I am well aware that my loyal reader is absolutely desperate to get hold a copy of my upcoming and as yet untitled second book, working title That Difficult Second Book. The writing has gone particularly well, after no less than three earlier attempts which have seen some 250,000 abandoned words gathering dust in my Documents folder. But of course there’s always a but and mine is as big a but as you can imagine. It’s a book about music and its effects on my life. The mountain that I thought was a molehill has made things very awkward.
The lyrics have been critical to some parts of my life, my mother’s story as a migrant to the UK and her funeral among them. Initially, I thought it would be relatively straightforward to gain permission, particularly for a self-published book that will have a tiny audience, but my recent unhappy dealings with copyright issues which have wiped all the money I have ever made since I started writing (which, don’t worry, isn’t that much but it’s still upsetting) I am keen to get this right.
I am in favour of artists, whether they be musicians, authors or whoever, getting paid for their work. For that reason, I don’t stream music, I don’t buy second hand books. Learning about copyright has been an eye-opener and not in a good way.
I won’t make a penny out of my book. I’ve spent a fair wedge researching for the project and Amazon will take a colossal wedge from the selling price for publishing my work, but the lyrics of the songs which tell the stories, some deeply emotional for me, could cost me a bigger fortune that I don’t have.
I have calculated that it could cost me $12,000 to use the words I want, even with a full acknowledgment, imploring my reader to buy the record after reading the book. That’s approximately $12,000 more than I currently have available and only, as I expect, my lottery numbers finally come up this week will I be able to pay this amount.
It’s not as if I want to use all the lyrics from one song. It’s just a few but that doesn’t matter in the world of copyrighting. There’s no reasonable use clause. Barring the title, you’re on shaky ground if you use any of the actual lyrics at all.
So my next book, which I have worked my arse off to produce, will probably see the actual lyrics absent from the narrative, replaced by descriptions of the lyrics and what they mean to me. It’s disappointing, of course, but I do kind of get it. I’d willingly shell out thousands of quid if I was making even more thousands of quid, but in terms of the latter it will at most be a few quid.
Still, we muddle on. I can’t afford a lawyer to make sure I don’t fuck up completely, but I am willing to pay someone a few quid to proof-read the thing because although it will likely be a rubbish read it would be nice to remove the typos and howlers that I fear would blight my work. Know anyone?
I don’t want to rip anyone off but I do hope the publishing houses go easy on me. Some hope.
