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Name Brands in Fiction

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On July 30, 2015

So, you’re driving down the road, and you see a Ford F-350 with Monster wheels and an NRA bumper sticker. And you see a Toyota Prius with a Go Green bumper sticker. You know these are two different personalities driving the vehicles, right? You probably have formed an image already. I would guess you even think the driver of the truck is a male and the Toyota is a female. Or you might see a middle-aged woman emerge from a Mercedes-Benz decked out in designer apparel and nearby, a teenager emerge from a Ford Mustang wearing fast fashion. As an observer, you form images of these people and how they live, correct?

So it stands to reason that this is a great and quick way to convey impressions of your characters to readers of your contemporary novel, right?

Wrong.

Huh?

I’ll admit, to say, “Wrong,” is draconian. However, there are good reasons to avoid using name brands in books even though observing what people buy in real life is one way we assess them, whether we admit it or not.

But here are a couple of reasons why this isn’t such a great idea when writing a book:

1.) Your readers may not know the brands as well as you do.

I am the daughter of a man whose nickname in high school was “Speed” (because he drove fast) and he was proud of it. I also love cars, although I try not to exceed the speed limit. I have been told that  “Da-da” and “ca-ca” were my first utterances. In that order. So I keep up with cars, especially my favorite brands. But that doesn’t mean all readers do. Many of my friends say, “All I care about is that my car gets me from Point A to Point B.” But these friends of mine have other redeeming qualities.

The point is, your reader may not understand or care about this brand reference that is so important to you. Why spend your valuable writing time on a reference that may be lost to a large portion of your readers?

2.) Some of your readers may absolutely hate the brand you love.

Yes, it’s true. Not everyone likes Ford Mustangs. I know, that’s awful, right? Like, who doesn’t absolutely adore Mustangs? Well, maybe the reader whose ex-boyfriend drove one. You never know. And now your heroine is driving one. So your reader is now remembering that terrible breakup…Annnnd that may be enough to make her put your book down. Right. Now.

3.) One day soon, name brands will make your novel seem quaint.

This has always been true, but it is even more true today because tastes change faster than ever. Granted, there will always be the edgy contemporary novel that is deliberately trendy. And there is the novel that is all about designer brands. But that’s not the norm in CBA.

Generally speaking, if you want your work to be read more than six months from now, or if you are going the traditional publishing route, you want to be on trend but not ridiculously so.

4.) Using name brands to teach a lesson can backfire.

You may be trying to make a character unlikable to make a statement about snobbishness and/or stewardship and, in doing so, deck her out in designer duds. Perhaps this is a minor character you don’t think anyone will care about. However, by using this character as a straw woman to take the hit and to be a Sunday school lesson, you may be turning off readers.

What if the reader herself wears the designer duds you so despise? Or what if this “terrible” character is just like the reader’s beloved aunt? You may inadvertently turn off a reader by this form of preaching. Readers will easily see that they are being criticized and they won’t like it — or your book. So tread carefully here if you choose to tread at all.

5) Legal pitfalls

Before you use a trademarked brand name in your fiction use a little legal caution. There are things like “defamation” and “infringement” that can be troublesome. Simply refrain from saying that particular car brand is the “worst car ever made.” There are some excellent articles online to help if you are concerned:
Rights of Writers
Trademarks in The Fault in Our Stars
Daily Writing Tips

Are brand names absolutely forbidden in contemporary fiction? Of course not. Not when it makes sense to use them. But if a silver sedan for one reader is a Mercedes-Benz S class and for another, a Lincoln MKS and for another a Kia Optima, then let the reader enjoy the ride.

Your turn:

What other reasons can you give for not using name brands?

Can you think of reasons when using name brands are effective?

 

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Happy 85th Birthday Mickey Mouse!

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On November 18, 2013

by Steve Laube

 On this day in 1928 the film “Steamboat Willie” made its debut. The main cartoon character (almost named Mortimer!) was featured and Mickey Mouse was born.

