Mention of other novels in your own?

[Stew21]

Is there a proper way to mention another writer's work in your own? I have a MC who was given a book by his father, the book and the content are very important to discoveries for my MC. Is mentioning the work, and any quoting ok as long as it is accompanied by the author's name for credit?

thanks,
trish

[janetbellinger]

I don't know but I have mentioned the titles of other author's work, crediting the author of course. I understand it's okay to mention titles but not the words in the work. I know that is true of songs anyway. You can mention the title but not the lyrics.

[maestrowork]

I do that all the time. I mentioned at least a dozen authors and a few book, song and movie titles in my book. No problem. Now, if you want to quote the book itself, I am not sure how fair use works.

[Maryn]

Titles, fine. Fair use prohibits most quotes of copyrighted materials. For many of us writers, how much of what you can quote tends to be a gray area best illuminated by a lawyer. Quotes for criticism and academic purposes are different from quotes in a book intended to be sold as fiction. A line from something twelve lines long is more significant than a line from something 100,000 words long.

Stanford put together a pretty good website (http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/index.html) on fair use. Check it out. It's a little dense, but not too bad if you go really slowly.

Maryn, whose lips move when she reads it

[Zolah]

As with songs, I think it's okay if you use non-specific terms to refer to the content of a book or song. For instance: 'Aretha Franklin wailed on the radio, demanding respect' or 'Jane Eyre's decision was painful but apparently simple. Sophie was weeping over the pages because she couldn't make her own decision; the pain stopped anything from being simple'. Except that Jane Eyre is actually out of copyright - but you see my point.

[Stew21]

no need to really do direct quotes, it can be avoided as long as subject matter and themes can be discussed. Thanks for the help.