Jeremiah was a bullfrog . . .

I like it when authors insert song lyrics into a book to make a statement or help the reader with a place in history. One of the masters of this is Stephen King, who has used song lyrics in many of his famous horror novels.

When I wrote Elm Street last year, I wanted to include lyrics from commercially popular songs of the 60s and 70s as one way to remind readers of the times. I used select lyrics from four songs - Three Dog Night's Joy To The World, Last Train To Clarksville by the Monkees, Larry Norman's I Wish We'd All Been Ready, and Eddie Cochran's Summertime Blues. I didn't randomly choose these songs - each had a specific purpose behind its place in the book.

Reading the first draft of Elm Street, one of my many editors advised me to get permission to publish the lyrics. Knowing that was the right thing to do, I sought permission. I received an interesting education and obtaining the publishing rights was relatively easy.

I first researched the actual writer of the song. Hoyt Axton, for example, wrote Joy To The World even though we all remember it being performed by Three Dog Night. Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart wrote Last Train To Clarksville though The Monkees made it popular. Then, I searched for what music publishing company owned the rights to the songs. Of the four songs, three of them belonged to the Hal Leonard Corporation. The rights to Summertime Blues was owned by Alfred Music.

Through the respective publisher's website, I completed an online form for each song and uploaded three pages of Elm Street: The page on which the lyrics appeared, showing how they would be presented, and then the manuscript pages before and after the specific lyrics page.

The publisher took some time and then came back with a proposal. For each song, I paid between $50-100 for the rights to include those lyrics for up to 3,000 published copies of the book. If Elm Street's sales ever break 3,000, I will have to do the right thing and contact the publisher to pay for a new license. (Side Note: One of the publisher reps sent me an email, thanking me for asking for permission. The tone of the note led me to believe that many authors don't ask for permission. That's stealing.)

After paying for the rights to publish the lyrics, the publisher then sent me the exact words and formatting to include on the book's Copyright Page. This page is located just after the title page.

Several people have mentioned how much they like the lyrics because they help set a tone for the book, but also set the tone for the times. I'm not a musician, as you've read, but music really does serve as mile markers for life's journey. Listening to 1970s music this summer, in preparation for my high school reunion (40 years), each song brought back a memory of a place, or a person, or a story.

That's why I'm already looking at 4-5 songs to include in the 2018 book, Hickory Trail. It's going to be a fun journey, watching Frank grow up during his four years of high school and marking time with selected song lyrics.

www.scottdvaughan.com