It's true. Has anyone heard about this? Top novelists, including Philip 'Dark Materials' Pullman, are selling the chance to be a character in their books- for charity. have a look in news. Given the recent thread about how people's friends and family feel either slighted or delighted to feature in their loved one's work, any thoughts? It is a massive compromise or is it just good fun?

Hi Anna,

If you’re established like Pullman, it may be good fun. Personally I just can’t imagine writing about someone
‘real’.
Dawn,x

-What about authors and branding - Carole Matthews being paid by Ford to feature a Fiesta in her books. I’ve got a Porsche featured in my first novel – I wonder if I could get a 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet sent to me.

Hey you never know, maybe one day. Publishing is certainly changing.

Dx

You know, I think most if not all of my characters are born in someone I know or have met before. Although by the time I'm done with them they're completely born again! And I suppose that Phillip PUllman would not have the opportunity to really get to know the person he's writing about, so it would really just be regular fiction. Probably just keep the person's name or something. Sort of like buying immortality for your name.

Ani

I believe Terry Pratchett did something similar. I think a competition was held and the winner 'appeared' in one of Terry's books.

surely all ' real ' characters in books are amalgams of real people 'born' by the virtue of many hours of watching people and their foibles surely all they ar eoffering is the hook of having your name in their book and you having the ability to sya that sme an dbeing able to prove it.

This is fascinating when one thinks about it. However I think Ani has hit the main point about any Author 'getting to know' you as a person.

It would be difficult enough to write honestly about oneself - and you know yourself better than anyone! Autobiographical writing only scratches the surface and is inevitably biased; take any six people you know, ask for a candid, in-depth description of how they see you and you will receive six different answers.

I am sure that specific Authors had me in mind when James Bond, Tarzan and Superman were first envisaged... there again, I may be wrong.

Len