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Q&A How to tell readers your story is a re-imagination of a popular story?

As you have selected, it is not necessary to credit a story which is in the public domain. However, I notice that several of your questions have not been answered. I'll address them. Also, do y...

posted 6y ago by WhatRoughBeast‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T10:54:51Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42304
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar WhatRoughBeast‭ · 2019-12-08T10:54:51Z (almost 5 years ago)
As you have selected, it is not necessary to credit a story which is in the public domain. However, I notice that several of your questions have not been answered. I'll address them.

> Also, do you mention it in the title that's it's a reimagining, or would you put it in the preface.

You certainly can mention it either way, even though you don't have to. As an example, if you want to tell the story on a Mars colony in the future, you could title it, "Romeo and Juliet and Olympus Mons", or something similar in order to pique the interest. A well-known and prolific SF author, David Drake, is famous for his retelling of historical battles in a far-future setting, and he has been very forthcoming in his forwards as to exactly when and where the original occurred.

> I see it a lot in movies, but sometimes, they don't put any disclaimer or anything, and sometimes it's in the title and sometimes it's not. Is there a guideline on how to inform your readers in an ethical way?

Movies and TV are a somewhat different story. The industries are full of lawsuits about misappropriation of stories, and some of them have been quite successful. In general, a movie which actually uses an existing story will negotiate with the owners of the story and pay for the use. In such cases, no attribution is normally made. There are exceptions: "Breaker Morant" and "JFK" both included book credits at the end of the movie. But in general, it is not ethical (or legal) for a movie to make use of a non-public domain story without paying for it, let alone without giving credit.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-02-18T06:40:36Z (almost 6 years ago)
Original score: 2