Wednesday, December 31, 2014

200+ Songs That Reference Books (Spotify Playlist)

SONGS* ABOUT BOOKS & AUTHORS 
*and some Monty Python and Beat Poetry


Click Here for link to Spotify Playlist

Jason Anderson – A Book Laid On It's Binding
Angus & Julia Stone – A Book Like This
Benny's Head – A Bookish Girl
Adam's Plastic Pond – A Brief History of English Literature
The Gentle Waves – A Chapter in the Life of Mathew
Tom Waits – A Good Man Is Hard To Find
Television Personalities – A Picture Of Dorian Gray
Simon & Garfunkel – A Poem on the Underground Wall
Simon & Garfunkel – A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)
Nancy Wilson – A Sleepin' Bee
Genesis – A Trick Of The Tail
Procol Harum – A Whiter Shade Of Pale
Bruce Springsteen – Adam Raised A Cain - 2010 Remastered Version
The Connells – Adjective Song
X – Adult Books
Johnny Flynn – After Eliot
Crash Test Dummies – Afternoons & Coffeespoons
Titus Andronicus – Albert Camus
Tom Waits – Alice
Norman Mailer – Alimony Blues
Bob Dylan – All Along The Watchtower
Jay Farrar – All In One
The Great American Novel – All the Sad Young Literary Men
Green Carnation – Alone
Tim Kasher – American Lit
The Hot Toddies – Anaïs Nin vs. The Pirates of Santa Cruz
PJ Harvey – Angelene
Stevie Nicks – Annabel Lee
Of Montreal – Art Snob Solutions
The Divine Comedy – Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World
Roxy Music – Avalon
Langston Hughes – Ballad of the Gypsy
Serge Gainsbourg – Baudelaire
David Linx – Becoming Streams
The Divine Comedy – Bernice Bobs Her Hair
Bon Iver – Beth/Rest - Rare Book Room
Jay Farrar – Big Sur
Morrissey – Billy Budd
The Decemberists – Billy Liar
Smooth Toad – Bixby Canyon
Death Cab for Cutie – Bixby Canyon Bridge
Billy Bragg – Blake's Jerusalem
Blossom Dearie – Blossom's Blues
Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan's 115th Dream
Bob Hope Bing Crosby – Bob's Book - Put It There, Pal
Lana Del Rey – Body Electric
Jimmy LaFave – Bohemian Cowboy Blues
Arkells – Book Club
A Smile and a Ribbon – Book Cover
Rick Danko – Book Faded Brown
John Hiatt – Book Lovers
Steven Wright – Book Store
Simon & Garfunkel – Bookends
Eddie From Ohio – Bookends
Library Voices – Bookish
Joy Kills Sorrow – Books
The Ergs – Books About Miles Davis
Absofacto – Books About Nothing
Margot & The Nuclear So And So's – Books About Trains
Hüsker Dü – Books About UFOs
The Tandoori Knights – Books And Ribs
XTC – Books Are Burning - 2001 - Remaster
Maximo Park – Books From Boxes
Camera Obscura – Books Written for Girls
Ty Segall – Booksmarts
Sonic Youth – Bookstore (Mote) - 8 Track Demo
Harrison Hudson – Bookstore Girl
Jeff Landeen – Bookstore In Nepal
Weezer – Brave New World
Reagan Youth – Brave New World
Graham Forster – Breakfast At Tiffanys
Jay Farrar – Breathe Our Iodine
Art Garfunkel – Bright Eyes
Frightened Rabbit – Bright Pink Bookmark
Dick Hyman – Brush Up Your Shakespeare
Modest Mouse – Bukowski
Tom Russell – Bukowski # 1
The Menzingers – Burn After Writing
Honig – Burning Down Bookshops
Third Eye Blind – Burning Man
Jay Farrar – California Zephyr
Lou Reed (Featuring Laurie Anderson) – Call On Me
Suzanne Vega – Calypso
Bob Weir – Cassidy
Horace Pinker – Catch Twenty Two
Guns N' Roses – Catcher In The Rye
Cabins – Catcher In The Rye
Red Directors – Catcher In The Rye
Sammy Walker – Catcher In The Rye
The Boo Radleys – Charles Bukowski Is Dead
Cell:Adore – Chekhov's Gun
Leonard Cohen – Chelsea Hotel #2
John Cale – Child's Christmas In Wales
Van Morrison – Cleaning Windows
Guy Clark – Cold Dog Soup
Charles Bukowski – Conusmmation Of Grief Read By Charles Bukowski
Mary Shelley – Copyright Notice 2012
Tori Amos – Cornflake Girl
Bobby Bare Jr – Daddy What If
Dipsomaniacs – Daddy's on a Book Tour
Patricia Barber – Dansons La Gigue
Tired Pony – Dead American Writers
Eric Taylor – Dean Moriarty
The Hardy Boys – Dear Seamus Heaney
Son House – Death Letter Blues
John Wesley Harding – Death Of The Ghostwriter
The Avett Brothers – Denouncing November Blue (Uneasy Writer)
Reckless Kelly – Desolation Angels
Bob Dylan – Desolation Row
Lou Reed – Dime Store Mystery
