Thread: Autobiographical Novella Question

Hello everyone. This forum seems just the thing I was looking for and I cannot wait to fully explore it.
I have a question and I hope you can help me on this.

I have just finished my novella. An autobiographical one. I used my real name as well as the real names of the persons who were part of the story. I read on quite a few sites that, unless I am a celebrity, which I am not obviously, I shouldn't be doing that and should alter the names and represent my work as a fiction. What are your thoughts in regard to this? I am intent on beginning to look for an agent or a publishing house, but not until I am a 100% certain everything is as good as possible.

If you are going to use real names then you must get their approval in writing, either that or pay for a lot of indemnity insurance. If you are going to change thenames then the characters should not be recognisable as their real selves. For instance, if you wrote of a black golfer, winner of multiple tournaments, who has a blonde wife and has had multiple affairs, then you might just get away with it; but if your character is also a paedophile then Tiger Wood's lawyers would descend on you like several tons of bricks... To write a mixture of fact and fiction requires very refined legal sensibilities.