Random fanfic-peripheral questions prompted by a new playlist on a car ride over the weekend: does there exist yet a Kurt/Blaine Glee vid to the Smiths' "Ask"? And if not, why not?

I mean, for crap's sake, YouTube just informed me that someone has used that song for a Thomas the Tank Engine vid. Surely Morrissey deserves better than that.

GRRM's actually the first person when I think of embargo on fanfic. Then Anne Rice, then Ursula K Le Guin.

I think of Anne Rice, Robin Hobb, and Diana Gabaldon. UKL makes me a bit sad, but I try not to think about it, because she's otherwise so awesome, and she's still writing great stuff into her 80s.

I have more respect for authors like Jo Walton, who admit their reaction is entirely emotional, than people like GRRM, who blather about copyright incorrectly. Or for people like Gabaldon, who claim fanfiction is just like pedophilia and voyeurism.

Anyway, I wish someone could explain to these people that regardless of what their editors tell them, you cannot lose your copyright because someone writes a genderswap MPREG using your characters' names. IP law does not work like that!

Jo Walton scares me, frankly, because her reaction is so emotional and strong. Gabaldon, too, comes to mind. Robin Hobb, not so much. But GRRM kvetching incorrectly is definitely #1.

Jo Walton scares me, frankly, because her reaction is so emotional and strong

Yeah, it's a bit OTT. OTOH, the likelihood of much fic being written for her stuff is minimal, unless there's a secret Tooth and Claw fandom out there I'm not aware of. (Yuletide notwithstanding)

It just helps me compile a list of who to avoid. My life is too short.

There are a couple of YA writers out there who seem to love the fanart that they see. Haven't seen anything about their reactions to possible fic, though.

It's a weird thing -- I think despite how much fanfic is out there, and how much more available it is now on the internet, the bulk of any writer's fans (up to now) is probably never going to have any contact with it. And no matter what writers would like to believe about their ownership of their work, once you make it public, readers will have reactions, and discussions, and some of them will take it many steps further to fanworks. It's just the way people are.

I can see being horrified, let's say, if you're Rowling, and you stumble across a story where Snape is seducing an underaged Harry or something, but in terms of actually affecting the scope or reputation of your novels? It doesn't.

And Rowling has actually said she is fine with fanfiction as long as it is not done for money, and as long as any works with sex check for reader age. And as long as nobody sends her links cause she does not want to see it.

It's a weird thing -- I think despite how much fanfic is out there, and how much more available it is now on the internet, the bulk of any writer's fans (up to now) is probably never going to have any contact with it.

And really, relatively few writers are going to have their work subject to fanfiction anyway. Of the writers who had a big influence on me as a child and teenager, the only ones I know of that get much fanfiction are Tolkein & Anne McCaffrey: but nobody ever writes fic for Andre Norton or Katherine Kurtz or any of the dozens of other SF/fantasy/historical fiction writers I was reading then.

Erm, Yuletide excepted. Yuletide is an exception to everything, but it actually proves the rule: if someone writes fic for your stuff for Yuletide, it's because there is almost nothing out there.

Rowling has actually said she is fine with fanfiction as long as it is not done for money, and as long as any works with sex check for reader age. And as long as nobody sends her links cause she does not want to see it.

That's Lois McMaster Bujold's attitude, too. Which is nice.

I think it's the most sensible thing, really. People are going to do it anyway, so.