History Main / FictionalDocument

* In the StarTrekVoyagerRelaunch, the Royal Protocol document, bane of Starfleet Officers everywhere. A complete list of dos and don'ts for interacting with alien royals, it's a necessity if diplomatic incidents are to be avoided. It's mind-numbing in its detail, full of little rules along the lines of "when greeting the King, touch your head to the ground three times and then wave your left hand. Oh, and under no circumstances wear purple". An important plot point arises when it's realized "Royal Protocol" has a very different meaning to the Borg.

* The {{Transformers}} follow the Covenant of Primus, a book of prophetic texts delivered by their creator-god, in many continuities, most notably ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' and the "Aligned" continuity branch that includes the ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' TV series and a series of novels.

* The fat sci-fi paperback ''StephenColbert's Alpha Squad 7: Lady Nocturne: A [[ParodySue Tek Jansen]] Adventure'' is, inexplicably, not popular with publishers. Colbert eventually decided to self-publish in the form of comic books and animated shorts, both of which ''do'' exist in RealLife.

* ''MirrorMask'' has "The Really Useful Book" and "A Complete History of Everything"

* The Books of Chzo, which includes The Book of The Bridge, the Book of The New Prince, The Book of Victims, and the Book of The Prince. These Books are shown in pieces throughout the ChzoMythos in order to flesh out most of the back-story and themes of the series.

* Richard Castle's MANY novels in ''{{Castle}}''.

* ''Literature/TheBookofAllHours'' in Hal Duncan's duology of the same name.

* In Walter Moers's ''Literature/TheThirteenAndAHalfLivesOfCaptainBluebear‎'' there is [[EncyclopediaExposita The Enclopedia of Marvels, Life Forms and Other Phenomena of Zamonia and its Environs]]. There are also many imaginary books and plays including The Voltigork's Vibrobass, an experimental drama which lasted 240 hours and had a literal cast of thousands by Wilfred the Wordsmith and the bestseller How Dank Was My Valley by Psittachus Rumplestilt.

* Lisa Goldstein is fond of this trope. In Walking the Labyrinth, there is Emily Wether's diary, Callan's diary, Lady Westingate's pamphlet and Andrew Dodd's review. In Dark Cities Underground, there is a fictional children's series called the Jeremy Books. In The Uncertain Places, there is a fictional Brother's Grimm fairy tale as well as excerpts from a police interview from the 1920's.

* In Walter Moers's ''Literature/TheThirteenAndAHalfLivesOfCaptainBluebear‎'' there is [[EncyclopediaExposita The Enclopedia of Marvels, Life Forms and Other Phenomena of Zamonia and its Environs]]. There are also many imaginary books and plays including The Voltigork's Vibrobass, an experimental drama which lasted 240 hours and had a literal CastOfThousands by Wilfred the Wordsmith and the bestseller How Dank Was My Valley by Psittachus Rumplestilt.

* Creator/{{Lawrence Block}}'s ''The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling'' revolves around ''The Deliverance of Fort Bucklow'', the spectacularly awful result of {{Rudyard Kipling}}'s descent into FilibusterFreefall.
* Creator/LisaGoldstein is fond of this trope. In Walking the Labyrinth, there is Emily Wether's diary, Callan's diary, Lady Westingate's pamphlet and Andrew Dodd's review. In Dark Cities Underground, there is a fictional children's series called the Jeremy Books. In The Uncertain Places, there is a fictional Brother's Grimm fairy tale as well as excerpts from a police interview from the 1920's.
* [[Literature/MrPenumbras24HourBookstore Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore]] has several examples, including The Dragonsong Trilogy (which turns out to be a plot device).
* In Walter Moers's ''Literature/TheThirteenAndAHalfLivesOfCaptainBluebear‎'' there is [[EncyclopediaExposista The Enclopedia of Marvels, Life Forms and Other Phenomena of Zamonia and its Environs]]. There are also many imaginary books and plays including The Voltigork's Vibrobass, an experimental drama which lasted 240 hours and had a literal CastOfThousands by Wilfred the Wordsmith and the bestseller How Dank Was My Valley by Psittachus Rumplestilt.