Rabbitt – Dingleys Bookshop
U2 – Dirty Day
Steve Earle – Dixieland
Mississippi Bones – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
The Matches – Dog-Eared Page
Gordon Lightfoot – Don Quixote
Kelly Joe Phelps – Don Quixote's Windmill
Madeleine Peyroux – Don't Pick A Fight With A Poet
The Police – Don't Stand So Close To Me
The Real Tuesday Weld – Dorothy Parker Blue
The Damned – Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde
Say Hi – Dramatic Irony
U2 – Drunk Chicken/America
Munny & the Cameraman – E.B. White
Samo Salamon – E.E. Cummings
Lou Reed – Edgar Allan Poe
Suzanne Vega – Edith Wharton's Figurines
Timesbold – ee cummings
Admiral Freebee – Einstein Brain
Brad Mehldau – Elegy For William Burroughs And Allen Ginsberg
Traffic – Empty Pages
Neal McCarthy – Esperanza (English Version)
Emmylou Harris with The Band – Evangeline
The Gaslight Anthem – Even Cowgirls Get The Blues
Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Every Day I Write The Book
Jill Tracy – Evil Night Together
Joal Ryan – Ezra Pound
Charles Mingus – Fables of Faubus
Bob Nanna – Fahrenheit 451
Johnny Cash – Family Bible
Destroyer – Farrar, Straus & Giroux (Sea of Tears)
Marina and The Diamonds – Fear and Loathing
Lagwagon – Feedbay of Truckstop Poetry
Ten Foot Pole – Fiction
Belle & Sebastian – Fiction
Belle & Sebastian – Fiction Reprise
Buzzcocks – Fiction Romance - 1996 Digital Remaster
Jay Farrar – Final Horrors
William Fitzsimmons – First Page of Kerouac's Tristessa
Amores Vigilantes – Five Blocks With Ferlinghetti
Tom Waits – Flash Pan Hunter/Intro
Gabrielle Chiararo – Flaubert Chante
James Blake – Footnotes
Tom Waits – Frank's Wild Years
Ira Marlowe – Frankenstein The Matchmaker
The Clean – Franz Kafka At The Zoo
Ben Hermanski – Friends and Bookshelves
Case Studies – From Richard Brautigan
Aimee Mann – Ghost World
Garland Jeffreys – Ghost Writer
RJD2 – Ghostwriter
Grand Hallway – Giant Novels
Patti Witten – Goin' Back To Moline
Bright Eyes – Gold Mine Gutted
Johnny Hodges & His Orchestra – Gone With The Wind
Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
John Cale – Graham Greene
Laurie Anderson – Gravity's Angel
Klaxons – Gravity's Rainbow
The Gaslight Anthem – Great Expectations
Allen Ginsberg – Gregory Corso's Story
Stefano Guzzetti – Haiku
John Grant – Haiku Fourteen B
Dave Pietro – Hamartia
Jack Kerouac – Hard Hearted Old Farmer
John Vanderslice – Harlequin Press
Cold War Kids – Harold Bloom
Little Green Cars – Harper Lee
The Anniversary – Hart Crane
Poe – Haunted
Sparklehorse – Heart Of Darkness
Carly Simon – Hello Big Man
John Cale – Hemingway
Coastwest Unrest – Henry Miller Library Incident
The Sundays – Here's Where The Story Ends
10,000 Maniacs – Hey Jack Kerouac
The Measure [sa] – Historical Fiction
Sonic Youth – Hits Of Sunshine (For Allen Ginsberg)
Bill Morrissey – Holden's Blues
Weezer – Holiday
R.E.M. – Hollow Man
Cornershop – Hong Kong Book Of Kung Fu
Kenny Loggins – House At Pooh Corner
The Measure [sa] – How Do You Spell 'sartre'?
Florence + The Machine – Howl
Solander – Huckleberry Finn
Casey Donahew Band – Hunter S. Thompson (Rocketship)
Frank Sinatra – I Could Write A Book
Miles Davis Quintet – I Could Write A Book
Procol Harum – I Keep Forgetting
Frank Turner – I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous
Bodi Bill – I Like Holden Caulfield - Two In One Version
Harpers Bizarre – I Love You, Alice B. Toklas
Gregory Corso – I Met This Guy Who Died
Nick Lowe – I Read A Lot
Jets To Brazil – I Typed For Miles
The Trouble With Templeton – I Wrote A Novel
Dave's True Story – I'll Never Read Trollope Again
Blossom Dearie – I'm Hip
Matt the Electrician – I'm Sorry Hemingway
Father John Misty – I'm Writing a Novel
William S. Burroughs – Ich Bin Von Kopf Bis Fuss Auf Liebe Eingestellt (Falling In Love Again)
Sam Phillips – If I Could Write
The Band Perry – If I Die Young
The Weakerthans – Illustrated Bible Stories for Children
Sonic Youth – In The Mind Of The Bourgeois Reader
Meg & Dia – Indiana
Hold Tight! – Irony Is For Fuckers
The Owls – Isaac Bashevis Singer
Boardroom Heroes – Ishmael