You might ask, “So what? Other than fun trivia, what does this mean to me as a writer?” Actually the success of Mickey Mouse and the Disney empire cuts to the heart of today’s copyright laws which affect you and your work. A quick recital of history and you’ll see how Mickey is either your friend or your adversary depending on your opinion of copyright protection.

In 1787 the Founding Fathers established a copyright term of 14 years, and if the author was still alive a renewal for an additional 14 years. Many years later it was extended to 28 years with a 28 year renewal option (a total of 56 years).

Then in 1976 Congress passed a new law that set three new and important rules:
a) copyright protection was defined as the life of the author plus 50 years
b) Material produced before 1922 was considered public domain
c) Material already under copyright in 1976 were given an extension. Their works were protected for 75 years instead of 56 years.

If you do the math, that meant that in 1997 some of these older works were going to start going into the public domain (and Mickey Mouse would become public in 2003). So the corporations began lobbying for a revision to the copyright law.

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I is for Indemnification

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On October 21, 2013

by Steve Laube

Publishing is not without risks. Plagiarism, fraud, and libel by an author are real possibilities. Thus within a book contract is a legal clause called indemnification inserted to protect the publisher from your antics.

The indemnification clause, in essence, says that if someone sues your publisher because of your book, claiming something like libel (defamation) or plagiarism etc., your publisher can make you pay the fees to compensate for their losses. This is to “indemnify” which is defined as “to compensate (someone) for harm or loss.” Bottom line: The publisher has the right to hire its own attorneys (at the author’s expense) to defend against these claims.

Doesn’t sound like a happy clause does it? But you can understand why it is there. This clause and the Warranty clause are notoriously difficult to negotiate. (The Warranty clause is where the things the author guarantees or warrants are listed; i.e. the book is original, it is not libelous in content, etc. This clause will be more fully covered by me at another time) The language has been written by the publisher’s attorneys and are usually set in stone.

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News You Can Use – March 12, 2013

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On March 12, 2013

Plagiarism and the Link – How one author got sued when his publisher forgot to include the proper hyperlinks in his article. Read this article before write another thing.

Legal Issues for Authors – Particularly Those Who Self-Publish – An interview with Paul Rapp and attorney who specializes in intellectual property law. (Click here for his many articles on various topics in this area.)

How Many Copies Does It Take To Be an Amazon Bestseller? – Fascinating article that tries to answer every author’s question. But the use of BookScan as a threshold immediately creates controversy because not everyone sees it as authoritative.  Here are links to articles that dispute the accuracy of BookScan because of it being limited to only stores that report to them. (Here and here.)

Thomas Nelson Revives Two Imprints – Nelson Books will be headed by Brian Hampton. W Publishing will be headed by Matt Bauer.

Virginia Woolf on How to Read a Book – Who’s afraid to read this article?

“To read a novel is a difficult and complex art. You must be capable not only of great fineness of perception, but of great boldness of imagination if you are going to make use of all that the novelist — the great artist — gives you.” – Virginia Woolf

Life Emerges Inside Elaborately Carved Wooden Books – Amazing works of art by Nino Orlandi. Click through to see more. I have clipped one example below to whet your appetite.

 

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The Cost of Permissions vs. Fair Use

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On December 3, 2012

by Steve Laube

Every book contract has a clause that reads something along these lines:

If permission from others is required for publication of any material contained in the Work or for exercise of any of the rights conferred by this Agreement, Author shall obtain such permissions at Author’s expense, in a form acceptable to Publisher, and shall deliver such permissions to the Publisher as part of the complete manuscript of the Work. Permissions shall cover all territories, rights and editions covered by this Agreement.

In other words, if you use someone else’s book you must get permission or a license and cover the cost of that license. Be sure to consult with your agent or your publisher when securing the license to make sure it fully covers your project. Some places will charge for the first x number of copies and then require that you pay again if you sell more.

