Permissions: Step 3

Most writers are poor and don’t have a budget to obtain permissions from the estates of famous dead writers. What to do?

Avoid quotes or, if you must quote, keep it short. That is, provided you are writing what can be deemed an academic or scholarly book. And yes, you must inform the executor/legal counsel/representative of the writer’s estate that you intend to quote the famous dead author.

Here’s how you might open such a letter of notification:

Dear Ms. Gatekeeper,

As professional courtesy and under Fair Use guidelines, I am notifying you of my plan to quote the following passage from Famous Dead Author’s novel A Night of Hairpin Turns:

To be taken seriously, you should be giving the estate rep an idea of what the publishing plan might look like. How many copies will be in the first printing—scholarly books can be fairly limited run (anywhere from 500-1500 copies). What price? Paperback or hard cover? If you stick to a limited run with limited distribution, the estate rep will probably not bother you. Just remember to exercise the professional courtesy you are asking for. It might help to ask for this permission before you have signed a book contract. Also don’t count on the publisher of your book to give you a budget for gaining permissions.

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