Billy Koumantzelis – Jack Kerouac’s Morning Beer Shot
Manic Street Preachers – Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
Aimee Mann – Jacob Marley's Chain
Pernice Brothers – Jacqueline Susann
William Parker – James Baldwin To The Rescue
Steve Hackett – Jane Austen's Door
Ron Sexsmith – Jazz At The Bookstore
Noah And The Whale – Jocasta
Judith Holofernes – John Irving
Teddy Thompson – Jonathan's Book
The Clox – Jules Verne
Doc Cheatham – Just An Old Manuscript
Graham Parker – Just Like Hermann Hesse
Pete Shelley – Keats Song
Morphine – Kerouac
Dizzy Gillespie – Kerouac
The Appleseed Cast – Kilgore Trout
Born Ruffians – Kurt Vonnegut
Richard Séguin – L'ange vagabond
The Clancy Brothers – Lady Chatterley
Dire Straits – Lady Writer
Graham Parker – Last Bookstore in Town
TimLee3 – Last Page Of The Book
Marilyn Monroe – Lazy
Sonic Youth – Leaky Lifeboat (for Gregory Corso)
Field Music – Let's Write A Book
Hunter S. Thompson – Letter To William S. Burroughs And Ode To Jack Hunter S. Thompson
My Morning Jacket – Librarian
Final Fantasy – Library
Reina del Cid & the Cidizens – Library Girl
Arctic Monkeys – Library Pictures
Stars – Life 2: The Unhappy Ending
Ella Fitzgerald – Like Young
As The Poets Affirm – Literary Non-Fiction
Jose Vanders – Literature Lovers
The World War I's – Little Librarian
Belle & Sebastian – Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John
Cannonball Adderley – Lolita
Ennio Morricone – Lolita
Lana Del Rey – Lolita
Throw Me The Statue – Lolita
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Long Hard Book
John Parish – Longfellow Forlorn
The Pogues – Lorca's Novena
Billy Kyle – Lorna Doone Shortbread
Paper Bird – Lost Boys
Roger Waters – Lost Boys Calling
Woody Allen – Lost Generation
Franz Ferdinand – Love and Destroy - Live
Jimmy Buffett – Love In The Library
The Mountain Goats – Lovecraft In Brooklyn
Jay Farrar – Low Life Kingdom
John Cale – Macbeth
Ciccone Youth – Macbeth
Kinky Friedman – Marilyn and Joe
Tom Waits – Medley: Jack & Neal / California Here I Come
Charlotte Gainsbourg – Memoir
Descendents – 'Merican
Léo Mérie – Mexico City Blues
Zero 7 – Milton At Midnight
Led Zeppelin – Misty Mountain Hop
Steve Goodman – Moby Book
Led Zeppelin – Moby Dick
Ciccone Youth – Moby-Dik
Pretty Girls Make Graves – Modern Day Emma Goldman
Eartha Kitt – Monotonous
Audrey Hepburn – Moon River
James Wesley Stemple – More Book Covers
Stereophonics – Mr. Writer
Mary Chapin Carpenter – Mrs. Hemingway
Gateway District – Murakami Novels
Emmylou Harris – My Antonia
Bob Dylan – My Back Pages - Remastered
Patti Smith – My Blakean Year
Stars – My Favourite Book (Flack)
Duke Ellington – My Little Brown Book
Warren Zevon – My Ride's Here
American Music Club – Myopic Books
Hailey Wojcik – Nabokov's Butterfly
The Homewreckers – Nancy Drew
The Weather Underground – Neal Cassady
Fatboy Slim – Neal Cassady Starts Here
The Doobie Brothers – Neal's Fandango
J Church – New York Times Book Review
Ernest Hemingway – Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
The Black Crowes – Nonfiction
George Gershwin – Novelette In Fourths
Gregory Alan Isakov – O' City Lights
Lana Del Rey – Off To The Races
The Doubleclicks – Oh, Mr. Darcy
Woodpecker! – Old Photos of Coney Island in the Queens Museum v. Coney Island This Afternoon
Lou Reed – Old Poe
Tom Waits – On The Road
Jay Farrar – One Fast Move Or I'm Gone
John Prine – Onomatopoeia
Kenny Clarke & His 52nd Street Boys – Oop-Bop Sh-Bam
Natalie Merchant – Ophelia
Andrew Bird – Orpheo Looks Back
The Donkeys – Orwell's Town
Company of Thieves – Oscar Wilde
Monty Python – Oscar Wilde
Grand Archives – Oslo Novelist
Lagwagon – Owen Meaney
Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma
Patty Larkin – Pablo Neruda
Sons Of The Never Wrong – Pablo Neruda
The Mouse Folk – Paperback
Tegan And Sara – Paperback Head
Paul McCartney – Paperback Writer - Live At Citi Field
John Cale – Paris 1919
Mark Murphy – Parker's Mood
The Chills – Part Past Part Fiction
Sonic Youth – Pattern Recognition
The Clientele – Paul Verlaine
Ramones – Pet Cemetery
The Young Fresh Fellows – Picture Book
