Fan fiction, or fanfic, has for a while now, had a bad reputation in a world that is still dominated by traditional publishing. While it is true that ‘traditional’ publishing now includes ebooks and online publications, it is taking fanfic rather long to shed its negative image.
Fanfic is fictional work that borrows characters and settings from other works of fiction. The authors and creators of fanfic are, as the name suggests, fans of these existing and original works of fiction.
In an article titled ‘A defence of FanFic’ published by Overland, author Danielle Binks talks about how the origins of fanfic can be traced to the 1800s,when the Grimm brothers in Germany and Hans Christian Andersen in Denmark edited and adapted oral folk stories told to them by grandmothers and published fairytales that are now considered classics and are entirely attributed to them.
The most popular platform for publishing fanfic today is the internet. FanFiction is widely considered to be the most popular website for fanfic authors to publish their work, with genres ranging from anime, comics, and books, to games, plays, TV, and crossovers between these genres. Wattpad is another popular platform, with a community of over 65 million people.
In 2013, Amazon Publishing launched Kindle Worlds. Kindle Worlds is a service that provides authors a commercial venue to sell their work. It is a unique service as it only allows authors to sell creations that belong to specific licensed media properties. However, a recent report suggests that Amazon will be shutting down Kindle Worlds this year.
Some of the most popular fandoms online, as far as book series are concerned, are J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. George Lucas’s Star Wars is quite possibly the largest movie fandom online.
While a number of authors have voiced support for fanfic – most notably J.K. Rowling – several others have been vocal about their dislike for the genre. One of the most well-known cases of this is Stephanie Meyer’s very public dissatisfaction with E.L. James’ Fifty Shades series, its copyright-related implications.
An early version of the series started off as a tribute to Meyer’s Twilight series, complete with identical names for the main characters (Bella and Edward). It was published as Master of the Universe on FanFic.net in 2009. Before the work was published as a book, James changed the names of the characters but did not rewrite the work.
Why, then, should the ‘traditional’ publishing industry take an interest in this genre? Is it time to take a stand and call the genre a friend?
An obvious reason in favor of fanfic is that it is a great way of finding new authors who have an existing fan base. While industry experts consider most fanfic to not be ‘quality’ writing, there are enough pieces of excellent writing that makes this a viable source to explore.
Anna Todd wrote ‘After’, a five-book series based on the boy band One Direction. According to Business Insider, Simon & Schuster then signed her up, and she now reportedly has a six-figure publishing deal with the house. This was followed by Paramount recently purchasing the rights to turn ‘After’ into a movie.
Another reason is that changing the names and other details of the characters can circumvent copyright issues. Any such work that is published is marketed as being ‘inspired by’ the original work. This, again, ensures that the new work has a reader base that is already familiar with the original and wants to go back for more.
Yet another reason, and a fairly new one, is that adolescent fanfic writers have begun publishing works that are contributing to mainstream national conversations in the United States of America. According to an article published by Vox, Wattpad’s school shooting fiction category is a ‘mixed bag’.
The stories that are being published under this category are mostly authored by preteens and teens who have found a way to regain control, in any way possible, in an environment and situations that are supposed to be safe but are slowly spinning out of their control.
It would appear that the answer to my question is quite easy: fanfic is definitely a friend of the publishing industry.
Why, then, does the industry continue to turn its nose up at fanfic and fandoms? After all, comics have embraced fanfic. Why should books be so far behind?
Editor. Publishing student. Aspiring bibliophile. 