Song (and Music) in a novel

Well, I'm not sure about everyone else, but I know E.B. White liked to put sheet music in his childrens book. (I'm thinking of trumpeter of the swan here, if anyone cares.) If the song is an important aspect of the story and you feel it would benifit people to have the sheet music; i dont think it would hurt to stick it in. But I doubt it would change much since people don't just run off and play sheetmusic every time they see it, just to know what it sounds like.

On getting the notes down: My best advice here is to find a friendthat plays piano or something, sing it to them, and ask them to help you get it down. It would have to be a good friend though; because it sounds a lot different in the head then it does sung aloud

-Feathers

Is the book itself done? If not I would wrap it up first. The tune and lyrics to a song fun but are very minor things that can be added after the book is sold. Then you can let the publisher worry about the format.

If you can get someone to help you compose the song...why not record it in some cheapie studio? Then, knock up a slide show giving people an idea of your book....nothing too complicated, just a few evocative pictures and a few subtitles, and have the song as the soundtrack.

Then stick it up on YouTube...very effective as a sales tool. All you need do then is post people the link to your YouTube movie

Music

Sometimes you're better off just selecting already written music, and then writing "sung to the tune of."