Bastille – Poet
Lizzie West – Portrait Of An Artist As A Young Woman (Thank You)
Adriana Calcanhotto – Portrait of Gertrude (Excerpt from "Gertrude Stein Reads From Her Poetry")/Sieben Frühe Lieber
The Shins – Pressed In A Book
The Smiths – Pretty Girls Make Graves - 2011 Remastered Version
Aaron Diehl – Prologue
Blonde Redhead – Publisher
Patty Larkin – Pundits & Poets
Belle & Sebastian – Put The Book Back On The Shelf
Ken McLeod – Quotation: Douglas Adams
Counting Crows – Rain King
Led Zeppelin – Ramble On
Van Morrison – Rave On, John Donne
Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians – Raymond Chandler Evening
I Am Robot And Proud – Read & Re-read
The Teardrop Explodes – Read It In Books
Morrissey – Reader Meet Author
McGuinness Flint – Reader To Writer - 1996 Digital Remaster
Idlewild – Readers & Writers
John Cooper Clarke – Readers Wives
Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton – Reading in Bed
Jefferson Airplane – Rejoyce
Stephen Scott – Renaissance Suite: 1. The Harlem Renaissance
Muse – Resistance
Scissor Sisters – Return To Oz
Paul Simon – Rewrite
Joan Baez – Rexroth's Daughter
Simon & Garfunkel – Richard Cory
Steve Harley – Riding The Waves (For Virginia Woolf)
Donovan – Riki Tiki Tavi [*]
Massimo Volume – Robert Lowell
Chariots of Eggs – Robert Ludlum
Thin Lizzy – Roisin Dubh
Maud Gonne – Roman A Clef
Lump Sum – roman à clef
Parade – Romance Morlock
Honest Bob And The Factory-To-Dealer Incentives – Romance Novel Guy
Tonio K. – Romeo And Jane
The Killers – Romeo And Juliet
Lou Reed – Romeo Had Juliette
Dexter Romweber's Infernal Racket – Romeo is Bleeding
Peter Wolf – Romeo Is Dead
Steve Forbert – Romeo's Tune
Futures – Sal Paradise
The Crookes – Sal Paradise
Jay Farrar – San Francisco
Bombay Show Pig – Sancho Panza
Hello Saferide – Sancho Panza
The Passion of Anna – Sartre - Jean-Paul Sartre
Sufjan Stevens – Saul Bellow
Audio Recording Club – Scenes From Your Favorite Mystery Novel
Nirvana – Scentless Apprentice
XTC – Science Friction - CBS Demo
Jay Farrar – Sea Engines
The Waterboys – September 1913
U2 – Shadows And Tall Tress
Fink – Shakespeare
The Mahones – Shakespeare Road
Ed Sanders – Shakespeare's 57th Sonnet
The Smiths – Shakespeare's Sister
Robert Lund – Shakespearean Pie
Peter Bradley Adams – She Has to Come Down
Television Personalities – She's Never Read My Poems
Tom Waits – Shiver Me Timbers
Don Cherry – Siddhartha
Al Stewart – Sirens Of Titan
Joni Mitchell – Slouching Towards Bethlehem
The Books – Smells Like Content
The Strokes – Soma
The Strokes – Soma
Barry Adamson – Something Wicked This Way Comes
The Decemberists – Song for Myla Goldberg
Stephane Furic – Song Of The Open Road
The Decemberists – Sonnet
Patti Smith – Spell
R.E.M. – Star Me Kitten - Featuring W.S. Burroughs
Gregory Isaacs – Story Book Children
Belle & Sebastian – Storytelling
Leon Russell – Stranger in a Strange Land
Bad Religion – Stranger Than Fiction
The Pogues – Streams Of Whiskey
The Hold Steady – Stuck Between Stations
Lee Konitz – Subconscious Lee
Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues
Björk – Sun In My Mouth
Nickel Creek – Sweet Afton
Zella Day – Sweet Ophelia
The Antlers – Sylvia
Ryan Adams – Sylvia Plath
The Rolling Stones – Sympathy For The Devil
The Beards – T.S. Eliot
Cream – Tales Of Brave Ulysses
Bob Dylan – Tangled up in Blue
The Police – Tea In The Sahara - 2003 Stereo Remastered Version
Matmos – Teen Paranormal Romance
Deb Talan – Tell Your Story Walking
Blur – Tender
Broadcast – Tender Buttons [Chosen by Warp co-founder Steve Beckett]
Josh Tillman – Tender Is The Night in Paperback
The Cannanes – Tennyson
Freedom Fighters – Textbook Editor
Grateful Dead – That's It For The Other One
Prince – The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
L.K.Potts – The Ballad of Poker Alice
Bluegrass - Various Artists – The Battle of Evermore
Phil Ochs – The Bells
Monty Python – The Book Ad
Lambchop – The Book I Haven't Read
Talking Heads – The Book I Read
Pere Ubu – The Book Is On The Table - Single Version
Julie Doiron – The Book Song
The Divine Comedy – The Booklovers
