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| Wishing everyone a productive and Happy New Year 2025! Just a couple more loose ends to tie up as well as gathering my courage to hit the publishing submit button. GaelicQueen |
| I want a change of season. I've lived in Florida all my life, but it seems the summers are getting HOTTER. I go outside, and it feels as though my life breath is being sucked out of me. Quick now! In the car, crank up the A/C! GQ |
I think this has been a brutal summer even north of Florida. I too, have a hard time getting my breath in the heat and humidity and I'm a good ways north of there. Virginia was even hot near DC in June. Hard to breathe there, too!  |
Reply| I have a Brand Name vs. generic noun for describing a product. If you use a Brand Name product in your novel project, do you obtain the manufacturer's permission first, or do you just use a generic term for the product? In my WIP, initially, I use a Nissan Armada for the truck my Primary Character drove. Upon review, I decided to change "Nissan Armada" to "vehicle" - which to me seems too generic. If I were to use "sports vehicle," would that be descriptive enough? |
| As a general rule, you can't use trademarked names or slogans if you plan to use them for profit. If you're writing a story with a Nissan Armada just for the fun of it, then you can use the name. As a reader, I would like to see the brand and name of the car, but I also know what that car looks like. Other readers who are not into cars may not know if that car is big or small. To keep you on the safe side in terms of copyright as well as to make things easy for your readers, I suggest you try to describe the car in more generic terms. Depending on the tone of the story, you could describe it as useful or make fun of it: One of those Japanese all-wheel-drive sports vehicles that used up way too much gas for the amount of people it carried. |
| Naming the type of car evokes more character, and adds flavour to your writing. If you are worried about it then send their marketing department an email and see how they stand. Unless you are saying it's a heap of the proverbial, I cant see why they would even care to get some free exposure. Imagine how many Astin Martins Ian Flemming's publicity sold. |
| Using brand names us fine, according to copyright law. You may not use slogans or characters, but the name if a car is fine. However, some more litigious companies (Apple) will not allow their brand in certain genres or to be used by bad guys, and others (Disney) have even tried to gave the names of movies removed (unsuccessfully) from written works. But saying Porsche 911, Toyota Landcruiser or Holden Commodore is fine. (This is not an Australian thing; I learnt it from my last US publisher.) |
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