A fictional story I'd like to write features an evil tech corporation... But I happen to work as a software engineer for a major tech corporation. In my mind, the evil tech corporation of my story is different from my employer, and I'll write it to be as different from them (or any other real tech company) as I can... But, should I be concerned that people would make assumptions about my employer because of my story? If so, is there any way around this -- or, is this story simply off limits for me? More specifically, this story takes advantage of my knowledge of the tech industry -- nothing proprietary or confidential, of course; rather, the sort of knowledge than any tech employee could have, but few would know outside of tech. (Something along the lines of Grisham writing about law, or John Le Carre writing about espionage.) And even though it features an evil tech corporation, my intent really is to excite people about tech. I understand that the clearest way to resolve this is to simply ask my employer for permission to write this story... But, as there's no benefit to them, I honestly don't see why they'd give permission. (And, if they did give their blessing, couldn't that potentially get them into more trouble? By that measure, would it be better not to ask?) Last, I understand that as an at-will employee, this (or anything I do, or even nothing) could result in my termination... I just don't want it to turn into anything more, such as a lawsuit. Does anyone have any experience writing about the industry in which they work? Do I need to consult a lawyer? Are there any good resources that you know of? Or, am I being overly cautious?
You don't need permission and certainly shouldn't ask for it. You're not writing about your work so why would you need their permission? I would just do it. You haven't even written your novel yet so you really don't even know at this point how many similarities there might be to your workplace if any. Even when I write creative nonfiction, I'm not asking anyone for permission to write what I'm writing. Say I have a doctor's appointment and want to write about it. I don't need permission to write about that. I probably wouldn't name my doctor, but I wouldn't ask him for any sort of permission. And that's nonfiction. I feel like you can really do pretty much anything with fiction. It takes a lot to write a book. And it's even harder to publish. That's where your focus and concerns should be. Some people might suggest a pen name, but, personally, I'm not a fan of pen names. I'm a writer, and I'll put my name on anything and everything I publish. Sadly, most people aren't going to rush out and read your book even if it's about the industry you work in and they're your coworkers. Really, I've been writing a long time both fiction and nonfiction, and I don't think you have a thing to worry about. I'm sure there might be other people who disagree with me. But I am a professional writer and things like this don't make me worried at all.
I agree with @deadrats that you should just go ahead and write it. See how it turns out. Once you know what you've got, you'll have a better idea of what to do with it. I'd say you're fine as long as your fictional company bears no resemblance to your employer other than what is common to all companies that do this kind of work. Invent new individuals, and don't mirror your co-workers in any of your characters, or write about any real events that have occurred in your company. If you put at the start the usual disclaimer—this is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to real life is unintentional, or however these things are worded—you're more or less covering your butt. Many writers (highly successful ones) write about professions they actually practice. Just ensure that your inner knowledge of how things work doesn't mirror any real events, and you should be fine. Depending on how the book turns out, you can certainly use a pen name, if that makes you feel more secure. Your employer and co-workers don't have to know you've written a book at all. Just be careful not to talk about writing it, while you're at work. Keep it under wraps till you know what you want to do with it.
You might even discover like I did that my work wasn't that interesting to a reader. When I would tell some of the stories of my past jobs my work mates would say you should write a book. I thought okay I want to be a writer, so I wrote it The Resume to this date no one’s read it, not even a beta and I wouldn't encourage anyone to waste their time. But this thread is about your post so thinking about it, if it is a fictional piece, write on brother.
First off, definitely write the book. Worst case scenario you can try to publish it under a pen name, but you probably won't have to. If the book is going to be published then you've already cleared your biggest hurtles -- this is a smaller one! The specifics of how you handle the employer would depend on the corner of the industry you're in, I think. I doubt Google cares. I doubt Amazon cares. These are big companies, they would probably just wish you luck and want you to avoid all of the things you're already avoiding (specifics about the company and its IP). If the industry is more niche than that, then I don't know. I've considered similar hypotheticals myself. I highly doubt that they would retaliate against you for just asking the question, so if you feel your company might be specifically touchy about PR, it might be wise to ask them before publishing rather than explaining to their lawyers after. If you do ask them, do the thing that they did when they made the movie Crimson Tide. Don't talk about your book's themes, just say that it has a character that's a programmer in it and you want to know what the relevant company policies are. (For context on Crimson Tide: basically they worked with the Navy to get technical advice on how to make the movie, but didn't go into much detail about the movie's anti war themes because they knew that would be a turn off. Ultimately the themes of your book aren't relevant. Don't mention the specific company that you work for in your author profile so that it doesn't mess with their PR. They will probably be more worried about IP than anything else).
I've written quite a bit of non-fiction abut my experiences in the commercial fishing industry. I wrote a novel 30 years ago set on a working salmon fishing boat too.
Thank you all! This has been very encouraging. In fact, I wasn't concerned initially, and now it sounds like I was just overthinking things -- a habit of mine which carries over from my day job. I'm not planning to tell work stories, although I'll surely explore the culture of the tech industry a bit. Mostly I want to utilize my technical experience in network/data security, and that sounds safe provided I don't divulge any IP or write any real companies into the story. Thanks again!
I think your problems would arise if you had some sort of grudge against your company or somebody in it, and decided to write a thinly fictional account of the situation. Then you could be in deep doo-doo. But that doesn't seem to be the case.
The only issue I could see cropping up from this would be if you named the company you work for. It's unlikely, if this is your first novel, that people will dig down and find out about you because of your story. Even then nobody is going to think you wrote it about your employer. If you're still worried, just be thorough in your editing process to make sure you remove anything that could be used to speak badly of your company. But at most, people are going to applaud you for being very authentic. Though don't bog it down with too much inner workings of the company. People are there for the story, not an introduction to tech companies. I'm sure you're not planning to make an introductory novel to tech companies gone wild. You will be fine to write your novel.
Even if it is obvious from the context which company it is, there are no legal ramifications as long as you don't plaster "This is a true story" all over it. As long as it is marketed as fiction, it should be fine. If you change details a little so that it is not obvious which company it is, then you are definitely fine. Having said that, some people might feel hurt by it. If you tell a story about an abusive boss and one of your ex bosses recognise themselves in the portrayal, they might feel hurt. I don't like doing that, but that is my preference - it sounds like you might have similar preferences