Frances England – The Books I Like to Read
Dirt Farm – The Bookstore
Johnny Flynn – The Box
Azure Blue – The Catcher in the Rye
Simon & Garfunkel – The Dangling Conversation
Jimmy Durante – The Day I Read A Book
John Adams – The Dharma at Big Sur, Part II: Sri Moonshine
Nicola Conte – The Dharma Bums
Frank Turner – The Fisher King Blues
Arthur & Yu – The Ghost Of Old Bull Lee
Bruce Springsteen – The Ghost Of Tom Joad
Nanci Griffith – The Giving Tree
Brad Ross – The Great American Novelist
The Anniversary – The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
The Go-Betweens – The House That Jack Kerouac Built
David Bowie – The Jean Genie
Erik Enocksson – The Joy of D.H. Lawrence
Ed Sanders – The Keats Negative Capability Letter
Saxon Shore – The Last Days Of A Tragic Allegory
Center Divide – The Last Temptation of Odysseus
Justin Wells – The Last Temptation of Odysseus
Hefner – The Librarian
Swingin' Utters – The Librarians Are Hiding Something
Roudoudou – The Lover and His Lass
Roudoudou – The Lusty Horn Song
The Fugs – The National Haiku Contest - 2006 Remastered
The Next Great American Novelist – The Next Great American Novelist
June Tabor – The Old Man's Song - Don Quixote
Aztec Two-Step – The Persecution And Restoration Of Dean Moriarty [On The Road]
Jean Ritchie – The Printer's Bride
Mark Lanegan – The Raven
Nothing Ever Stays – The Revenge of Holden Caufield
PJ Harvey – The River
Chris Stamey – The Room Above the Bookstore
Muse – The Small Print
The Alarm (IRS) – The Stand - Long Version
Rosanne Cash – The Summer I Read Collette
Fionn Regan – The Underwood Typewriter
Jay Farrar – The Void
Eugene Mirman – The Will To Whatevs Book Tour And An Amazing Boy With AspergerÕs
Modest Mouse – The World At Large
Jay Farrar – These Roads Don't Move
Say Hi – They Write Books About This Sort of Thing
Spoon – This Book Is A Movie
Belle & Sebastian – This Is Just A Modern Rock Song
The Pogues – Thousands Are Sailing
The Tiger Lillies – To Be or Not to Be
The 5 Browns – To Kill A Mockingbird: “Main Title”
Brobdingnagian Bards – Tolkien (The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings)
Vashti Bunyan – Train Song
Eileen Laverty – Tread Softly
The Smashing Pumpkins – Tristessa
Horslips – Trouble (With A Capital T)
Künnecke & Smukal – Truman Capote
Robyn Hitchcock – TS Eliot Rap - Spoken Word
Anny Celsi – 'Twas Her Hunger Brought Me Down
Magic Arm – Type Endlessly
Franz Ferdinand – Ulysses
Donovan – Under The Greenwood Tree
The Pines – Ungrammatical
Dionne Warwick – Valley Of The Dolls [Theme From]
The Velvet Underground – Venus In Furs
Charles Trenet – Verlaine
The Scattered Pages – Virginia Woolf
Indigo Girls – Virginia Woolf
Vic Chesnutt – Wallace Stevens
Trampled By Turtles – Walt Whitman
Billy Bragg – Walt Whitman's Niece
The Black Heart Procession – Wasteland
Kind of Like Spitting – We Are Both Writers
Alela Diane – We Are Nothing
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – We Call Upon The Author
The Dandy Warhols – Welcome To The Monkey House
Galt MacDermot – What A Piece Of Work Is Man
Cornershop – What Did the Hippie Have In His Bag?
Lowe, Nick – When I Write The Book
Eddie From Ohio – When The Last Page Is Turned
Mumford & Sons – White Blank Page
Jefferson Airplane – White Rabbit
Green Day – Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?
James Brown – Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? - Single Version
Phil Ochs – William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park And Escapes Unscathed
Jay Farrar – Williamine
Belle & Sebastian – Wrapped Up In Books
Star Wheel Press – Write a Novel (Modern Loss)
Sean Flinn & The Royal We – Write Me A Novel
Peter Bjorn And John – Writer's Block
Just Jack – Writer's Block
PT Walkley – Writers Block
South of France – Writers Block
Lloyd Cole – Writers Retreat!
Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights
White Flag – Wuthering Heights
The Cranberries – Yeats' Grave
Ken Nordine – Yellow
Bo Diddley – You Can't Judge A Book By It's Cover
Bob Dylan – You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Young Adult Fiction

