May I insert quotes from other books

[ColetteJulie]

Due to me being female, I must complicate things or I will be unhappy. If you quote me on that, I'll shoot you.

Lovecraft suggested I turn my dead body into a zombie because Laurel rejected my necro story. I was an excellent suggestion (that's why he wins competitions) and things are going along swimmingly.

At this point in the story my hero is combing the internet for 'reliable', 'scientific' material on zombies. Which meant I did a quick squint for anything in a non-fiction line. There has been a surprising resurgence of 'non-fiction' (read parody) zombie literature, including tales from a war against zombies, a book of historical zombie outbreaks and my favorite and the one I want to quote from - A zombie survival guide.

May my character say.... oh look what this book says - QUOTE FROM BOOK - continue story, end. Credit the author of the quoted book at the top, with author, title and ISBN nr?

Is this the correct way? I thank you all in advance for your help.

 

[J_R_Ashunwhy]

...what are you going for footnotes, and an annotated bibliography?

Instead of the notation, you could have your characters discuss a specific book, maybe one reads a passage to another, and use quotes on anything taken directly from that work... or paraphrase.

 

[ColetteJulie]

Surely I should credit the author of the book? Isn't there a copy right issue if I don't?

 

[J_R_Ashunwhy]

Surely I should credit the author of the book? Isn't there a copy right issue if I don't?

"Dude, what are you reading?"

"Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide."

"Well?! What does it say we should do?!"

"According to this, we should

."

 

[ColetteJulie]

Dudess

Okay, I'll do that then. I'll quote and name the book. Thanks.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Due to me being female, I must complicate things or I will be unhappy. If you quote me on that, I'll shoot you.

Lovecraft suggested I turn my dead body into a zombie because Laurel rejected my necro story. I was an excellent suggestion (that's why he wins competitions) and things are going along swimmingly.

At this point in the story my hero is combing the internet for 'reliable', 'scientific' material on zombies. Which meant I did a quick squint for anything in a non-fiction line. There has been a surprising resurgence of 'non-fiction' (read parody) zombie literature, including tales from a war against zombies, a book of historical zombie outbreaks and my favorite and the one I want to quote from - A zombie survival guide.

May my character say.... oh look what this book says - QUOTE FROM BOOK - continue story, end. Credit the author of the quoted book at the top, with author, title and ISBN nr?

Is this the correct way? I thank you all in advance for your help.

Sure. I wouldn't be so formal, I'd write, Yuh know what Lovecraft says, "Duh."

Mike is right, don't hand Laurel an excuse to reject you for silly stuff. I occasionally get rejected for snuff tho I've never written snuff, Laurel means DONT MAKE ME GO ICK. I write graphic violence. So I nip the problem in the bud with something like KAY PICKED UP THREE GUYS, TOOK THEM HOME, AND THEY PUT HER IN THE HOSPITAL FOR A MONTH. THE BILL FOR HER DENTAL IMPLANTS, ALONE, WAS TEN GRAND.

 

[lovecraft68]

Zombies...

Useless accomplishment- I am mentioned by name along with my former comic book store Shadowland by one of my customers in the letters page of Walking Dead #10, telling Kirkman I recommended the series to him.

Kirkman's response was, "They have room for comic shops in RI?"

"

 

[Bramblethorn]

At this point in the story my hero is combing the internet for 'reliable', 'scientific' material on zombies. Which meant I did a quick squint for anything in a non-fiction line. There has been a surprising resurgence of 'non-fiction' (read parody) zombie literature, including tales from a war against zombies, a book of historical zombie outbreaks and my favorite and the one I want to quote from - A zombie survival guide.

May my character say.... oh look what this book says - QUOTE FROM BOOK - continue story, end. Credit the author of the quoted book at the top, with author, title and ISBN nr?

Is this the correct way? I thank you all in advance for your help.

Quoting directly may be a copyright violation, regardless of whether you credit it. You would be on safer ground to paraphrase: "The ZSG says we should aim for the kneecaps" etc. rather than using a direct quote.

In practice, it's unlikely that anybody's lawyers are going to come after you.

 

[sr71plt]

You can quote a passage (total from that source) of up to 50 words without worries, phrasing the source citation as JRAshunwhy suggests in post #4. This isn't written anywhere as protected guidance, but it's what the publishing industry has advised without the practice ever being challenged. (If it was a literary criticism of the book, you could quote more extensively.)

