Oh yeah of course I agree. I just find the snide comments from some authors about their fan fic disappointing and completely unnecessary (as well as untrue).
I get why some authors don’t like fan fic believing it can “dilute their brand”, copyright issues with their publishers, or due to it resulting in stories that they have no control over which could potentially even “hurt” the audience audience they’re trying to cultivate (e.g. I get why people writing stories aimed at children, might request people don’t write X rated or graphically violent fics). I also get why some authors might decline to comment on/read their fan fiction so as to not potentially get dragged into IP disputes if an idea they use ends up being similar to something in a fan work.
I have never written a lot of what would be classed as fan fic for some reason (unless you count the Saga of Oedipus Rex which is a bit of a giant fan work in a way and would make me pretty hypocritical to say I don’t approve of the idea of fan fics ) but I have made my fair share of fan art over the years.
Fan work is usually done by people who love what you’re creating, so as long as it’s appropriately credited, respects any author wishes (like the x-rated example above), makes an effort to be original (ie isn’t just copying entire sections of the book with little to no changes) and isn’t being used to make money, I honestly can’t see why writers would be against it. I mean people are making it because they love your work and want more. That’s usually a good thing right? I would have thought most authors would be flattered. I think some authors do eventually change their minds. A good example is Anne McCaffery who used to be against fan fic/art creators, but now seems to be pretty cool with it.
I hadn’t heard about the MZB incident either. Sounds like probably fault on both sides, but I’m still quite surprised it happened. I mean if I wrote a fan fic of one of my favourite authors and they contacted me and asked to use my idea as the basis to write their own story and then credit me for it in the book I’d likely be pretty stoked about it.
The problem, of course, is that there are people out there who aren’t you.
The MZB incident happened largely because less-than-altruistic intentions were involved and made themselves stick. Opportunists do exist, and I’d like to believe that most authors who take a stand against fanfic (or at least reading such themselves) fundamentally just want to protect themselves after acknowledging this reality.
The more I research the MZB incident, the more questions I have about the unique circumstances involved … there are so many unique factors to the case and so many unknowns, that it seems the exception.
Of course, those with the most to lose in such cases, would try to advocate the most extreme position.
The key to having a successful fandom working with you is to involve everyone in building as fair and open relationship as possible: your publisher, you and your fans.
The MZB case had so many opaque things happening - multiple ghost writers, some known and others unknown … multiple schemes involving the fan-works and a policy of deceit by the publisher all designed to hide how sick MZB really was and to hide how little MZB was actually involved in her own writing.
I love (as a fan and an aspiring writer) many of those involved in the situation … Mercedes Lackey for example, is one of my heroes, but even she refuses to or can’t come out with everything she knows of the incident.
Mercedes Lackey’s position as of 2009 permits fanfiction to be licensed as derivative fiction under the Creative Commons license … if this principle party to the MZB incident can find ways to support it, then I feel the rest of us should be able to as well.
I honestly do not know how anyone can draw any hard and fast conclusions from this “infamous incident”.
Blanket statements like this should be qualified … b/c there are exceptions to the general rule. I read an article within the last year detailing some of those (mostly incidents of copyright being extended through the author’s estate) but I neither recall the details nor the source, so I just urge everyone to do their due diligence on any work they want to write fanfictioon or make fan art about.
Okay. There are certain works after 1925 that are also in the public domain, but in the United States, anything published before 1925 is public domain.
While I agree, the conclusions that I personally drew have very little to do with what actually happened and merely limited to what could happen. For many publishers, that may already be more than enough. The possibility of disaster is likely clear enough an incentive to ensure their authors take steps to avoid it.
OR you could try not terrifying the poor fanfic writers by passing public judgment on them. Fanfic writers have been known to delete or discontinue fics because they were uncomfortable with scrutiny from source material authors. I’ve personally known people who did this, and it had a deleterious effect on the fandom in question. I almost did it myself, more than once. When I give a PSA to authors to not bloody well comment on fanfic of their work, in the nicest terms possible, I’m doing it on behalf of fans like myself.
Fanfic is written for other fans, not for authors. If authors are glad to know that there’s fic of their work, that’s very nice for them, but fanfic is for fans.
We will agree to disagree. I fear we may be talking across each other, in agreement but focusing on different things within the same topic.
Being pro-active and involved with your fandom does not mean passing public judgement on them.
Supporting those fans that have both the ability and the desire to grow further into an author or game designer does not mean publically critiquing them… although if you contact them privately, and they agree to work with you, the experience of doing so, may change their lives for the better. This applies equally to those critical of your work and those admiring of your work without critique.
It happened to me personally – I’ve worked with some very talented people, learning from them as much as I could and when I got a chance to be published because of that, it was a good thing, not a bad thing.
Eric Flint, to my knowledge has only provided positive support and interaction … and I think that is a great thing to have.
If you borrow my own universe to your own ends. I have the right to give my opinion. My universe, my characters my right to operate about what people are doing with them. I haven’t to keep a positive anything. It is mine, I am being gentle enough to allow fan fiction.
I’m inclined to agree. I can understand feeling anxious at the author actually reading and commenting; I had a similar instance the other day when I reached out to one of my writing idols expecting to just talk to his assistant, only to have her tell me he’d be reaching out himself. It was both exciting and incredibly unnerving, to a point where I briefly regretted saying anything at all (that didn’t last, though). However, it’s the height of absurdity to gate off an author from something that literally wouldn’t exist without them. Being nervous about author attention is understandable, but there’s really only two acceptable options for a fanfic writer in that situation:
Love it (as in, swallow the discomfort and keep going)
Lump it (which in this case would be to flee in terror, never to be heard from again)
There should not be a third option where a unrealistic level of ownership over your fanfic causes you to push out the person responsible, however indirectly, for its creation.
I would lump those in with Lump It in this regard, since they would all involve basically running away from the writer’s attentions, but I would agree that these are at least somewhat less confrontational options.
But that person is Grabbing that authors Property. Intellectual Property is as property as the car I own. If someone is driving my car, I will of course, give my opinion about how someone else treated it.
I think that the public that complaints doesn’t consider Intellectual Property as Property.
You are appropriating the world of someone else. I do fan fic but first ask the author and. make clear that is not mine nor the characters, nor the universe.
And the owner has allright to judge it and erase it. The author is making you a gift, letting you use his material.
) but I have made my fair share of fan art over the years.