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Freakonomics Radio
It was about Winston Churchill's style and in the process of writing it, the author had to pay to quote Churchill's words, written or spoken, due to copyright law.
I contacted them to let them know that I was doing this book and was surprised to learn, they told me, that any word of Churchill's, either written or uttered in public, was copyrighted by the Churchi...
— Episode: 110. Who Owns the Words That Come Out of...
Episode: 110. Who Owns the Words That Come Out of Your Mout...
It was about Winston Churchill's style and in the process of writing it, the author had to pay to quote Churchill's words, written or spoken, due to copyright law.
I contacted them to let them know that I was doing this book and was surprised to learn, they told me, that any word of Churchill's, either written or uttered in public, was copyrighted by the Churchill estate and that I would have to pay a royalty to quote from Churchill.
I used 3872 words of Winston Churchill's in the book and that cost me 950 pounds, which is roughly 40 cents a word.
I cut every quote to the bone. I was shaving quotes. I was cutting part of the book.
So they did bring it down somewhat. I can tell you that my entire advance went to photo and word rights in the end.
I've never - unlike Churchill, I have a day job because I've never written entirely for money. I really wanted to write this book and I'm really glad to see it.