A poetry anthology looks like a simple proposition. Forty poems, a good cover, some careful typesetting. Then the manuscript is finished and the real work begins: working out who owns what, who to ask, and what you can print without asking anyone at all. Get it wrong and a book can be withdrawn; get it wrong at scale and the permissions bill can swallow the print run. Get it right and it is mostly patience, a spreadsheet and a decent paper trail.

Copyright basics for anthologies

Under UK law, copyright in a poem exists the moment it is written down or recorded. There is no registration, no fee and no © symbol required to create it, though printing one is still useful. The poet is normally the first owner of the copyright, unless the poem was written in the course of employment, in which case the employer usually owns it.

Copyright in a literary work lasts for the author's life plus seventy years. That is a long time, and it means the great majority of twentieth-century poetry is still protected. A poem first published in 1930 by a poet who died in 1980 is in copyright for decades yet; the age of your copy tells you nothing.

Short poems are not too short to protect

There is no minimum length. A haiku, a four-line epigram or a single memorable line can attract copyright if it is original. Some very short phrases will not meet that bar, but that is a judgement call rather than a word count. If you want to print something you did not write, assume it is protected unless you have good reason to think otherwise.

Owning the object is not owning the words

Manuscripts, letters and signed first editions are physical property. Owning one does not give you the right to reproduce the text in it. Copyright in a letter belongs to the person who wrote it, or to their estate. Archives will generally let you read the material, and that is all they are offering.

Fair dealing: what it does and does not cover

UK law has fair dealing exceptions, which are narrower than the American concept of fair use. They cover specific purposes, including:

• Criticism or review of a work that has already been made available to the public;
• Quotation from a work that has already been made available to the public, using no more than is needed;
• Reporting current events, with limits;
• Parody, caricature and pastiche;
• Private study and non-commercial research;
• Certain educational uses, such as examination questions.

Each exception comes with conditions. The dealing must genuinely be fair, which courts assess by looking at how much you have used, whether your use competes with the original, and whether it undermines the rights holder's ability to exploit the work. Sufficient acknowledgement is normally required. Printing a smaller run, or charging nothing for the book, does not turn a commercial anthology into fair dealing.

The practical consequence is that fair dealing rarely covers a poetry anthology sold in shops. Reprinting a whole poem by a living poet is a permissions job. Quoting two lines inside an essay about that poem may well be a different matter. Note also that the criticism, review and quotation exceptions apply to works already published, so they are no help if you want to print an unpublished poem.

Getting permissions: a workable sequence

1. Define exactly what you want. Title, first line, source edition, and whether you need world rights or just the UK, print only or print and ebook, for how long.
2. Trace the rights holder. Start with the publisher of the collection the poem appeared in, and expect to be passed on to an agent, an estate or a literary executor. Allow weeks rather than days.
3. Ask in writing. Email is fine. Set out the details above, the proposed retail price and print run if relevant, and the exact credit line you intend to use.
4. File the answer. A yes by email is a licence. Save it, label it, and note the date.
5. Budget for fees. They vary enormously. Some estates waive fees for small presses and charity anthologies, but they can only do that if you say what your budget is — so ask.
6. Be ready to cut. If the answer is no, or nobody can be traced, take the poem out. Substituting at proof stage is far cheaper than a dispute.

Contributor agreements: the clauses that matter

If you are commissioning new poems, get a written licence from each contributor. You do not need a full publishing contract; you need a short agreement that says clearly what you may do. The essentials:

• Non-exclusive licence. The poet keeps their copyright and can publish the poem elsewhere.
• Territory and formats. World or UK, print, ebook, audio, plus a limited right to use extracts for publicity. Be specific. A request for "all rights" will make an experienced poet wary, and rightly so.
• Term. The life of the edition, or a set number of years, with the rights reverting to the poet if the book goes out of print.
• Payment. Fee or contributor copies, the amount, and when it will be paid.
• Warranties and indemnity. The contributor confirms the poem is theirs and that publishing it does not infringe anyone else's rights, and agrees to cover you if that turns out to be untrue. Accept that an indemnity from an individual is worth only what that individual has.
• Credit and moral rights. Agree how the poet's name will appear. The right to be identified as the author has to be asserted in writing, so a line in the agreement helps.
• Third-party material. If the poem quotes someone else or is a translation, say who is responsible for clearing that.
• If the book does not happen. A kill fee or a simple reversion of rights.

The awkward cases

Translations. A translation is a separate copyright work. Even if the original poem is long out of copyright, you need the translator's permission.

Unpublished poems. The fair dealing exceptions do not apply, and the rights sit with the writer or their estate. Family permission is not the same as a formal licence from whoever holds the rights.

Estates. There may be several beneficiaries, a literary executor and a solicitor in the chain. Build in extra time and keep every exchange.

Song lyrics and extracts from longer works. These are usually controlled by music or trade publishers and are often the hardest permissions to obtain, so start early.

Poems already anthologised. A poem's appearance in someone else's anthology means nothing about your rights to use it.

Illustrations. Artwork carries its own copyright and usually sits with the artist or their estate. Do not assume it comes free with the poem.

Acknowledgements, records and the copyright page

Every borrowed poem needs an acknowledgement: title, poet, source publication, publisher, and wording such as "reprinted by permission of". Where a licence specifies an exact form of words, use it exactly. Check whether you need to credit a translator or illustrator separately, which you often do.

Keep a permissions log alongside the contents list. One row per item: contributor, title, rights holder, contact, date requested, date granted, fee, territory, formats, credit wording, expiry. The copyright page itself should state your copyright in the selection and editorial matter, and make clear that copyright in the individual poems remains with the poets.

One more detail worth knowing: the typographical arrangement of a published edition has its own protection, separate from the text. If you reprint a poem, set it in your own book rather than reproducing another publisher's page.

This is general guidance rather than legal advice. If your anthology involves unpublished work, translations, contested estates or a significant permissions budget, take advice from a solicitor who specialises in publishing law, or seek guidance from a writers' membership organisation.

Before you go to press

Run this check with someone other than the person who chased the permissions — a fresh pair of eyes catches the poem that was added at the last minute.

• Every poem is under written licence, written by a contributor under contract, or demonstrably out of copyright.
• Each permission covers

  Photo: 6689062 / Pixabay