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Permissions

If you would like permission to use an extract, illustration or cover from our books, you're in the right place

The Permissions & Content Licensing team is responsible for licensing material from books published by Penguin Random House UK and unpublished materials found in the Penguin Random House UK Archive and Library.

How can we help?

We receive a huge variety of permission requests from authors, publishers, exam boards, charities and TV, film and radio producers. We are always happy to hear from requestors who want to use material from our books in their projects.

You can use our permission request form for the following projects:

Print, eBook and/or Audiobooks

The use of an extract, illustration and/or book cover within your publication (e.g. your novel, textbook, anthology, academic journal).

Props for TV, Film and/or Social Media

Displaying the cover and/or interior of a book on screen.

Broadcast

Reading extracts aloud or broadcasting portions of our audio books on television, radio and elsewhere.

Exhibition

Use of an extract, illustration and/or book cover in your gallery, exhibition, or other public space.

Photocopying

Photocopying a portion of a book.

If you are contacting us from a school, university or business in the UK, you may be able to copy portions of a work under your organisation's CLA Copyright Licence. Click here to go to the CLA's website.

Setting to Music

Setting an extract or poem to music (which may also include publishing the music and/or performance rights).

Archive Materials

Use of correspondence or other materials housed in the Penguin Random House Library and Archive.

Other

For anything not covered above, use the ‘Other’ option in our form and we’ll get you to the right place.

Need an accessible copy of a book?

Please visit our accessibility page to find out how you can obtain an accessible copy of a whole book.

These are just some of the books in which we hold Permission rights...

Looking for something else?

There are several departments at Penguin who are responsible for licensing rights in different ways.

The Permissions & Content Licensing team specifically deal with requests for extracts, illustrations and book covers, and accessible copies of books.

If you want to license rights in a whole book, you might need to contact a different team:

  • Penguin Random House UK Rights Department license US rights, translations, film, serial and audio rights of complete books
  • Penguin Ventures is the licensing and consumer products division of Penguin Random House UK. They manage and exploit our portfolio of iconic literary brands and characters: Peter Rabbit, The Snowman, Spot, Flower Fairies and more, across product, experience and digital

All rights licensing departments are in contact with each other, so please don’t worry if you think you may have sent your initial request to the wrong place – we work together behind the scenes to get requests to the right team!

Use of some Penguin Random House UK books in Netflix series Heartstopper licensed by our Permissions team in 2022. Image Courtesy of See-Saw Films and Netflix, Inc.

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