* DanielHandler also uses this trope in his books written as Daniel Handler. In Adverbs, there is Helena's novel Glee Club. In WhyWeBrokeUp, there is an imaginary book of recipes for food from the movies called Real Recipes from Tinseltown.

* Creator/StephenKing occasionally has characters in one book reading a book written by a writer who was a character in another book, such as Rose (''Rose Madder'') reading Paul Sheldon (''Misery''), or Jo (''Bag of Bones'') reading William Denbrough (''IT''), or Darla (''Lisey's Story'') listening to an audio book by Michael Noonan (''Bag of Bones'') or Fran (''TheStand'') reads a book by Bobbi Anderson (''Tommyknockers'') to someone. In ''The Tommyknockers'', Bobbi's neighbors compare her favorably to "that other writer" from Maine, who writes the stories with all the monsters and cursing (King himself).
* Speaking of Stephen King, a large percentage of ''Carrie'' is excerpts from books, magazine articles, or investigative reports relating to various characters and events.

*** ''TheDarkHalf''' features excerpts from novels written by the characters Thad Beaumont and [[EvilTwin George Stark]]
* KatherineKurtz has a few of these:

* David Eddings ''loves'' these. The prologues of nearly all his books take the form of a fictional document detailing what has gone on before.
** Some that specifically deserve to be called out from TheBelgariad: ''The Mrin Codex'' and the ''Darine Codex'' are the collected ravings of two madmen inspired by the prophesy of light. ''The Ashabine Oracles'' are writings by [[BigBad Torak]] under the influence of the prophecy of dark.

* Craig Thomas has used this at least twice in his novels, such as ''Wolfsbane'' and ''{{Firefox}}''.
* ''The Book of Night With Moon'' from Diane Duane's YoungWizards series.
* The excerpts from Princess Irulan's various scholarly works (and other people's, for that matter) that [[EncyclopediaExposita appear as chapter headers]] throughout the ''{{Dune}}'' novels.

** [[Literature/GoodOmens Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch]] contained both ''The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch'' (obviously) and [[spoiler: that book's sequel]]

* Extracts from Literature/ThursdayNext's autobiography are scattered throughout [[Literature/ThursdayNext the series of the same name]]. Extracts from others characters' jottings/memoirs also feature prominently.
* In Ayn Rand's ''AtlasShrugged'', one of the so-called intelligentsia writes an article titled "The Octopus" which slams Henry Rearden. Then there's "Why Do You Think You Think?", "The Heart is a Milkman", "The Vulture is Molting", and even a "The Future" magazine. Then there's the laws and regulations and plans, including the "Anti-Dog Eat Dog Rule" to the "Equalization of Opportunity" bill to the "Railroad Unification Plan" to the "Steel Unification Plan". There are even audio versions, with Richard Halley's works and its bastardizations.

* ''TheKingInYellow'', a fictional play script from the book of short stories of the same name.

* In particular, the film ''The Navidson Record'' from ''HouseOfLeaves'' doesn't actually exist, and the protagonist tells you this in the book's introduction. Meanwhile, the meat of ''[[color:blue:House]] Of Leaves'' is an [[EverybodyIsJesusInPurgatory academic analysis]]/summary of said film. A few of the people and books referred to in the analysis's footnotes are real; the vast, vast majority of them are completely made up.

* Everything published by Whateley Press in the WhateleyUniverse, including "Introduction to the Modern Theory of Mutant Powers, a Whateley Press textbook" by Filbert R. Z. Quintain, M.S., Ph.D., F.A.A.S.
* Used from time to time in ''SwordOfTruth'', mostly in the form of books of prophecy. Being prophesies, they are then [[ScrewDestiny promptly ignored]].

* In the CiaphasCain novels, [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis Amberley Vail]] uses extracts from other sources to fill in the blanks left by Cain's self-centered account. These include the PurpleProse-filled memoirs of a future general in his unit, histories of varying accuracy, travel guides, and even a children's book about promethium.