How a Non-Assignment Clause Can Destroy a Publishing Company's Valuation

When the owner of an independent publishing company wishes to sell their company they will
need to establish the value of the business they have built.  The yardstick that will be used is based on cash flow and, ultimately determined by the soundness of its author agreements.  Many start-ups are poorly financed, and in the beginning, the owners have neither the time nor the legal acumen to focus on their most important asset, their boilerplate author agreement.   At the outset of a publisher's career, this error can frustrate their ability to sell the company in later years.    

Problems often arise when publishers borrow agreements found online.  Lacking the necessary legal acumen, a start-up publisher may delete essential provisions that they do not fully understand.  For example, the assignment clause. 
 
Don't Let a Non-Assignment Clause Sink Your Ship

Experience is a hard school. To illustrate, Owen, a successful independent publisher with a backlist of 75 books, decides to sell his company. In his mid-50s, with no children to take over the business, his exit strategy is to bankroll the sale of his growing company into early retirement. As part of the due diligence process, he compiles all of the company’s author agreements, foreign translation licenses, and other important documents for a potential buyer to review. To his dismay, his attorney and broker call to say the deal had fallen through because the publishing agreement he filched off the Internet when money was tight contains a non-assignment clause.  The insidious clause reads, “Neither this agreement nor any right or obligation hereunder may be assigned or delegated, in whole or part, by either party without the prior express written consent of the other.”

What could have been a quick and very profitable business transaction requires the consent of all of Owen's authors, and in one instance, all of a deceased author's uncompromising heirs. And, the author of the crown jewel of Owen's backlist (which accounts for 50% of his gross annual revenue) will exploit the pending sale to renegotiate her contract -- a contract she desperately wants to get out of. 