 

[i_would]

Why real quotes from real books? Isn't it more convenient to make up your quotes (maybe paraphrasing bits and pieces from actual books you read) so the characters can start doing what you'd like them to do to advance the story?

 

[Handley_Page]

Due to me being female, I must complicate things or I will be unhappy. If you quote me on that, I'll shoot you.

At this point in the story my hero is combing the internet for 'reliable', 'scientific' material on zombies. Which meant I did a quick squint for anything in a non-fiction line.
May my character say.... oh look what this book says - QUOTE FROM BOOK - continue story, end. Credit the author of the quoted book at the top, with author, title and ISBN nr?

Is this the correct way? I thank you all in advance for your help.

Technically, you need the written permission of the copyright holder, although some of them permit some quotation of a few purposes (study being one of them).

Maybe an e-mail to the publisher would help; if you get no reply, at least you have shown willing (due diligence?) in trying.

 

[ColetteJulie]

Thank you Noirtrash.

 

[ColetteJulie]

Quoting directly may be a copyright violation, regardless of whether you credit it. You would be on safer ground to paraphrase: "The ZSG says we should aim for the kneecaps" etc. rather than using a direct quote.

In practice, it's unlikely that anybody's lawyers are going to come after you.

That's what I thought, don't want to step on anybody's toes or bleed them however innocently.

 

[ColetteJulie]

You can quote a passage (total from that source) of up to 50 words without worries, phrasing the source citation as JRAshunwhy suggests in post #4. This isn't written anywhere as protected guidance, but it's what the publishing industry has advised without the practice ever being challenged. (If it was a literary criticism of the book, you could quote more extensively.)

Thank you sr71plt, I didn't know that. Quoting is easier than paraphrasing.

 

[ColetteJulie]

Technically, you need the written permission of the copyright holder, although some of them permit some quotation of a few purposes (study being one of them).

Maybe an e-mail to the publisher would help; if you get no reply, at least you have shown willing (due diligence?) in trying.

Gonna go with the less than 50 words then, I don't want to have the added headache of a publisher.

 

[sr71plt]

Technically, you need the written permission of the copyright holder, although some of them permit some quotation of a few purposes (study being one of them).

Maybe an e-mail to the publisher would help; if you get no reply, at least you have shown willing (due diligence?) in trying.

As I noted, you don't need permission for 50 words or less, and chances are you won't get permission if you asked for it.

Also, due diligence means squat in publishing. It's fully your responsibility to get written permission for anything that anyone would want to sue you for. "Well I tried" gets a horselaugh in court.

 

[7LivesManyFaces]

Why real quotes from real books? Isn't it more convenient to make up your quotes (maybe paraphrasing bits and pieces from actual books you read) so the characters can start doing what you'd like them to do to advance the story?

Thumbs up

 

[i_would]

As I noted, you don't need permission for 50 words or less, and chances are you won't get permission if you asked for it.

That 50-word rule is US law, I guess, and I have heard about it before indeed. Not all authors (both those quoted, and those quoting) live in the US. Other parts of the world have different regulations; in the jurisdiction where I currently live I don't know about whether a "fair use" clause even exists though at least parody is exempted.

Ethics is to me a more important thing in this, hence my suggestion before to just make up a quote instead (makes it easier to fit your story anyway). Who cares if it's from a real book or not? It's all fiction anyway!

 

[sr71plt]

That 50-word rule is US law, I guess, and I have heard about it before indeed. Not all authors (both those quoted, and those quoting) live in the US. Other parts of the world have different regulations; in the jurisdiction where I currently live I don't know about whether a "fair use" clause even exists though at least parody is exempted.

Ethics is to me a more important thing in this, hence my suggestion before to just make up a quote instead (makes it easier to fit your story anyway). Who cares if it's from a real book or not? It's all fiction anyway!

There is no rule. The 50-word guidance is what publishers have combined (including the non-U.S. publishers I've edited for) together to impose on authors for their own protections from possible prosecution. There's no case law of actual suit for anything close to this limit yet. I've yet to encounter a publisher anywhere in the world (and I've worked with ones in India and Southeast Asia as well as U.S. and GB) that uses any other standard than this, though.

But, yes, you are free to take your chances. I dare say that writing freely given erotica on the Internet under an anonymous is going to protect you from prosecution in reality. That is if you don't care about ethics.

 

[Hypoxia]

A Spot of Music opens directly with an extensive quote, cited. I've received no complaints.

 

[loquere]

I've mentioned quotes from well known works, but I've always had me characters refer back to the original author during the fluid conversation in the context of the story.