Made up emails

Gena_Skyler · Nov 25, 2013

Not sure if this is the right forum to ask this in, so if it needs to be moved, I apologize.

My current WIP is a short story that is being told through a series of exchanged emails. It only just occurred to me now that the email addresses that I am using for my characters may actually exist IRL.

I know a logical suggestion to this would be to go ahead and create false email addresses solely for the use of my story to avoid anything that could possibly come out of it. However, there are several different characters in the story and I feel like it would be a waste to create that many false addresses.

If I were to use a yahoo domain or telus domain would it get me in trouble? Should I just make up a couple of fake domains for my story?

Filigree · Nov 25, 2013

When I needed to do something similar, I made up domains. Then I checked to see if they existed, anyway.

MookyMcD · Nov 25, 2013

Every time I think I'm out...

(sorry, inside joke)

Using yahoo or gmail e-mail that prominently in your book could run afoul of trademark protections (causing confusion about source, sponsorship or approval). It's an easy enough fix, though. Just create fictitious e-mail providers. Goobermail, Shoutmail.com, etc.

Jamesaritchie · Nov 25, 2013

Gena_Skyler said:
If I were to use a yahoo domain or telus domain would it get me in trouble?

I sure hope not. I've done so several times. Editors allowed each one to stay in, and there have been no complaints.

I'm just having a character do something I do every day, no different than having a character eat at Wendy's, which I've also done several times.

AdrianLynn · Nov 26, 2013

Do your characters have jobs that come up in the story? If so, have them email from their work email (if it makes sense with the story.) Most companies have their own domains, so you could easily do firstinitiallastname @ placeofwork.com.

Filigree · Nov 26, 2013

That format is common in the corporate world, and would add a veneer of authenticity.

Buffysquirrel · Nov 26, 2013

I bought a domain so I wouldn't have this problem....

MookyMcD · Nov 26, 2013

Wouldn't you need at least two domains?

Seems easier to just make them (or corporate e-mail addys) up as you go.

EMaree · Nov 26, 2013

Or you can just image they've got the contacts saved as friends and just have:

From: Tony; From: Jen etc.

Maryn · Nov 26, 2013

How hard is it to invent a domain and see if it exists? [email protected], [email protected], whatever.

And unless you malign the real gmail, yahoo, etc. there's no reason not to use them unless the content of your work might be morally objectionable to some of their customers (i.e., erotica, political- or religion-based). I don't see how it's different from having a character eat a Popsicle, make a Xerox copy, or go Rollerblading.

You would, of course, face the real-world challenge of making sure nobody has the made-up email. My real name is pretty unusual, but to my amazement, there are not one but two other women with exactly the same first and last name and spelling. So it would not be unrealistic for your characters to use their real first or last names with some nonsense or numbers just to get something unique enough that it's not taken, i.e. [email protected]., or [email protected].

Maryn, who doesn't have either of those emails--yet

DreamWeaver · Nov 26, 2013

Spammers are now registering all kinds of completely nonsense letter combinations for spam domains, so your chances of coming up with a domain that never gets registered is decreasing. However, pretty sure the spammers wouldn't get wrapped around the axle if you accidentally used their domain in a book--it's throwaway to them. It's if it's someone else's domain that it gets ugly.

And if your book should take off, someone will probably register your made-up domains to make money. Easier to register two or three of your own domains. Googling for good registrar deals, you can get them for less than $10 a year. You don't have to actually do anything with them--just leave them parked.

MookyMcD · Nov 26, 2013

Maryn said:
And unless you malign the real gmail, yahoo, etc. there's no reason not to use them unless the content of your work might be morally objectionable to some of their customers (i.e., erotica, political- or religion-based). I don't see how it's different from having a character eat a Popsicle, make a Xerox copy, or go Rollerblading.

It depends on how prominently a given provider is featured. I've done about 5,000 words of blog posts about this in the past week or so, and I don't really want to rehash the whole issue, but trademark protection can be lost if you genericize the name by allowing broad uses. Your examples of someone having fleeting contact with a trademarked product are no sufficient to cause reasonable confusion regarding source, sponsorship or approval, which is the standard, so those are fine.

FWIW, this isn't just messageboard knowledge. I've got two affidavits of continued use (trademarks) on my desk that I have to file USPTO before close of business tomorrow. I've practiced law in the field of IP for almost 20 years.

Roxxsmom · Nov 26, 2013

Gena_Skyler said:
Not sure if this is the right forum to ask this in, so if it needs to be moved, I apologize.

My current WIP is a short story that is being told through a series of exchanged emails. It only just occurred to me now that the email addresses that I am using for my characters may actually exist IRL.

I know a logical suggestion to this would be to go ahead and create false email addresses solely for the use of my story to avoid anything that could possibly come out of it. However, there are several different characters in the story and I feel like it would be a waste to create that many false addresses.

If I were to use a yahoo domain or telus domain would it get me in trouble? Should I just make up a couple of fake domains for my story?

