Feb 03 2009
You Have a Name—Now What?
Once you have the name of the copyright holder, you get to play detective! You don’t need a fingerprint kit or a magnifying glass, and there’s no blood unless you get a paper cut, but the search is on!
Actually, the Internet makes the search so much easier than it was years ago. I have the utmost respect for permissions editors of the past. They had no choice but to do all their searching manually. The hours they must have spent in libraries!
In the previous post, we identified Crossing Press as the copyright holder for “Age, Race, Sex and Class: Women Redefining Difference” by Audre Lord from Sister/Outsider: Essays and Speeches, also by Audre Lord. But how do you contact Crossing Press? A common mistake made by rookies is to send a letter to the firm’s general mailing address. This just about guarantees your request will never get an answer. Then what should you do?
Start by doing a Google Search for Crossing Press. The first item listed is Ten Speed Press with a sublisting for Crossing Press. Clicking on Crossing Press brings up a page titled Ten Speed Press; Crossing Press is identified as an imprint of Ten Speed Press. Across the links at the bottom of the page are links titled About Us, Contact Us, Customer Service, Permissions, Jobs, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Use. Click on Permissions.
You now have to choose which type of rights you are requesting. The choices are:
Licensing and Foreign Rights;
Newpapers, Magazines, and Other Media;
Film or Television Set Use;
Academic Course Readers;
and Republication or Electronic Use.
Although these choices may vary, these are the basic groups from which you will usually choose. Next, we’ll look at each of these categories separately.
© 2009 Anne Wallingford. All Rights Reserved.