While there are publishing programs at many universities and organizations such as the IBPA, you can only learn publishing by doing.  Since you are dealing with copyrights - intangible assets -- you must, at least, have an excellent foundation author-publisher agreement.   Then, through persistence and luck, you are in a position to make the most of the opportunities ahead.    

If you intend to sell your publishing company tomorrow, or 20-years from now, you need to pay attention to your author-publisher contract today. As Owen discovered, a well-drafted publishing agreement is a publisher’s most valuable asset.

Taking the boilerplate provisions for granted can also have severe consequences for authors.

Before signing a contract, it is important to understand what the contract says (not what the publisher says it says). In his autobiography, Twain lamented on his lack of legal acumen in negotiating a publishing contract with an onerous non-compete clause:

“I made my contract for The Innocents Abroad with American Publishing Company. Then after two or three months . . . it occurred to me that perhaps I was violating the contract, there being a clause forbidding me to publish books with any other firm during the term of a year or so. Of course that clause could not cover a book which had been published before the contract was made; anybody else would have known that. But I didn't know it, for I was not in the habit of knowing anything that was valuable and I was not in the habit of asking others for information.. It was my ignorant opinion that I was honor bound to suppress The Jumping Frog book and take it permanently out of print. [My publisher] as willing to accommodate me on these terms: that I should surrender to him, free of royalty, all bound and unbound copies which might be in New Company’s hands; also that I hand him eight hundred dollars cash; also that he supervise the breaking up the plates of the book…. One may perceive by these details that [my publisher] had some talent as a trader.” - Mark Twain
Had Twain been wiser, he would have hired a publishing attorney to help him navigate the competitive books clause in his contract.

Most publishing contracts today still contain Twain-like non-competition clauses that can prevent an author from publishing other books during the contract term. While no non-fiction publisher will strike its non-compete clause, if asked politely, most will offer the author a more palatable version of the clause than the one initially presented. In the case of fiction, the non-compete clause should be deleted. The literary result being the fiction publisher has to rely on the next book or option clause to protect its legitimate interests.

Nothing is demeaning or unseemly about asking a publisher to modify specific contract terms. For example, if a book is tied to an existing brand or business, most publishers will tweak their boilerplate out of respect for the author's branding (or trademark) concerns. Book contracts typically give the publisher (not the author) the right to determine the work's title. If the book is an extension or outgrowth of the author’s existing business (e.g., Chicken Soup for the Soul®), asking for approval and ownership of the title – which also functions as a trademark – becomes a critical issue. But don't assume a publisher will change anything -- despite their assurances -- once the ink on your signature is dry. That's not how the Game of Authors is played. As negotiations are winding down, make sure you straighten out misunderstandings and memorialize what has been agreed to. Once a contract has been signed, the parties are under no obligation to vary the terms.

Why formal agreements are necessary.

The key to a good contract is clarity and understanding the business (not just legal) issues endemic to the publishing industry. Ambiguity and inconsistency are the two critical ingredients in litigation soup.

For authors, it is helpful to keep in mind that most contracts are not take-it-or-leave-it propositions. Be courteous. Be tactful. Knowing what to ask for is critical. Use an agent or attorney who understands the parameters of the typical publishing deal to negotiate your contract. Also, working through an agent or attorney allows an author to preserve her creative relationship with the editor or publishing house while her representative hammers out the business issues.

For publishers, an overly author-friendly contract can be problematic when it comes to selling their company. Perhaps, Michael Joseph, a UK publisher, said it best, “No publisher can afford to fall in love with literature.”

Keep in mind that the duration of most publishing contracts today are for the life of the copyright. If the book is financially successful, the publisher and the author (or author’s heirs) will be bound together for a very long time. The above examples should clarify that getting stuck with a bad contract is a long-term, perhaps, intractable problem. 
Saturday, December 14, 2013

Twelve Common Copyright Permission Myths



1.       There's no copyright notice, so I don't need to ask for permission.

Not true. Since March 1, 1989 copyright notice has been optional.  Before that date, copyright notice was mandatory and a work published without a notice risked loss of copyright protection if not promptly and adequately corrected.

2.       If I give credit I don't need permission.

Not true. Giving credit means you can look at yourself in the mirror and say you are not a plagiarist.  However, attribution is not a defense to copyright infringement, which, unlike plagiarism, is a legal offense.  Copyright infringement is the violation of one of the exclusive rights granted to copyright owners.  By contrast, you can plagiarize material not protected by copyright simply by taking credit for it.

