether a piece needs permission or not.

As author, whether you find a traditional publisher, or are self-published, are responsible for •   Determining what you must obtain permission for in your manuscript •   Obtaining that permission in writing from the copyright holder •   Paying any fees involved in obtaining that permission

It might seem like requesting permissions would be an easy process, but it can take months for some copyright holders to reply to your requests. So it is important that you initiate requests to reprint items that require permission as soon as you know you will have them in your manuscript.

Many authors think they want to use quotes from lots of people. It is common to consider using an opening quote to set the tone for each chapter. But to the extent possible, you should consider NOT using work from other sources. Using others’ work too much actually decreases the power of your work, and adds to the complexity of preparing a manuscript.

In particular, you want to avoid using song lyrics, poetry or sections of literary works, unless they are integral to your book, and you plan to spend the time and money to get the rights to use them.

Most of the time, you are better off summarizing information or rewriting it so that it bears little resemblance to the original but still contains the important information.

Tanyab 05:28, 10 November 2008 (UTC) Brought to you by | www.publishing-store.com