EDITING 101: 08 – Using Song Lyrics in your Manuscript…

Posted on by Chris The Story Reading Ape

Using Song Lyrics in your Manuscript

You’ve just written the most perfect restaurant love scene imaginable. As your two main characters unite on the dance floor, the haunting strains of “Unchained Melody” play in the background. The lovers gaze deeply into each other’s eyes as the song’s lyrics pass through their ears, melding their souls together in acoustical rapture:

“Oh, my…”

Wait! Stop! Halt!! Turn off the radio, unplug the phonograph, and disconnect your online radio station! Are you crazy? Are you looking for a lawsuit?

<Author looks around incredulously>

“Who, me? Now what does this woman want me to do? Eliminate the perfect words from this scene?”

Yep, that’s exactly what I want you to do. You’re not alone, Mr. or Ms. Author, in wanting to use those or any other fabulous lyrics in your book. I know they fit the situation wonderfully, but trust me, there are good and valid reasons why you should cut those lyrics out of your book.

First, the music industry does not consider ANY use of lyrics to be under the “fair use” guidelines. You cannot quote lyrics from a song without the permission from the singer, songwriter, and/or recording studio. Getting permission can be expensive and difficult, especially if any of the parties have passed away and you have to deal with multiple estates and/or heirs.

According to THIS ARTICLE, one author paid $1,500 to quote two lines from a Bob Marley song. Yikes! Many authors feel $500 is too much to pay for copyediting. To quote two lines from that one song, the author could have had their book copyedited three times.

Some authors have gotten around this problem of getting permission by writing song lyrics themselves. But that solution has issues, too. If you wrote your own lyrics and I didn’t, as a reader and at first glance, recognize the lyrics you were quoting, my brain would be instantly taken out of your story (always, always a bad thing) in trying to figure out what song the lyrics were from. I might even put down the book and go Google it. Aaack!

If you did get permission for lyrics and, as a reader, I did recognize them (such as in “I Shot the Sherriff,” the above-mentioned Bob Marley song), now I might be stuck with the song in my head, drowning out the story. Is your brain singing that song right now? Give it a minute… Ahh, there it is. This is another bad thing to interrupt your story.

A third result may be the reader doesn’t get the same emotional connection you intended. The song might hit the reader in a way that’s contrary to what you envisioned and can cause emotional confusion, again taking the reader out of the story.

I hope this explains good reasons for not using lyrics in your manuscript and why perhaps a better fleshing-out of the scene would be an improvement for you and your readers.

It’s still your decision, of course, but at least now you have fair warning.

If you feel strongly enough about using them to pursue it, read BOTH these blog posts first:

So You Want to Use Song Lyrics in Your MS

How to Use Lyrics Without Paying a Fortune, or a Lawyer

Next week we’ll discuss ‘Cutting “ly” Adverbs and Enhancing Scenes’

Susan

To see the index and catch up with missed episodes of this series – CLICK HERE

72 thoughts on “EDITING 101: 08 – Using Song Lyrics in your Manuscript…”

  1. Pingback: EDITING 101: 08 – Using Song Lyrics in your Manuscript… — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog – Attempting Life!
  2. Pingback: Friday Roundup – 21st October | Stevie Turner, Indie Author.

  3. I was glad to discover this before my third book came out – which features a concert and later a test of identity to see who knew the words. It’s okay to use song titles, not lyrics. Unless they are out of copyright, which means you have to go back to composers you probably don’t have the same connection with… You’d be surprised what you can find in Purcell and Elgar, though!

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    • I know, right? 😉 This post, when published before as a part of “Dun Writin’, Now Whut?” was the most visited and commented on post. Songs seem to have a visceral affect on humans and writers want to recreate that in their writing. I don’t blame them!

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  9. Reblogged this on TINA FRISCO and commented:
    Susan Uttendorfsky is a guest on The Story Reading Ape with Part 8 of her EDITING 101 Series: Using Song Lyrics in your Manuscript. While many of us might think song lyrics would animate a romantic scene, Susan gives us several good reasons why not to use them…

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