Page 4 | If I wrote an autobiography and published it on amazon then...

MsWhitworth · 16/03/2023 11:49

ZeldaWillTellYourFortune · 16/03/2023 10:59

Truth is a valid defense.

It is but you have to prove it. When it’s one word against the other, that’s difficult.

PlateBilledDuckyPerson · 16/03/2023 12:16

WigsNGowns · 16/03/2023 11:10

@medianewbie
this is very helpful, thank you x

Thank you for your acknowledgment. Would perhaps have been nice if I had had the courtesy of an acknowledgment from @coodawoodashooda who I was trying to help by answering their question.

I'm not bitter (!) but it is very irritating if you waste your time providing sensible and correct information that otherwise people would have to pay for and not only do you not get a thank you but you don't even get an acknowledgment that it has been read by the OP. I think its rude and it puts me off posting in reply to these kind of questions tbh.

I wasn't a poster asking for advice, as I have no plans to publish my life story, but I did find your advice extremely interesting and informative nonetheless. The law is fascinating and it's great when experts come along who can explain things in layman's terms.

ZeldaWillTellYourFortune · 16/03/2023 12:34

The complainant is the party required to provide proof.

PlateBilledDuckyPerson · 16/03/2023 12:44

ZeldaWillTellYourFortune · 16/03/2023 12:34

The complainant is the party required to provide proof.

That is not correct. Read the links provided by @WigsNGowns

QueenOfThorns · 16/03/2023 12:52

PlateBilledDuckyPerson · 16/03/2023 10:04

I think what pps are getting at with 'very unique' is that it's not possible in a linguistic sense. Something either is, or is not, unique. It can't be 'very unique'. It's either one of a kind or it's not. Unless a book is a word for word reproduction of another book, all books are unique.

Yes, this!

BadLad · 16/03/2023 13:44

ZeldaWillTellYourFortune · 16/03/2023 12:34

The complainant is the party required to provide proof.

Defamation laws would be worthless if this were the case. Trashy newspapers and magazines could ruin people’s lives. For example they could publish that someone had committed rape thirty years ago even if it was bullshit, because it would be very difficult for him to prove that he hadn’t. Proving a negative is difficult enough, let alone doing it so many years later. So, sensibly, the burden of proof is on the person who makes the allegations.

WigsNGowns · 16/03/2023 15:12

@PlateBilledDuckyPerson thank you - appreciate it.

SignOnTheWindow · 16/03/2023 15:34

Corcomroe · 15/03/2023 23:27

Do tell what a ‘publishing agent’ is, especially the kind that read and express an interest in unfinished MS by unknown memoirists?

Show quote history

I think that must be the kind who charge people a substantial amount of money to publish their books. Money that they will not earn back through book sales.

Fine as long as the author can afford it, knows the deal, and hasn't been misled, which is usually not the case with these types of companies.

Original poster

coodawoodashooda · 16/03/2023 16:40

WigsNGowns · 15/03/2023 23:24

No mention of names, is that enough?

@coodawoodashooda No. The test for defamation is whether the words complained of reference the Claimant. This includes whether people would understand the text to refer to the Claimant even if they aren't named.

So if you wrote in your autobiography "My cookery teacher was a rapist who raped me in the school toilets", it doesn't matter that you don't name the cookery teacher because anyone who knows you, knows the period you were at school and who the cookery teacher was would understand that to mean that particular cookery teacher who they can identify was a rapist. There will be a section of the public who would know who it was about.

Pseudonyms may help but it doesn't necessarily follow that it would be a complete answer -so if you write under a pseudonym but your photo is on the book or you do book publicity, or from the facts the school and time period are ascertainable it may also mean people could identify the cookery teacher.

So if your school had unusual features about it that you wrote about that allowed the school to be identified - it was founded in 1305, it was build on a the site of a former sewage plant and the school emblem was a hamburger - again it won't matter if you've changed the name of the school and the teacher - because some people would ID the school by combining those facts and therefore the teacher.

In other cases, pseudonyms may not matter at all - say a cabinet minister is writing about their time in office and is referring to the PM, there will be a tiny number of people who that could be - allowing the PM to be identified.

Defamation is anything that causes serious harm to a person's reputation but there are defences to that including that its true; it is honest opinion/fair comment; and its publication on a matter of public interest. There are other defences but those would be the main ones likely to apply to an autobiography.

It is correct that you cannot defame the dead so if you are writing about someone who is dead you can't libel them. It's possible if you are writing personal/private stuff about them that you could infringe the privacy rights of their next of kin but in most cases it's unlikely. The biggest risk would be identifying anyone who is the victim of sexual crimes which is unlawful.

Have you written it or is this just speculative inquiring? If you have a manuscript, you could instruct a very baby barrister on a direct access basis to libel read it for you if you are that worried.

This is the current main UK law governing defamation if you are interested
www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/26/contents/enacted

That's really helpful. Thank you very much. I will look definitely have a look.

OP posts:

Original poster

coodawoodashooda · 16/03/2023 16:44

WigsNGowns · 16/03/2023 11:10

@medianewbie
this is very helpful, thank you x

Thank you for your acknowledgment. Would perhaps have been nice if I had had the courtesy of an acknowledgment from @coodawoodashooda who I was trying to help by answering their question.

I'm not bitter (!) but it is very irritating if you waste your time providing sensible and correct information that otherwise people would have to pay for and not only do you not get a thank you but you don't even get an acknowledgment that it has been read by the OP. I think its rude and it puts me off posting in reply to these kind of questions tbh.

I've been at work all day.

OP posts:

WigsNGowns · 16/03/2023 16:45

That's really helpful. Thank you very much. I will look definitely have a look.

@coodawoodashooda Thank you for the acknowledgment which - as is probably clear - I very much appreciate.

Original poster

coodawoodashooda · 16/03/2023 18:03

WigsNGowns · 16/03/2023 16:45

That's really helpful. Thank you very much. I will look definitely have a look.

@coodawoodashooda Thank you for the acknowledgment which - as is probably clear - I very much appreciate.

My pleasure!

OP posts:

Corcomroe · 16/03/2023 20:23

Sotornjay7 · 16/03/2023 09:52

@QueenOfThorns @Corcomroe

Good morning you little rays of sunshine.

How your comments made me smile, I do like it when people try to belittle me especially when they have NO idea. I sense jealousy and wonder why you are in this thread.

As let the Oxford dictionary unique is to be one of its kind, unlike anything else. Unless you know my story you would only assume that I could not possible be unique well the readers will be able to judge that!

Please do your own research around publishing agents I wish to waste no time explaining.

@Rosula I am paying NO costs made that clear from the beginning. I have a meeting next week with a publisher and awaiting another’s reply.

I shall not be replying to anymore negative comments not aimed at you @Rosula as I have more important things to occupy my time.

I have an agent. I write novels. I have never met a literary agent who described him or herself as a ‘publishing agent’, who would describe an unfinished MS as ‘very unique’, or would be representing something unfinished to the point of setting up meetings with ‘publishers’. Apart from in very specific circumstances, no agent will be pitching an unfinished MS to editors.