In a previous blog post, I wrote about how I was working hard at self-editing, cutting the number of words in the book. One of the techniques that I used was paraphrasing. This is where I took very long quotes and cut them down by saying the information in my own words. I didn’t really want to cut the quotations down, but I was concerned about getting into trouble regarding the copyright.
In the UK, copyright protects the original expression of ideas, but not the actual facts. So this means that I can say the same thing as the quote, but I need to say it in a distinctly different way. If I am proving a point, though, I have still used a reference to say where I got the information from. In most cases, I have actually kept some of the quote itself, so the reference is there, anyway.
There is something called ‘fair usage’, which does mean that it is ok to use the exact words, in small quantities. Again, there is a requirement to say where the quote is from.
By using paraphrasing, I hope that the book is more smooth to read, and adheres to copyright laws. Fingers crossed!