Writer's Woes--Paying for Lyrics

[tjs]

Here's an interesting thing...at least to me.

I have a mystery novel coming out and a few short stories on Amazon. My main character is an Elvis fan.

In my first book I reference the lyrics to Trouble, Fool Such as I and If i can dream...just a few lines of each.

I finally tracked down Elvis's publisher --Chrysallis.

I asked them about the process of getting permission and I have to give them a ton of info--and I'll have to pay to use each one.

I guess its only right but I'm really interested to see how much I'll have to pay for just a few lines.

[NEA]

Hi tjs,

Interesting project you've got going there...

I think Chrysallis are obviously charging you on the 'for profit' aspect of your project. I don't think it will be too much but it would probably depend on how many copies you are looking to publish over a period of time and obviously what kind of sales ratio you anticipate in your business plan for the project.

But, I couldn't for the life of me guess at any kind of figure as to what they may charge - this will certainly be interesting to find out once you have done the preliminaries with them.

Best of luck, and keep us posted.

Cheers,

NEA.