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shadowkat1. The Margins of Print - Fan Fiction as Book History by Catherine Coker -- which I got from elisi but I'm almost positive was mentioned by yourlibrarian.
Fanfiction and self-publishing have both been stigmatized. But with the digital age, more and more people are ignoring this and sort of looking at the people pooh-poohing it and saying bugger off, as I run off with my millions.
The internet has in some respects freed people to write and create without worrying about the gate-keepers, who for the most part no longer exist. This upsets a lot of people, mainly people who make money from traditional publishing, television, music and film venues and feel that it is encroaching on their revenue stream. It is and it isn't. It is only to the extent that the public chooses to read fanfiction or non-traditionally distributed cultural works over say traditional ones. Which, hello, means the traditionally distributed works aren't meeting the public's needs or expectations.
If someone prefers to read EL James Fifty Shades of Grey over the latest Danielle Steel or Nora Roberts novel, then perhaps there's a reason for it? (Mainly Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts don't have any new ideas and have become a bit tired in their conventions and style. Having read all three, I'd say they are on par with each other for the most part, with Roberts being the best...but she hasn't had a new idea in twenty years. 50 Shades didn't either, but it did incorporate text messaging and a contract, fanfic writing techniques, which was a new idea stylistically.)
Let's face it the publishing world needs to be shaken up a bit in this regard. It's sat comfortably on its laurels for far too long. Fanfic and self-published novels, such as many of Courtney Milan's recent works, deal with LGBTQ relationships, POC, and love interests that are off the beaten track and defy conventional models. They don't follow the Romance Writers Guidelines, they make up their own.
Same deal with Sci-fi.
Also, I remember a fan telling me that she'd been approached by trade publishers at fan conventions to publish her work. Because they felt she had a built-in readership. She was writing real person fanfic - or celebrity fic, where basically she picks an actor like say James Marsters or in this case a guy from a British Reality Show about casting someone for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat...and puts him in various stories. It's really not that different from Everybody's All Human fanfic that I've read back in the day. And a heck of a lot easier to publish, because all you have to do is change the names and throw in a bit more description. Everything else can remain.
No worries about copyright infringement, because you aren't using anything from the original creator's world. And no worries about defamation, because you just changed the names.
Cassandra Clare did it with Harry Potter fanfic -- her Shadowhunter series is basically based on her Harry Potter fanfic. There's a lot of published fic out there in the YA and New Adult genre that came from Twilight and Harry Potter. Harry Potter and Twilight took fanfic mainstream. Most people didn't know about fanfic until Twilight and Harry Potter. Those of us who were writing and/or reading it prior to that -- know about the Star Wars, Star Trek, Supernatural, Farscape, Doctor Who, House, Buffy, Angel, etc fanfic. I admittedly didn't discover it until Buffy, when I went hunting for Buffy discussion boards, spoilers, etc.. and stumbled upon the fanfic first. This was in the early days of the internet, circa 2002, before we had LJ, before Twitter, before FB, before all the other social media platforms. We just had websites, listserves and voy forums.
Twilight fic tends to be X-rated New Adult. While Harry Potter tends to be Dystopian YA or Paranormal YA. For some reason Potter fans didn't do All Human fic and get it published, near as I can tell.
There are a few fanfic writers such as Cat Valente and CS Pascal who wrote original fics online and self-published them online, prior to a publisher grabbing them and turning them into best-sellers. Andy Weir is an example of a non-traditionally published writer -- who got a best-seller and a movie - The Martian. Go on Good Reads sometime, quite a few of us non-traditionally published writers are on that site. Also before you pooh-pooh it, keep in mind half your flist may fall in that category, just as half falls under the fanfic category.
It's really all about how you promote and market yourself. If you are good at it -- the sky's the limit. If you aren't...doesn't matter how good your writing is, it won't go far.
2. Fanfic pairings I'd like to read but can't seem to find that much of, so gave up.
* Daredevil and Jessica Jones (gen or platonic) - combine those worlds
* Doc Holliday from Wynonna Earp with anyone
* X-men Scott Summers (Cyclops - original version) with Jean Grey(romantic/het), or anyone (platonic/gen)
* John Crichton and Aeryn Sun fanfic
* Sense8 - Wolfgang and Talia, also Wolfgang and the Cop.
* River Song and pretty much anyone
* Starbuck and Apollo (BSG, either version)
Buffy fanfic was easier to find. I have a tendency to like characters and relationships others aren't into writing about.
Oh, regarding Buffy, one fic I wanted to read...but have yet to see is Spike becoming human and acting more like say Ripper or a human version of Spike, not William. Crack martial artist, into killing demons, and becoming a Watcher who hates vampires. I thought about writing it myself but gave up.
Another that I was reading, a WIP, but disappeared before it was completed was about a human Spike with no memory caught in the cul-de-sac hell that Gunn was stuck in, when Dawn runs into him -- thinking he was dead. We had just gotten to Buffy running into him as well...when the writer stopped. Anyone remember it or know what happened to it?
It was doing interesting things with memory loss.