There are some projects where the permissions and licensing are a bit more complicated, especially with certain non-fiction books. For example, our clients Khaldoun Sweis and Chad Meister created Christian Apologetics: An Anthology of Primary Sources (Zondervan, 2012). This 560 page book compiles selections from over fifty primary sources that address various challenges in the history of Christian apologetics. The compilation includes a wide range from Saint Augustine to Saint Teresa of Avila and Blaise Pascal, to more recent and present day apologists such as C. S. Lewis, Alvin Plantinga, William Lane Craig (our client), and Richard Swinburne. (Click here for a sample chapter PDF and the Table of Contents.) To include every chapter’s material where the source was still under copyright the authors had to pay for the permission. They used the advance monies received from the publisher to secure those licenses.

Another example is our client’s project The Kingdom of the Occult (Thomas Nelson, 2008). (Click here for a sample of this work.) This 752 page reference book by the late Walter Martin and co-edited by Jill Martin Rische and Kurt Van Gorden has over 3,000 citations in it. When some of the citations are collected they comprise a good portion of the original source material. So they had to secure the permissions and pay for the licenses to use that source material in their book.

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The Landmine of Fair Use

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On November 26, 2012

by Steve Laube

Remember you can use the big green button to the right of this blog to ask us questions. Recently we received two that were on the issue of fair use of other people’s writing.

Steve,
What are the standard fair use rules for quotes of other published works? I used quotes in my book and my understanding was that if it was less than 250 words then you don’t need permission. But a friend is self-publishing and is concerned about quotations fearing she might get sued.

Always err on the side of getting permission.

One major publisher we work with has the author get permission for any quotations from a single source that is more than 25 words, collected (aggregate) across all uses of that source in the book. So if one quote is 10 words and 100 pages later is a quote for 20 words, the author must get permission.

Another requires the author get a written release from every person they interviewed and quoted in their non-fiction project. Including family members like your spouse, parents, or friends.

For more information read this excellent article by publishing attorney Kelly Way called “All’s Fair in Love and War – But Not in Copyright Law.”

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Quote the Bible…Carefully

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On June 11, 2012

By Steve Laube


In talking with readers it is interesting to ask whether they bother to look up a Bible citation or question whether a Bible verse has been quoted correctly. Very few actually verify quotations or citations. But maybe they should. The Word of God is powerful and should not be taken for granted. There are many readers who admit to skipping over Bible verses when quoted in full. The thought is that they are already familiar with those words and that they want to get into what the author is saying. Ironic isn’t it?

In the editing process one of the jobs of the copy-editor is to verify the accuracy of quotations and citations. And not just Bible verses. I once had a magazine editor ask me to prove that a quotation I cited was verbatim and not paraphrased. It took me a full day at the library to find that book again, make of copy of the quotation, and send it to that editor. (A tip for your research…write down the source, including the page number, otherwise you may never find it again! Some are using their smart phones to take a picture of the page and file the photo in Evernote.)

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Checked Your Copyright Lately?

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On January 14, 2011

Have you checked your copyright lately? I mean, have you actually gone to the US Copyright Office web site and searched for your registration? You might be surprised at what you won’t find. Here is the link to start your search.

Most publishing contracts have a clause that requires the publisher to register the copyright, in the name of the author, with the US Copyright Office. This is supposed to be done as part of the in-house paperwork process.

If you do not find your book, don’t panic.

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When Does a Book Become Public Domain?

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On June 29, 2009

Writers frequently ask about whether they need permission to quote from another book. The answer is usually yes. But if the book is in the public domain that permission is unnecessary. I don’t want to tackle the issue of “Fair Use” today, but instead provide a few links that you can use to find out if a book is in the public domain, or not.

First, use this form (http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~lesk/copyrenew.htmll).
This form searches the U. S. copyright renewal records database. Any book published during the years 1923-1963 which is found in this file is still under copyright, as are all books published after 1964 (although until 1989 they still had to have proper notice and registration). Books published before 1923, or before Jan. 1, 1964 and not renewed (in the 28th year after publication), are out of copyright and therefore in the public domain. The form only searches books, not music, etc.

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