Hmmm, the old Jenny I've got your number thing (in the 80s there was a popular tune that repeated the same phone number over and over--within weeks of its hitting the charts, everyone with that number for real had requested their phone companies to change it). There are people who for whatever reason might try spamming a "fake" e-mail that turns out to be real.

Fake domain names are one possibility, though be aware that even something you make up might actually exist. Another is not to mention the real e-mail. A lot of old-time stories with phone numbers people actually had to dial or punch in simply state, "He dialed her number."

Is there a reason why the domain name is germane to the story?

Gena_Skyler · Nov 26, 2013

Thanks for the advice

Your help is appreciated.

My hope is to set the story up by showing the actual email. So with the From, To, Subject and Date field to give authenticity. I could go with nicknames, as has been suggested, but at one point in the story one of the characters give's out another's email address so the MC can contact him.

Some of these people could work at companies, for sure, but some of them are just retirees.

I might look into purchasing a domain, but I also might just make a few up and then google them...

Maybe it would just be easier to make the email addresses for real to make sure no one is using them. But don't they get shut down after they haven't been used for a certain period of time?

ap123 · Nov 26, 2013

Roxxsmom said:
Hmmm, the old Jenny I've got your number thing (in the 80s there was a popular tune that repeated the same phone number over and over--

I now have 867-5309 running through my head. Over and over and over...

Buffysquirrel · Nov 26, 2013

MookyMcD said:
Wouldn't you need at least two domains?

The OP might. I didn't, for my purposes.

MookyMcD · Nov 26, 2013

ap123 said:
I now have 867-5309 running through my head. Over and over and over...

x2.

DreamWeaver · Nov 26, 2013

Speaking of 867-5309, did you know that now people can keep their numbers, it's almost impossible to get that one? A local plumber has it here, with an altered version of the song advertising his plumbing business

.

Roxxsmom · Nov 26, 2013

Gena_Skyler said:
Thanks for the advice Your help is appreciated.

My hope is to set the story up by showing the actual email. So with the From, To, Subject and Date field to give authenticity. I could go with nicknames, as has been suggested, but at one point in the story one of the characters give's out another's email address so the MC can contact him.

This could contribute to characterization too. The kind of username/email address a person has says volumes about them.

ap123 said:
I now have 867-5309 running through my head. Over and over and over...

Oh God, what have I done? I'm so sorry.

ap123 · Nov 26, 2013

Roxxsmom said:
This could contribute to characterization too. The kind of username/email address a person has says volumes about them.

Agree. And sometimes it says, oh, say...my son set up this email account for me.

Oh God, what have I done? I'm so sorry.

DancingMaenid · Nov 26, 2013

I think almost every time I've seen a story that incorporated emails, the writer used made-up domain names. You can't guarantee that the domain will never be created for real (unless you create it, yourself), but the chances of something generic becoming as ubiquitous as gmail or yahoo are probably very slim.

Sydneyd · Nov 26, 2013

MookyMcD said:
snipped image

Using yahoo or gmail e-mail that prominently in your book could run afoul of trademark protections (causing confusion about source, sponsorship or approval). It's an easy enough fix, though. Just create fictitious e-mail providers. Goobermail, Shoutmail.com, etc.

This seems like the easiest solution to me. This way, the problem ceases to exist (until Goobermail becomes a real thing)

BUT

How cool would it be if you took the time to register the names you needed and then you had those available for marketing purposes? I am thinking of the show How I Met Your Mother, where almost every website or link they mentioned, they actually created. It added an extra something to the show and could do the same to your story.

EMaree · Nov 27, 2013

Sydneyd said:
How cool would it be if you took the time to register the names you needed and then you had those available for marketing purposes? I am thinking of the show How I Met Your Mother, where almost every website or link they mentioned, they actually created. It added an extra something to the show and could do the same to your story.

This is fun to do, but I really recommend not doing it until you have a contract in-hand for the book. It's easy to get carried away doing these, pickig up $5 domains because i's only $5, after all, and before you know it you're paying $50/year on random book-related domains.

usuallycountingbats · Nov 27, 2013

As someone who had the internal telephone number 007 in halls of residence at university, I would strongly recommend you either make up fictional domains or open accounts with the addresses you use. I promise you, people will use them. Probably whilst drunk.

Gena_Skyler · Nov 27, 2013

Thanks everyone for your input.

I think I will probably establish fictional domains for now, and if I do get a contract for the story, maybe I can then register them.

Made up emails

Mildly Disturbing

I go to eleven

I haunt QLH

Mildly Disturbing

I go to eleven

a demon for tea

At Sea

Shakespearean Fool

I go to eleven

Beastly Fido

Twitching

I go to eleven

Shakespearean Fool

Beastly Fido

Twitching

New kid...seven years ago!

Aye, ye scurvy dog!

a demon for tea

Procrastinating on the net.