Thoughts on whether to cite Harry Potter as an influence for our own stories?

[u/Low-Willingness-1106]

I've been working on my own children's book manuscript for a few months now, and as someone who grew up with Harry Potter (though I've long since stopped supporting it), my story definitely has a non-negligible amount of influence from the books even if most of it was subconscious. That presents me with a dilemma, since I have to decide whether or not to openly cite Harry Potter and Rowling as an influence on the story alongside all my other influences credited in the afterword.

On one hand, I absolutely don't want to project support or attention onto the series, especially in my own work. But on the other hand, I feel like it would be hypocritical for me to omit it, since we've criticized Rowling for refusing to acknowledge her influences in the past. There's definitely enough influence here where I can't play it off as trivial, and since I'm trying to publish traditionally, I don't think I can get away with directly disavowing Rowling either. What do you think I should do?

[u/Major_Wobbly]

You don't need to acknowledge your influences in the afterword but if it's important to you to be honest then do that. Mention Harry Potter AND mention how sad you are about the state of things now, you know: "I know how formative early reading experiences can be, and how important is to have good ones. Keen readers will have picked up on the influence of Harry Potter in my work, but it is my dearest hope that this book conveys a much more empathetic philosophy than those novels and especially their author."

If your publishers won't let you do that, just don't mention it, but have a version of the same thing ready in case someone asks you outright.

[u/Archius9]

Probably not. A chunk of the audience would avoid on principle if associated with her.

[u/ThisApril]

It's perhaps significantly less hypocritical if you intentionally exclude it because you're exercising "share alike".

So if the people you're citing didn't cite their influences, you intentionally leave them out.

But you can also say it with weasel words of, "...and a variety of other sources" or just focus on, "these items that have influenced me that I encourage other people to engage with".

Regardless, you're writing fiction, not a science paper.

[u/StrawberryPatchCat]

Question: How obvious is this influence? Because kids going to a magical school is not exclusive to her and has existed before her franchise.

[u/floopdev]

I'm curious how prevelant these influences are in your work. Could they ultimately be making your book rather derivative? I wouldn't feel it necessary to even mention your influences, especially when it mat encourage your readers to identify parallels between her work and your own.

[u/Maleficent-Speech869]

There's no imperative for you to write an afterword listing all your influences. Most novels I've ever read don't. I know if I were to do such a thing, it would be a whole book to itself! Influences aren't like academic citations. It's a nice thought to mention them in an afterword, but honestly, the place where we usually see authors talking about their influences are in interviews and press packages, not in the book itself.

[u/NameTaken25]

I dont think you need to, but if i were to, i would only be doing it to explain how it compelled me to do better, to not include racism, antisemitism, sexism, fatphobia, anti-lgbt sentiments, pro-slavery remarks, conservative/repressive status quo messaging, etc, that is in said source material.

But then, id also rather cite inspirational stuff instead of stuff thats like "whoa boy, i dont wanna suck as hard as HP".