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So next question. Product name dropping?? (edited because Product Placement is NOT what I meant ^^)
Do you avoid it? Do you do it on purpose? Do you think anyone cares?
I know in the Dresden Files, Harry goes to Burger King. I always liked that. He went somewhere real, somewhere I could relate to. I think Mercy has gone to McDonalds before to feed werewolves thirty cheeseburgers.
In my story, my character has a favorite tv show. I could just make something up and not use the real life show that inspired this aspect of her character, but she basically built her career partly around skills she developed because of getting into this fandom. It's pretty important to her, she geeks out about it, and I think it says a lot about her as a character.
So is it okay to drop the name of the tv show she's into and have her geek over it?
I personally think maybe this will just interest some of the people in that fandom in the story since it's mentioned. But is that okay?
I mean, if, for example, she were into Doctor Who, and part of the reason she had gone into say... history or museum curation was because she loved Doctor Who and because of watching that, she'd picked up interest in time, history, artifacts, whatever.. I would find it organic for the character to mention the show. Is that just me?
Also, just random things like where people get burgers from or shopping at a Walmart.. All of that. IS it okay?
Are there any legalities I need to know about?
And unwritten rules?
I also imagine I might be opening a bit of a can here... but she uses an ereader for reasons. If I say it's a Kindle, is that good or bad?
On the one hand, Amazon might appreciate that, and Kindle fans would probably enjoy it... but I don't want to alienate other markets if I decide to go wide. I wouldn't think that I'd be p*ssed if someone talked about using their iPad to read, so I don't know if it'd annoy readers who don't use Kindles?
I mean, I could avoid it, make up a name, or just not say what kind of eReader it is, but that feels inorganic to me. People don't typically say "I'll read it on my eReader." They say "I'll read it on my Kindle." or "on my iPad." etc.
Do you avoid it? Do you do it on purpose? Do you think anyone cares?
I know in the Dresden Files, Harry goes to Burger King. I always liked that. He went somewhere real, somewhere I could relate to. I think Mercy has gone to McDonalds before to feed werewolves thirty cheeseburgers.
In my story, my character has a favorite tv show. I could just make something up and not use the real life show that inspired this aspect of her character, but she basically built her career partly around skills she developed because of getting into this fandom. It's pretty important to her, she geeks out about it, and I think it says a lot about her as a character.
So is it okay to drop the name of the tv show she's into and have her geek over it?
I personally think maybe this will just interest some of the people in that fandom in the story since it's mentioned. But is that okay?
I mean, if, for example, she were into Doctor Who, and part of the reason she had gone into say... history or museum curation was because she loved Doctor Who and because of watching that, she'd picked up interest in time, history, artifacts, whatever.. I would find it organic for the character to mention the show. Is that just me?
Also, just random things like where people get burgers from or shopping at a Walmart.. All of that. IS it okay?
Are there any legalities I need to know about?
And unwritten rules?
I also imagine I might be opening a bit of a can here... but she uses an ereader for reasons. If I say it's a Kindle, is that good or bad?
I mean, I could avoid it, make up a name, or just not say what kind of eReader it is, but that feels inorganic to me. People don't typically say "I'll read it on my eReader." They say "I'll read it on my Kindle." or "on my iPad." etc.