In my recent piece of writing, I've included a passage from a real life experience.

The passage is a direct quotation from one of the readings of a very famous psychic and I'm not sure if this is a copyright issue or not.

Basically, the quotation is only about 1 paragraph long and it describes how he connects to spirits and "the other side", but the chapter also explains the facts of who this person is, when he lived etc, so I'm not inventing this individual, he's getting all the credit!. The only thing I've changed is the part of it being a quote from one of his readings and said it's from a book, which I made up.

Can anyone put my mind at rest about this, as I don't want to get into any trouble, but it is a vital part of the story.

Thanks,
kitkat

ps. forgot to add that my mc is also experiencing psychic episodes in much the same way, is that an infringment of any sort?

kitkat, if it's a quotation and its still in copyright, whatever the length, you have to get permission. If it's a translation, that'll include the translator as well. You may or may not have to pay for it. Part of the deal would be that you credit it properly: technically, you would have to be accurate in where you said it came from, as well as what it said (i.e. you mustn't mis-quote or mis-reference)

Deeply boring. Don't leave it to the last minute - copyright clearance can take ages - and if in doubt ask the Society of Authors.

Emma

If it's from something said, rather than written, I'd still say you were on dodgy ground. The best thing to do here is to read up on several psychics (plus psychic-skeptics and magicians if you can, ie Derren Brown) and get a feel across the board and base your scene/dialogue on that.

Psychics and mediums use a lot of similar wording when talking about contacting the other side or getting themselves in the right frameset - they all steal off each other, but if one has a particular way with words, say for example, Derek Acorah, and the dialogue is recogniseable as beind his, then I'd try to rework it. Unless of course, you want a particular medium to appear in your novel (like a cameo appearance). In which case, you'd definitely need to contact them.

Colin.

Thanks Emma and Colin,

You've pretty much cleared this up, as the subject has been niggling away at me since I started this project, something just wasn't quite right!

So now it's back to the drawing board, as I've decided to rewrite the chapters where this is concerned and create the effect from my imagination, rather relying on the experience of others (which will hopefully be more colourful in the end, anyway!)

Thanks again!

kitkat

ps. is it always the case in writing where you think your nearing the end, then bang - you jump 10 steps back!!!! I'm beginning to think this book will never be truly finished as I constantly keep finding the odd little thing to change!

ps. is it always the case in writing where you think your nearing the end, then bang - you jump 10 steps back!!!! I'm beginning to think this book will never be truly finished as I constantly keep finding the odd little thing to change!

Yes. TMOL's coming up for its fourth birthday, I've probably read every word at least twenty times, and even so, going through the proofs for the US edition, I found myself wanting to tinker...

Emma

A good reason for not sending those first few chapters before the book is actually finished!

Emma, did you tinker?

A good reason for not sending those first few chapters before the book is actually finished!

I do agree.

Roger, it was the actual proofs and, as you know, they get very cross - even charge you - if you do more than correct things the typesetter got wrong. So I didn't. Besides, sometimes when you do tinker it turns out you had a good reason two pages on for writing it as you did, and you have to un-tinker again.

Emma

Besides, sometimes when you do tinker it turns out you had a good reason two pages on for writing it as you did, and you have to un-tinker again.

More often than not in my experience. I always make a back up copy of the current document before I begin fiddling, so that I can just scrap the new version and go back to where I was.

Best

John

Emma, I found the whole proof-reading process incredibly stressful, as I am the world's worst proof reader. Plus I was plagued by constant doubt about what was actually there - my main worry was not so much that I would miss mistakes but that I would just think it was all shit.

I wonder if it gets easier? I did have some correspondence with a professional editor/copy-editor who said that some of her clients, established authors, can't bear to proof read their work, so maybe not.

A proof reader I know reads backwards to avoid falling into the flow of a book.

Yes, I found it stressful, too, and also boring, when I'd rather have been writing the new one. The US proofs were very painless by comparison - I think I'd got more distance from the whole thing by then. Fortunately publishers have more sense than to rely solely on authors to proofread, but there are still mistakes that only you will spot.

Colin, the trouble with proofreading backwards is that you do have to proofread for sense, as well as typos. The difficulty seems to be that this involves two different parts of your brain working at once. I'm fundamentally not a good proofreader, having a crap eye for detail and a low boredom threshold.

John, that's one drawback I think to working on screen - it looks perfect all the time. I always keep my most-recent hard copy, complete with editorial scribbles, so I can see that I once tried word A, and changed it to B, all in biro, and when want to tinker B back to A, I know there's a reason I shouldn't.

Emma