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Let me make it clear right away: By “author trademarks” I do not refer to anything legal, e.g. in terms of copyright. Instead, in this post I use the term “author trademarks” to refer to a literary device. An author trademark is a reference (e.g. to an object, a character, or a happening) that is recurrent in the author’s work.

This likely reminds you of the concept of authorial style. You would be right to see a connection there. However, it’s important to understand something fundamental about what an authorial trademark is and how it works: Its presence in any single work (e.g. a novel) is neither unique to the given author nor particularly original. Its value – and its status as a literary device – comes solely as a result of its recurrence through the author’s canon.

We’ll explain all this in more detail right away, so no worries. Author trademarks are fascinating, but their peculiarities are important to know. Ultimately, you need to be aware of the dynamics involved before you can decide whether you need them or not.

What Are Author Trademarks?

As a very first thing I must emphasize once again what I mentioned above: The power – indeed, the actual detection – of an author trademark requires more than one novel. I’d say it requires several. An author trademark is the recurrent reference to an object, scene, or event from one novel to another.

In most cases, the element in question is fairly mundane. It could be a red car leisurely passing by. It could be a glass breaking due to carelessness. Or, it could be a very minor character who appears only for a paragraph and is otherwise insignificant to the given novel’s plot.

Perhaps you can know appreciate why such elements are unimportant and indeed undetectable within the context of a single novel. They acquire importance (and an author can use them for creative purposes) only as recurrent elements. To put it simply, as a reader you don’t pay much attention when a character comes home and places her keys in a small red bowl. It’s a mundane object, which remains mundane – except in cases of defamiliarization, but that’s a different story.

But what if you encountered the same red bowl in another book by the same author? And another? We have a case of literary meaning as a result of the act of repetition.

The Creative Use of Author Trademarks

As you might recall, meaning is not the author’s prerogative. Each reader – and each instance of reading, even by the same reader – brings new interpretative possibilities. In some cases, an author uses trademarks without any creative intention behind it. That is, an author trademark sometimes might simply be the author “tagging” their text, the way a director likes to include certain effects or objects in their films.

In other cases, the author might indeed have a creative purpose behind the use of a trademark, but that’s not very important either. Meaning always forms when the text is read – either literally, by any given reader, or figuratively, by the intended audience.

The buck stops with the reader, also when it comes to authorial trademarks.

In other words, it’s the reader that sees meaning in the repetition of such elements, and it’s the reader that interprets the text accordingly.

Author Trademark Examples

The details and options are endless, but here are some ways an author trademark can contain interpretative significance:

• Foreshadowing. Let’s assume you read novel A, about the protagonist placing her keys in the red bowl, as mentioned above. Then later in that novel, the red bowl is used for some violent purpose. What would you expect to happen if you encounter a similar red bowl in novel B? Notice how expectation and actual outcome are two very different things.
• Symbolism. The red bowl can stand as a symbol of, say, passion or rage. “Mary’s keys disappeared into the red bowl with an aggressive clunk – a painful reminder of what had happened that day.” Once again, novel B can feature the same color/symbol, or an altered one (say, blue and peace). Sounds, colors, the options are plenty.
• Creating Connections. This is a bit more subtle, but equally important. As an author, using trademarks allows you to create linkages between your stories, which can help your readers reconsider interpretations. If the concepts of novel A revolve around, say, indecision and timidity, and a certain element (the trademark) makes a reappearance in novel B, then, depending on the circumstances and context, we can have a transfer of these concepts to novel B.

It goes without saying that this list is neither exhaustive nor specific. The reason, of course, is that using author trademarks is definitely not an exact science. Which brings us to a crucial question.

So, Do You Need Trademarks?

One of the things every beginner author must realize – though make no mistake; I’ve seen experienced authors making the same mistake – is that they don’t control the meaning of their narratives. Not only because books can take over, resulting in a semi-subconscious result, but also because, as we saw, meaning varies from reader to reader. Even the same reader can return a different response on a different day.

In this framework, we must wonder: Do you need trademarks?

The answer is clearly, no. Trademarks are not essential to a given work. The reason? But because, once again, their scope is never limited to one given work but requires two (and preferably more).

Even then, I can’t say that they are particularly significant. They can be a fantastic creative tool – at the very least, they’re fun to deploy – but a narrative can work without them, too. On the other hand, they are certainly not harmful – provided you don’t rely on them to create meaning (a bad idea overall, in fact).