Sunday, January 31, 2010

Sunday Salon: Copyright and Book Reviews


Do you ever omit direct quotations in your reviews due to copyright concerns? 

When I wrote my review this week of Dragon House, I changed tactics when I read the copyright statement and learned that, "no part of this publication may be reproduced." 

That seemed harsh. I wanted to get my review posted so I omitted all quotations.

I pulled several other books I'm planning to review and found the opposite in their copyright. For example, The Lunatic, The Lover, and The Poet allows for, "brief quotations embodied in critical reviews." Many of my other books have similar policies.

It feels good to me when an author or publisher specifically states that book reviewers may quote passages. I like that we were important enough to be included.

If you are reviewing a book that allows for no reproduction, do you omit passages in your reviews or include them anyway?

Wishing you Aloha from Kauai and a good week of reading.

Just finished: Walking the Gobi by Helen Thayer (review in process)
Currently reading: The Lunatic, The Lover, and The Poet by Myrlin A. Hermes

3 comments:

  1. Oops...guilty, I occasionally do use quotes, not really bothering to check for copyright...(I'd better be more careful).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Diane,

    Maybe there's not a problem when the review is favorable. As a new book blogger I was curious how other people handle this. Thanks for stopping by today. Take care,

    Aloha from Rob

    ReplyDelete
  3. Huh. I've never really thought about it. But then I rarely include quotes. I thought I read somewhere that you are limited by the number of words in the passage. But then, I could be hallucinating. :-D

    Thanks for following me on twitter...it led me to your blog!

    ReplyDelete

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