Copyrights and such...

Good morning!

I am happy to have something to blog about today. You see, I have several song lyrics quoted in my book and one of the tasks looming before me is figuring out how to make it all legal. If I can't, I'll have to remove the references, and I don't want to do that. So, I had to buckle down and get to it!

After several google searches and articles over the last several days, I finally came upon three websites that were just what I needed:

www.ASCAP.com
www.BMI.com
www.sesac.com

These websites hold license information for most songs. I mainly used ASCAP for what I needed. After doing a search for the first song on my list and finding it, I went to their contact page. From among a myriad of contacts with different job titles, I chose the one I thought could help me and sent a short email:

"I am looking into obtaining permission to quote song lyrics in a novel. Can you offer information on that? Thank you!"

I hoped a very short email would get a quicker response- and it did. Within about half an hour I had a reply: I would need to contact the publisher. Well, thanks to their database, I had the publisher information at my fingertips. A couple of them had email addresses in their contact information so I started there. I sent off an email to the first publisher:

"Good morning,
I am writing to find out about obtaining permission to quote in a Christian Fiction novel I have written. Can you provide information on this for me? Thank you!"

Again I kept it short, hoping for a quick response. I sent a second email but it bounced back, so I will have to contact the remaining publishers through snail-mail.

I don't know how long I'll have to wait to hear back, whether they will grant permission, or how much it will cost if they do. I may end up having to remove the references in the end anyway, but I am excited that I have ventured into this new territory this morning. It felt so "official" that I had been intimidated to do it; but now, I have set the wheels in motion and am feeling pretty darn good about it!

Cross your fingers for me! (Prayers are even better!)