The Price of Permissions

For my upcoming book of interviews with writers (Don Finkel, Carl Phillips, Ntozake Shange, Tess Gallagher, and so on) I've had to request from the copyright holders permission to reprint samples of the authors' work. Here's how it goes in real life:

Don Finkel: Son holds the rights, and granted them free.

John N. Morris: Requires an epic nationwide search to locate the John J. Morris who is Morris's son and the copyright holder. Finally located by Washington University, Morris grants permission free.

Graywolf Press: Holder of Carl Phillips and Tess Gallagher rights. Asking to reprint one poem from each, I filed requests online. In five days comes the Carl Phillips permission, costing $30. In three weeks comes the Tess Gallagher permission, costing $150. Graywolf says this is the author's designated price. I wrote the author to ask her to give me a break, but secretly I think it's great that a woman has the nerve to charge $150 to repint one of her poems.

St. Martin's Press: It's hard to find a shorter Ntozake Shange poem that isn't part of a play, but I did, in Riding the Moon in Texas, and faxed St. Martin's Press for permission. They granted it for $50.

As a sidelight, while researching permission rights I discovered it costs $5000 to quote from the song "Hotel California," specifically the line, "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave." It seems that's because "you" will never be able to pay the bill.

Among Friends: Books Published or in Press in '08-09

Just to show it does happen, a list of recent book publications/acceptances (2008 and early 2009) by local writers I personally know and like:

• Claire Applewhite, The Wrong Side of Memphis (L&L Dreamspell), novel
• Mary Ann deGrandpre Kelly, Marlene Miller, Niki Nymark, Marilyn Probe*: Nothing Smaller than Your Elbow (Bluestem), poetry
• Mary Ruth Donnelly: Weaving the Light (Cherry Pie Press), poetry chapbook
• Pamela Garvey, Fear (Finishing Line Press), poetry chapbook
• Colleen McKee* and Amanda Stiebel, Are We Feeling Better Yet? Women Speak About Health Care in America (Penultimate), anthology
• J. Roger Nelson*, The God Whom Moses Knew (Thomas Nelson), novel
• Niki Nymark, A Stranger Here Myself (Cherry Pie Press), poetry chapbook
• Angie O’Gorman*, The Book of Sins (PlainView Press), novel.
• Catherine Rankovic: Fame: Writers in St. Louis in the 1990s (Penultimate), nonfiction
• Suzanne Rhodenbaugh, The Whole Shebang (Word Press), poetry
  

*=formerly my student!

I would LOVE to see in this list next year:

Denise Bogard (novel)
Janet Edwards* (nonfiction)
Rebecca Ellis (poetry)
Matt Freeman (poetry)
Julia Gordon-Bramer (poetry)
Susan Grigsby* (poetry)
Tim Leach (poetry)
Steven Schreiner (poetry)
-- and YOU.