How Many Words Is It OK to Quote?

This morning as I was going through my emails, I opened up the most recent issue of ASJA Weekly. For those of you who don’t know, ASJA stands for American Society of Journalists and Authors. The fact that I just had to identify that after the fact strikes me as humorous, because the introduction to the newsletter featured a funny story by editor Holly Leber Simmons about acronyms. The punchline involved her mother and the F.U. acronym. I liked the story so much that I wanted to share it on Facebook or in this blog. But then I wondered for the umpteenth time: How many words is it okay to quote?

The answer is not definitive, which doesn’t help. But you’d better get it right if you want to avoid potentially being sued for breach of copyright.

I know, that’s nuts. But, as I repeatedly have to explain to my writing coach clients, that’s how it is in the literary world. There are, thankfully, a few definites when it comes to quoting someone or excerpting writing. Anything in the public domain is fair game. Public domain refers to creative works that are no longer protected by copyright laws (or patent or trademark laws for that matter). Works created 96 years ago or longer automatically fall in the public domain. So, if you want to quote Shakespeare or Jane Austin have at it. You’re all good.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to directly quote a song lyric or poem, for example, you might just want to paraphrase the idea instead. Why? Because they’re both so short that quoting even a line constitutes quoting a major portion of the work. By definition, that would not be considered fair use. In contrast, quoting a line or a short paragraph from a whole book probably won’t cause a problem.

Why probably? Because only a very few rules for fair use have been spelled out. So, while you’ll find a lot of conjectures–including that it’s okay to quote up to 300 to 500 words, for example–that’s just pure speculation. If an author decided you had violated their copyright, the court would decide the fair use question.

There’s lots more involved with this tricky business, and potentially a lot at stake. So, the next time you find yourself wondering how many words is it okay to quote? I highly recommend that you read Jane Friedman’s blog post on the topic. It’s as comprehensive as it is comprehensible.