is it okay top put song words in a book?

Question

im writeing a book ( for fun and personal intrest) and i wanted to know if its okay to put song words in the book like when the character is singing the song. Im going to say the name of the song and who wrote it but i just wanted to know if you could do it because i might want to try and publish it when im older

= ) thanks for your help

just you wanted to know i wanted to put in some of the lyrics of Simple Plans "Welcome to my life" in

Answer 1

You should always acknowledge the copywrite ownership of a song. You do not have to seek permision, however, or pay royalties for songs older than 50 years. You may have too, depending on the commercial success of your work, and the length of the lyrics you are quoting, if it is within the last five decades. Someone like Stephen King, who does so regularly, always quotes the copyright ownership at the beginning or end of his novels, and given his fame and distribution, would definately have to pay royalties.

Answer 2

You have to be careful with that. You can mention the name of songs, and you can quote some lyrics but it's really easy to breach copyright.



See, a song is counted as a written work. You have the right to quote another writer's work without their permission, provided a) you acknowledge them as the author, and b) you only quote a small part of the original text. If you're quoting a line from another book, that's fine because it's an insignificantly small part of a work that size. A song however is a very small piece of writing so you don't have to use much to be quoting a significant proportion of it and thereby breach copyright. And the writers of songs will sue over that.



If you are just using a line or two, then you are probably fine. Any more and if you want to get it published, you would need permission to use the lyrics and they would have the right to charge you for that permission.

Answer 3

Yep for sure!!! Tons of Authors use song lyrics, poems, quotes etc in there stories to illustrate a point or show what the character is feeling, it is to be noted however that recognizing where you get the lyrics etc from so to avoid problems later on when you want to get it published, most authors put where they get it from in the back of the book and some at the front. Have fun!!!!

Answer 4

:D that's an interesting question.



i think that if in one place lets just say you write that they are "singing along tunelessly to a Simple Plan song" or " hummed Welcome to my life over and over again under their breathe" you make sure that you don't go over the top.



Don't say in one sentence " Eliza was singing Welcome to my Life by simple plan" and then brake into song on page. You should find a balance of ether just lyrics and then later on say the song title or never at all or just say they were singing the song and don't include the words. Or maybe at the end of the chapter or page or something just end with the most poignant lyrics from the song like "Welcome to my Life"



I hope you have fun writing! I do when I write so just :) have fun

Answer 5

i suppose for now it might be okay, but if you are going to try and get it published, then you will need to get permission from the record label or the music publisher representing the band or songwriter credited with the specific lyrics, as those lyrics are no doubt protected under copyright law.

another way to do it, is when you do submit your manuscript to a publishing house, explain the situation to them and ask for their help. this is surely an issue that they've dealt with in the past and will probably be able to help you sort it out.

p.s. - yes s. king has been doing it for years, but if you check the inside covers of his books, he always states that "lyrics to whatever-song-he-used reproduced by kind permission from whoever-it-belongs-to"

Answer 6

It is okay to put a few lines of a song or if you want to use the son a lot you could write song song lyrics for this purpose but if you want to put the whole song in and name the song then you may have to buy the rights to it.

You could always put the song in now and then change it when you want to get publshed.

Good luck with your book. :)





Great choice of song as well :)

Answer 7

Yes, I've seen it done lots of times. If you're going to publish, however, it's probably a good idea to check with whoever wrote/performed/currently controls the song.

Answer 8

It's always best to quote the 'Author' of the song, just for any copyright reasons.

Better to be safe than sorry :)

Answer 9

Hey!

yess you sure can!

a trick to writing songs in a book without the reader thinking their just words, make them italic (on the side)

hope i helped and good luck with your book! =)

Answer 10

Stephen King has been doing it for years.

Answer 11

Yes, just make sure to provide the title and author and you should be fine.

Answer 12

if you give credit

Answer 13

who cares

Answer 14

idk