3.       Since I'm only using a few words I don't need permission.

Not necessarily.  How much you can borrow is a legal gray area. Sometimes even a small (but important) portion borrowed from a larger work can infringe.  Keeping with the view that copyright law should encourage creativity and innovation, not unduly suppress it, courts may excuse certain socially productive, but unauthorized uses.  Those uses are called fair uses.  Fair use is an argument against the rigid application of copyright law. It is determined on a case-by-case basis.  It considers what's been borrowed, how much was borrowed, how it was used, its importance, and the economic impact it has on the original.  If you borrow the "heart" of a work, it weighs against fair use.       
 
4.       I don't need permission because I'm going to adapt the original work.

No.  You can't make a work your own by adapting it.  Copyright law grants  copyrights owners the exclusive right to control modifications to their work.  If you add, or even delete,  material from someone's work without permission, you have created an unauthorized derivative work. 

5.       Since the work is in the public domain, I don't have to clear permissions.

Not necessarily.  A book or motion picture, for example, may have fallen into the public domain for technical reasons, but there may still be copyrights to contend with.  While a book may be in the public domain, photos or other materials that appear in the book may remain legally protected.  Similarly, the composer of an in-copyright soundtrack, to an otherwise public domain film, can restrict the exhibition of that film by claiming a right to the music within.  While copyright in a photograph of a celebrity may no longer be in effect, if the image of the celebrity is used for commercial purposes, it may violate the celebrity's right to derive financial benefits from her likeness. Similarly, the owner of an expired copyright may still be able to stop the commercial use of a related trademark, if the use falsely implies their support of the use.         

6.       My publisher will handle the permissions.

Probably not.  Most publishers place that burden of clearing and paying for permissions on the author's shoulders.   

7.       I can always obtain permission later.

Later may be too late.  Copyright owners have the unfettered right not to grant you permission.  It is better to know now than later, that a critical component of your work cannot be cleared for use.    

8.       Since I'm planning to use my work for nonprofit educational purposes, I don't need permission.

Not necessarily.  The issue isn't the user, it's the manner of use.  If the use is a commercial use -- and it falls outside the bounds of fair use -- even a nonprofit educational institution can be held liable for copyright infringement.  

9.       I don't need permission because the work I want to use is more than 75 years old.

Not necessarily.  In 1998, Congress added 20 years to most copyright terms.  For works published after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus another 70 years.  For a pre-1978 work by a sole author, the maximum term of copyright protection is 95 years from the date the work was published or registered.  For works created by an employee, specially commissioned works, and works published pseudonymously, the copyright term is even longer.

10.      The material I want to quote is from an out-of-print book.   Out-of-print means that the work is in the public domain.  Correct?

Not necessarily.  Out-of-print does not mean out-of-copyright.  When a book goes out-of-print, it is no longer commercially valuable.  While that may trigger an author's right to recapture her copyright, it doesn't eject the book into the public domain.  

11.      A Creative Commons ("CC") license means I can use the material without permission.  

Yes, but restrictions may apply.  A CC license allows certain uses for free. What those allowable uses vary.  Some CC licenses place restrictions on commercial and uncredited uses.  Some permit modifications, others may not.  To determine what is allowable, you must read the license carefully.  
  
12.    I found a photo on the Internet.  Since it was uncredited, I can use it in my book.    

Not true.  Neither the ease with which users can upload or download online content, nor the fact that content was posted anonymously on the internet, places it in the  public domain. 


Related:
A Primer on Fair Use

LLOYD J.  JASSIN has practiced publishing, entertainment and trademark law for over two decades.  He is an adjunct professor at NYU Publishing Program, where he teaches a course on digital rights and permissions.  He is co-author of The Copyright Permission and Libel Handbook (John Wiley & Sons).  Contact: The Law Offices of Lloyd J. Jassin, 1501 Broadway 12th FL, New York, NY 10036 | (212) 354-4442 (tel.) | Jassin@copylaw.com | www.copylaw.org | Twitter

DISCLAIMER:  This article is not intended as legal advice.  Because the law is not static and one situation may differ from the next, the author assumes no responsibility for actions taken based on information contained in this article.  Be aware that the principles contained in this article are subject to exceptions and qualifications.  Thus, when in doubt, seek legal advice from an experienced copyright or media law attorney, or err on the side of caution, and obtain permission or an appropriate release.