[PubQ] "Filing the Serial Numbers Off"
Do y'all know how stories inspired by other creative works may still be publishable? (e.g., 50 Shades starting as a Twilight AU fanfic, After coming from a Harry Styles fic, Christmas in Coconut Creek being inspired by Pedro Pascal's character in Triple Frontier)? Is this something you would need to disclose to your agent before submission?
I wrote a rom-com whose main character was inspired by my favorite video game character. The story itself has nothing to do with the game, and the character has a pretty generic name that I tweaked. (If his name was "Bob Smith," I changed it to "Bob Stuart" and left no other identifying features beyond him being a middle-aged man). Three side characters are also loosely inspired by characters in the game, but their names only have the same first letter. If no other elements from the game are included, is this OK?
Posted May 28, 2025, 6:46 PM UTC