This is a sponsored guest post from Jonathan Griffin. Jonathan is Deputy CEO of the Publishers Licensing Society.

Requesting permission to reuse content for a book – for example a quote, short extract, or a diagram – can be very frustrating.

First of all, there’s the challenge of knowing where to start – who should you be asking the permission from? What are their contact details? Who, within a rights holding organisation (such as a publishers), is the right person to contact? Then, even when you have all the right contact details, how do you know what information to supply? It’s no wonder a third of permissions requests are abandoned – it can be a very time consuming process.

We’ve been working hard at PLS on improving the permissions process, so here are some tips to help make the process less stressful:

• If you need help finding the rightsholder, and/or putting together your request, try PLSclear for free
• Quickly find the correct contact in a rightsholding organisation
• Nine times out of 10 PLSclear identifies the correct rightsholder (better than other leading similar products) – and if you get stuck, you can always contact our helpdesk
• Complete a simple interactive form
• The service emails it directly to them for a decision, and also emails you a copy for your records
• Allow enough time for the request to be reviewed and granted – the time taken for this can vary from publisher to publisher, but you should allow from 2-4 weeks.

More information about requesting permissions.

Try PLSclear for free, or contact us on plsclear@pls.org.uk