Authors and book titles

[Cealocanth]

In a recent thread about Pokemon and DnD, I mentioned the name of a recently deceased author I figured was appropriate for the situation because all of his books have the moral "just because you can doesn't mean you should."

I played it safe and put it in a spoiler but I was wondering, are you allowed to mention authors and the titles of books in the forum?

[Anima]

The Forum Rules are rather straightforward in this matter:

Commercial (For-Profit) Advertising
Posting advertisements for commercial products, services, or events will result in an immediate ban, and all advertisements removed. Note that a suggestion of a product in the course of a related discussion is not considered advertising (unless the poster holds a personal stake in the finances of the company suggested). For example, if you are posting to a thread regarding d20 rules for shipboard combat, feel free to point other posters to a sourcebook on the topic. You can even link to the company that publishes it—as long as you don't work for that company. But don't start a thread whose sole purpose is to trumpet Book X and declare its greatness to the population at large.

(Exception: Representatives of Giant in the Playground and/or its licensees and distributors are permitted to make posts advertising services and products related directly to Giant in the Playground. They are not permitted to make posts advertising other services they might provide.)

If you wish to advertise a non-commercial website, please refer to rules regarding advertising.

So, as long you are not the author (unlikely in this case) or working for his Publisher or anyone else who would benefit from advertising his books, you are on the safe side.

[Mauve Shirt]

Hrm? Yes, as far as I know it's not against the rules at all. Unless it's How To Commit Religious and Racial Hate Crimes or something similar.

[Icewalker]

Honestly, from what I understand, talking about your own book is alright too as long as you aren't actively advertising it. Making a thread, or even post, about why your new book is awesome and people should buy it? Definitely bad. Mentioning you've written a book which is relevant to the topic? Probably alright, although it's Roland's word on this as everything.

If it's not yours? Yeah, no worries whatsoever.

[Cealocanth]

If none of you got the reference, I was ttalking about Michael Chrichton. So it's ok as long as I avoid advertizing and referencing my own things when it is advertising. Does it mean that I can say I like said author's book?

[Anima]

By all means, go ahead. You can even proclaim it the new Tolkien, if you want to. (Though, I would not recommend it.)
Otherwise half of the Media Board Posters would have been banned, long ago.

[DSCrankshaw]

Y'know, if I ever publish a book I'd want to brag a little on this forum. Would that not be allowed under these rules?

[Rockphed]

Y'know, if I ever publish a book I'd want to brag a little on this forum. Would that not be allowed under these rules?

Probably depends on how you did it. If you went into every thread ever and posted

I just writ the awesomest book evar! You should all read it and be amazed by how awesome it is. Muwahahahahahahaha!

You would probably get hit with a face full of ban-hammer.

If you went in to random banter and said, "I just published a book. It is called The Thunder and the Hammer and I hope it does well." You would probably get a nice discussion going about the premise, where it will be sold, and so forth. That would probably be acceptable. If you did it a dozen times and were incredibly pushy about how much you wanted it to sell, it would earn you death from the mods, but if you were just seeking advise/commiseration, it would probably be cool.

You could probably even start a thread on it if it made a best seller list, though that might be a bit excessive. Judging by the web-comics forum, you could certainly claim authorship in any threads that popped up about it. You might want to forebear until you knew what sort of opinions were being aired about your work lest the posters decide to tar-and-feather you, but you could claim the ownership. You could probably even try to tamp down debates about your book by issuing Word-of-God, though, that never works.

[Zeb The Troll]

It is acceptable to advertise your own works.

Advertising/Linking
As noted above, commercial (for-profit) advertising is not allowed on GiantITP.com. However, you ARE permitted to start threads advertising non-profit websites; either charity events or merely amateur/fan sites that don't sell anything. Please be sure to observe the rules governing Spam and multiple-thread cross-posting, however, and make sure your plug is in the most appropriate forum (usually Friendly Banter).

You may always advertise or link to works of art online, such as other webcomics, fiction sites, music sites, or anything else that generates original artistic content—even if that site also makes a profit off of that work. We don't want the rules against advertising to prevent people from discovering new creative works that they will love, and don't want to penalize artists for trying to make a living off of their work. However, if a site only resells creative work and does not have any of that work available online, then it is primarily a commercial site and cannot be advertised here.

As I understand this, you are allowed to link to the Wizards of the Coast site when recommending a sourcebook (for example). If your name is Patrick Rothfuss and people can by your book from your personal webpage, you are allowed to post/start a thread saying that you've written a book that you think people may like, that it is available at your website, and how to get to your website (even if the link on your website redirects to your book at Amazon.com). You may not, however, start a thread who's sole purpose is to get people to go to Amazon.com and buy books/milk/diaper bags in general because Amazon does not generate creative content, it only sells other peoples' works.

[DSCrankshaw]

Probably depends on how you did it. If you went into every thread ever and posted

You would probably get hit with a face full of ban-hammer.

If you went in to random banter and said, "I just published a book. It is called The Thunder and the Hammer and I hope it does well." You would probably get a nice discussion going about the premise, where it will be sold, and so forth. That would probably be acceptable. If you did it a dozen times and were incredibly pushy about how much you wanted it to sell, it would earn you death from the mods, but if you were just seeking advise/commiseration, it would probably be cool.

You could probably even start a thread on it if it made a best seller list, though that might be a bit excessive. Judging by the web-comics forum, you could certainly claim authorship in any threads that popped up about it. You might want to forebear until you knew what sort of opinions were being aired about your work lest the posters decide to tar-and-feather you, but you could claim the ownership. You could probably even try to tamp down debates about your book by issuing Word-of-God, though, that never works.

Well, I think the most I would do is start a thread in Random banter or Arts and Crafts--not sure which one to be honest--and, of course, put it in my sig, which is currently pretty empty.

As for claiming authorship, I think I'd be hard pressed to claim I wasn't the author, as I use my actual name for my forum name. Maybe I'd have to change that if I became too famous (one can dream, can't he?).

[Kobold-Bard]

Why would you not be allowed to mention books/authors. As long as it isn't politics/religion/etc. Or advertising or whatever.

People discuss movies/music/games all the time, why would books be off-limits?

[Lioness]

If your name is Patrick Rothfuss and people can by your book from your personal webpage, you are allowed to post/start a thread saying that you've written a book that you think people may like, that it is available at your website, and how to get to your website

Though you may want to provide a disclaimer that the book is highly addictive, and no, the second book is not out yet and I don't know when it will be.

...

[Zeb The Troll]

Though you may want to provide a disclaimer that the book is highly addictive, and no, the second book is not out yet and I don't know when it will be.

...

Indeed, though the blog about why is fairly humorous (though rated R for language).

[NerfTW]

Why would you not be allowed to mention books/authors. As long as it isn't politics/religion/etc. Or advertising or whatever.

People discuss movies/music/games all the time, why would books be off-limits?

I've seen rules like that on a few forums. Usually "fan" sites and webcomics that are trying to turn a profit off advertising. They don't want anyone going anywhere else ever.

But you can usually spot those a mile away. Like the fan sites that do everything they can to look like an official site. The two I remember are an Everquest and a World of Warcraft site back in the day (5+ years ago) that would post patches and updates in first person as though they were the publishers. Those sites had that rule.

[Serpentine]

Well, it's not here. So long as you don't have a vested interest and aren't actively urging people to spend their money on it, it's totally fine to discuss books. That anyone'd think you wouldn't be able to - and in a forum titled "Media" - boggles my mind