Jan 13 2009
Doing the “Permissions Polka”
Learning how to ask for permissions is like learning to dance, only without the music or costumes. You learn how to do both by mastering the skills one step at a time. If you have “two left feet” it might take you longer to master the polka but with practice and patience you can succeed. On the other hand, if you have absolutely no sense of rhythm, you might want to pick some other hobby besides dancing. Likewise, if you absolutely hate tasks that require you to pay a high degree of attention to “little” details, you might want to hire someone to do the permissions work for you.
Following is a general list of the steps you need to follow for tackling permissions work. Sometimes it is possible to skip a step, especially if you are only trying to obtain one or two permissions. However, as one copyright license manager commented, “Mostly I find professionals (like you!) are pretty easy to deal with. It’s when publishers force authors (amateurs!) to clear their own permissions that it can get a bit messy….” Since I’m gearing my blog towards the amateur, and you’ve read this far, I’m going to assume you want to learn the basics of the ‘permissions polka.’ I will explain each step further in upcoming posts.
Step One: Get organized. What do you have? What do you need?
Step Two: Set up working files for both paper and the computer.
Step Three: Identify the copyright holders.
Step Four: Submit permissions requests.
Step Five: Wait.
Step Six: Record incoming information. Repeat Steps One through Four as needed.
Step Seven: Prepare your reports. This includes your list of credits.
Step Eight: Follow-up with outstanding requests.
Step Nine: Repeat Steps One through Eight as needed.
Step Ten: Close the project.
© 2009 Anne Wallingford. All Rights Reserved.
