By John Sammon
Last week I mentioned writing a novel that is a roman a’ clef. This is where you write a novel where a character or characters are based on real living people that you have met or know.
I’m not an attorney and claim to know all about libel laws.
But if you’re not careful, this can get you sued, although libel lawsuits over written material against published authors are rare. Simply changing the name of a real life character in your novel is not enough protection.
Roman a’ clef is a French term that translated means “novel with a key,” a story that is a real true-to-life story or portrayal but disguises it as a work of fiction.
The benefit of doing one of these is that because you the author have real and personal knowledge of the subject matter (people or events), it’s bound to be a realistic and possibly interesting piece of work—rather than making something up out of the blue which if things don’t gel can become contrived and phony.
Real is often more interesting than fake.
Examples of roman a’ clef books that became successful are The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, about his real life friends and rivals on their travels in Europe in the 1920’s, and Primary Colors, which presented a fictional portrayal of Bill Clinton.
The potential problem for you the author is, the people you are writing about may see your work, recognize themselves and become angry about it. Or others who read your book may be able to tell who the real person is, and that person finds out about it and sues you in court.
Usually an author tries to disguise who they are writing about by changing the names of real people, the way they look and other identifying details.
Interestingly, if you are a celebrity, it’s harder for you to sue an author for libel than if you’re a mostly unknown person. That’s because as a public figure and celebrity, you willingly sought to place yourself in the public spotlight. Because you’re famous; the courts enacted a more rigorous protection of free speech for those who write about you.
“Okay you’re famous, you worked to become famous, you have to expect more attacks on your character.”
In a way it’s like saying, “Okay you’re famous, you worked to become famous, you have to expect more attacks on your character.” A famous person can successfully sue however if they can prove malice, that you the author knowingly and deliberately wrote falsehoods about them with reckless disregard for the truth.
If the person suing you is unknown (not famous), all they have to prove in court is negligence, your publisher didn’t check the facts, and damage, harm was caused to their reputation or livelihood.
My advice if you’re going to write one of these….a roma a’ clef….disguise as much of it as you can.
The alterations should be major so that a reader cannot tell who the person is who you are portraying in the book. Physical descriptions of the person, the location of their hometown, their occupation, their age and even their initials or the first letter of their real name should be changed.
Sometimes even this is not enough.
For example if you have a person in your book saying fictional things (quotes) that you made up yourself, and that are unflattering to the real person, you are still at risk.
Flattery on the other hand of any kind is usually a good protection against libel. Someone won’t sue you if you say in your book they’re a good, intelligent beautiful and talented person.
If what you’re writing is true, you can still be sued, but you will not pay damages in court if you prove that what you wrote is true (you have the burden of proof and could still have to pay attorney fees).
Generally speaking, you can’t be sued if the person you are writing about is dead. Defamation in court requires a living person whose reputation has been damaged. You can be sued by the relatives or associates of the dead person if they felt their reputations were damaged as a result of your book.
I will leave it to your judgement, but as a rule never write a novel with the intent of getting even with someone who has done you an injustice or mistreated you in some way in the past.
This I find to be cowardly, trying to get back at someone behind their back by doing on them a one-up or by having the last word. In life or in books, revenge usually results in nothing but harm.
