Literary Character Licensing: What is Character Licensing in Literature?

In today’s world prequels and sequels are repetitive and licensing for literature is an equally huge business. It is not hard to view why the licensing of an adored character is profitable – recognition is half the combat for creating a new something. Copywriting characters became highly significant during the 20th century with the development of print media. The beloved fictional characters take an adequate amount of time to assert dominance but with the licensing, they add a cultural force. We reside in a world where we can see persistent literary character licensing – most popular children’s books are licensed out and we can see the products such as card games, plush toys, toothbrushes, and more.

Kids more than any other age group are more concerned about their fictional characters, and even their parents are familiar with their favorite cartoon or fictional character. It is never hard for the parents to gift them something because if it is popular and on TV, it is most likely to have its merchandise. They will buy their kids whatever will make them happy regardless of the product’s durability. It makes sense why children’s book characters have huge merchandise. So, in this article, we are going to read about what is character licensing in literature?

Licensing means having the lawful authority to utilize a copyrighted product for a certain period. In the matter of literary characters, the license is allowed by whoever is the owner or representative of the property for mainly a business to use the character. If it is by any means owned by the government the licensing is still possible but after an application procedure. Brand owners are mainly involved in businesses that have sizeable audiences, a good record of profitability, and considerable revenue. In nutshell, they make sure that licensing their property is meaningful and beneficial for them.

Some advantages of literary character licensing are listed below:

• It creates a chance for passive profits.
• It creates fresh business breaks.
• literary character licensing creates an effortless entrance into overseas markets.
• It provides the liberty to build up an exclusive marketing approach.
• It creates chances of self-employment.

To use a license the licensee (or the business) has to pay a licensing fee. The owner of the character license can be an entity, a writer, a publisher, or the domain of the writer. There are detailed reasons for a fictional character to be copyrighted. Even though copyright holders do not essentially require to license out their characters, it is a frequent practice for dearly loved children’s book characters.

With character named Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter started the practice of literary character licensing. In the beginning, she self-published The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which later became hugely popular among children. Her faith in her character also allowed her to play around with it and create a Peter Rabbit doll which later became extremely popular among kids. She also licensed several other products such as board games, tea sets, and more. She remained entirely involved with all the productions. If the movies based on Peter Rabbit were directed during her lifetime she would certainly endowed her thoughts.

Character licensing successfully drives poignant commitment to the brand, linking a character’s characteristics and account directly with a brand’s manufactured goods or services. And what’s the effect of the moving significance? The relevance is in driving key business metrics and trades when the product needs it most.

Also Read: 10 Most Shady Characters from Novels