* Italo Calvino's ''IfOnAWintersNightATraveler'' has excerpts from ten wildly different fictional novels, though the [[AudienceSurrogate Reader]] can never get past the first chapter of each.

* Garth Nix's ''KeysToTheKingdom'' has ''The Compleat Atlas'', which is a magic book that will tell you anything about the House.
* Many of the page quotes in DeanKoontz novels are from ''The Book of Counted Sorrows'', though this eventually became TheRedStapler.
* [[SherlockHolmes "Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson , M.D. , Late of the Army Medical Department"]]
** Also Sherlock Holmes' treatise on the different types of cigare(ette) ash.
* The book ''The Hive Queen and the Hegemon'' is one of the most influential in the society of the ''EndersGame'' Series.

* ''TheFaultInOurStars'' features ''An Imperial Affliction'' as well as ''The Price of Dawn'' and the following sequels.
** The epigraph of ''TheFaultInOurStars'' is from ''An Imperial Afflicton'', as a reference to ''TheGreatGatsby'', whose epigraph is also from another fictional book.

* {{Lawrence Block}}'s ''The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling'' revolves around ''The Deliverance of Fort Bucklow'', the spectacularly awful result of {{Rudyard Kipling}}'s descent into FilibusterFreefall.
* LisaGoldstein is fond of this trope. In Walking the Labyrinth, there is Emily Wether's diary, Callan's diary, Lady Westingate's pamphlet and Andrew Dodd's review. In Dark Cities Underground, there is a fictional children's series called the Jeremy Books. In The Uncertain Places, there is a fictional Brother's Grimm fairy tale as well as excerpts from a police interview from the 1920's.
* [[MrPenumbras24HourBookstore Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore]] has several examples, including The Dragonsong Trilogy (which turns out to be a plot device).
* In Walter Moers' The131/2LivesofCaptainBluebear there is [[EncyclopediaExposista The Enclopedia of Marvels, Life Forms and Other Phenomena of Zamonia and its Environs]]. There are also many imaginary books and plays including The Voltigork's Vibrobass, an experimental drama which lasted 240 hours and had a literal CastOfThousands by Wilfred the Wordsmith and the bestseller How Dank Was My Valley by Psittachus Rumplestilt.
* Walter Moers' TheCityOfDreamingBooks in chock full of fictional documents from Thanks But No Thanks by [[AlliterativeName Goliath Ghork]] to Silence of the Sirens by Count Klanthu of Kinomaz.

* Jake Sisko's novel ''Absalam'' in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. Particularly important to the frame story of "The Visitor."

* ''MonkeyIsland2'' has an entire library of fictional documents, mostly comprised of various jokes, in-jokes, and parodies.

* Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore has several examples including The Dragonsong Trilogy which turns out to be a plot device.

** In ''The King's Justice'', Rothana reads some of Orin's poetry aloud to Richenda in ladies solar. Jehana overhears and enjoys them until she's told the author was Deryni.

* KatherineKurtz has Dowager Queen Jehana find a copy of ''Annales Queroni'', an autobiographical treatise on Deryni Healing by the tenth-century Dom Queron Kinevan, in Kelson's arcane library annex. She's reading it when she discovers she isn't alone in the library.

* KatherineKurtz has Dowager Queen Jehana find a copy of ''Annales Queroni'', an autobiographical treatise on Deryni Healing by the tenth-century Dom Queron Kinevan, in Kelson's arcane library annex. She's reading it When she discovers she isn't alone in the library.

* ''The Grasshopper Lies Heavy'', P. K. Dick's ''The Man in the High Castle''

* DanielHandler also uses this trope in his books written as Daniel Handler. In Adverbs, there is Helena's novel Glee Club. In Why We Broke Up, there is an imaginary book of recipes for food from the movies called Real Recipes from Tinseltown.

* The Chronicle, the tabloid from [[TooGoodToLast the short-lived show]] of the same name.

** Subverted now since the Bro Code is now an official book. Also, "quotes" from the Bro Code appear in the closing credits of each episode, not all of which appeared in actual dialogue.