Abstract—Contemporary fan fiction is overwhelmingly digital in both publication and dissemination; it has never been easier to access this subculture of writers and writing. However, fan fiction in print has likewise never been so accessible, as a slew of recent popular novels proudly proclaim their fannish origins and make claims such as "More Than 2 Million Reads Online—FIRST TIME IN PRINT!" Further, traditional fannish mores insist that fan work should never be done for profit, and yet numerous print works adapted from fan fiction have become best sellers. I would like to problematize how we consider form and content in both creation and reception, how the popular value of work waxes and wanes in relation to its fan fiction status. In other words, how can we read fan fiction as part of a continuum of historical publication practices by women, and problematize our hierarchies of value between print and digital?
Fanfiction and self-publishing have both been stigmatized. But with the digital age, more and more people are ignoring this and sort of looking at the people pooh-poohing it and saying bugger off, as I run off with my millions.
The internet has in some respects freed people to write and create without worrying about the gate-keepers, who for the most part no longer exist. This upsets a lot of people, mainly people who make money from traditional publishing, television, music and film venues and feel that it is encroaching on their revenue stream. It is and it isn't. It is only to the extent that the public chooses to read fanfiction or non-traditionally distributed cultural works over say traditional ones. Which, hello, means the traditionally distributed works aren't meeting the public's needs or expectations.
If someone prefers to read EL James Fifty Shades of Grey over the latest Danielle Steel or Nora Roberts novel, then perhaps there's a reason for it? (Mainly Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts don't have any new ideas and have become a bit tired in their conventions and style. Having read all three, I'd say they are on par with each other for the most part, with Roberts being the best...but she hasn't had a new idea in twenty years. 50 Shades didn't either, but it did incorporate text messaging and a contract, fanfic writing techniques, which was a new idea stylistically.)
Let's face it the publishing world needs to be shaken up a bit in this regard. It's sat comfortably on its laurels for far too long. Fanfic and self-published novels, such as many of Courtney Milan's recent works, deal with LGBTQ relationships, POC, and love interests that are off the beaten track and defy conventional models. They don't follow the Romance Writers Guidelines, they make up their own.
Same deal with Sci-fi.
Also, I remember a fan telling me that she'd been approached by trade publishers at fan conventions to publish her work. Because they felt she had a built-in readership. She was writing real person fanfic - or celebrity fic, where basically she picks an actor like say James Marsters or in this case a guy from a British Reality Show about casting someone for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat...and puts him in various stories. It's really not that different from Everybody's All Human fanfic that I've read back in the day. And a heck of a lot easier to publish, because all you have to do is change the names and throw in a bit more description. Everything else can remain.
No worries about copyright infringement, because you aren't using anything from the original creator's world. And no worries about defamation, because you just changed the names.
Cassandra Clare did it with Harry Potter fanfic -- her Shadowhunter series is basically based on her Harry Potter fanfic. There's a lot of published fic out there in the YA and New Adult genre that came from Twilight and Harry Potter. Harry Potter and Twilight took fanfic mainstream. Most people didn't know about fanfic until Twilight and Harry Potter. Those of us who were writing and/or reading it prior to that -- know about the Star Wars, Star Trek, Supernatural, Farscape, Doctor Who, House, Buffy, Angel, etc fanfic. I admittedly didn't discover it until Buffy, when I went hunting for Buffy discussion boards, spoilers, etc.. and stumbled upon the fanfic first. This was in the early days of the internet, circa 2002, before we had LJ, before Twitter, before FB, before all the other social media platforms. We just had websites, listserves and voy forums.
Twilight fic tends to be X-rated New Adult. While Harry Potter tends to be Dystopian YA or Paranormal YA. For some reason Potter fans didn't do All Human fic and get it published, near as I can tell.
There are a few fanfic writers such as Cat Valente and CS Pascal who wrote original fics online and self-published them online, prior to a publisher grabbing them and turning them into best-sellers. Andy Weir is an example of a non-traditionally published writer -- who got a best-seller and a movie - The Martian. Go on Good Reads sometime, quite a few of us non-traditionally published writers are on that site. Also before you pooh-pooh it, keep in mind half your flist may fall in that category, just as half falls under the fanfic category.
It's really all about how you promote and market yourself. If you are good at it -- the sky's the limit. If you aren't...doesn't matter how good your writing is, it won't go far.
2. Fanfic pairings I'd like to read but can't seem to find that much of, so gave up.
* Daredevil and Jessica Jones (gen or platonic) - combine those worlds
* Doc Holliday from Wynonna Earp with anyone
* X-men Scott Summers (Cyclops - original version) with Jean Grey(romantic/het), or anyone (platonic/gen)
* John Crichton and Aeryn Sun fanfic
* Sense8 - Wolfgang and Talia, also Wolfgang and the Cop.
* River Song and pretty much anyone
* Starbuck and Apollo (BSG, either version)
Buffy fanfic was easier to find. I have a tendency to like characters and relationships others aren't into writing about.
Oh, regarding Buffy, one fic I wanted to read...but have yet to see is Spike becoming human and acting more like say Ripper or a human version of Spike, not William. Crack martial artist, into killing demons, and becoming a Watcher who hates vampires. I thought about writing it myself but gave up.
Another that I was reading, a WIP, but disappeared before it was completed was about a human Spike with no memory caught in the cul-de-sac hell that Gunn was stuck in, when Dawn runs into him -- thinking he was dead. We had just gotten to Buffy running into him as well...when the writer stopped. Anyone remember it or know what happened to it?
It was doing interesting things with memory loss.
no subject
Date: 2017-10-10 12:36 am (UTC)People saw Spike oddly, I thought, in the fandom. (shrugs)