I can understand authors or artists being weirdly proprietary about their own work in the hands of others, but I can't understand why so many authors out there seem surprised by it. People have been doing this FOREVER. Shakespeare used others' characters and basic stories to write some of his plays. This is not new.

I can understand authors or artists being weirdly proprietary about their own work in the hands of others, but I can't understand why so many authors out there seem surprised by it.

Me, too. Esp. since people like to slap lawsuits on people: OMG this is JUST what happened in my fanfic, you big STEALY STEALER! I think if I was an author, I would have a clearly stated policy asking people not to write fanfic, knowing most would ignore it, and then I would just NOT EVER LOOK (although I would be SO curious) and would go after anyone really going with the big ol' fanfic thing.

But mentally, I would probably be a flattered AND proprietary at the same time. It would be conflicty with me, since I totally get the jones to write it.

I think it's simply another interesting result of the internet. It's always been out there one way or another, but it's much easier to *see* it now, and more people can get together and talk about it in one place than ever before.

I probably wouldn't be thrilled if fanfic took my characters in directions I felt were really obscene or OOC, but in the end if they're not making money off it, so be it. Fuck with my income and then there's a problem.

Fic the hell out of my stuff if you want. Just don't expect me to agree with you about it.

in the end if they're not making money off it, so be it. Fuck with my income and then there's a problem.

Yeah, that would be the reason I understand best for nixing fanfic officially as an author.

I've seen authors also specifically post that they do not want to be sent fanfic about their characters, and they do not want to see people making money from same.

Has anyone here read any of the Nursery-Track Mysteries by Ayelet Waldman? I'm currently reading Nursery Crimes and finding it very funny and entertaining.

I don't know why somebody would send an author fan-fic using characters they invented. It seems. . . odd. And do people make money from fanfic?

I don't know why somebody would send an author fan-fic using characters they invented.

Some people think they're honoring the original writer by showing them how creative they are in response. I know some tv writers who actually get a big kick out of fic for shows they've written. Not everyone is that cool, though, and I think it's different for novelists than for tv writers, who share credit/authorship with a lot of other people. You have to be less territorial to be in tv.

And do people make money from fanfic?

Rarely. I've seen some people try to sell their stuff on Lulu or Amazon; if they get noticed by fandom, someone raises a stink and gets it shut down. More often, people file off the serial numbers and try to sell it as original work; there's a bunch of lesbian romances on Amazon that started as Xena/Gabrielle uberfic, for instance.

And as we've talked about in the past, there's plenty of stuff with a strong fannish history, like Naomi Novik's Temeraire novels.

I wonder if the people who object to fanfic object as much to fanart? I see a lot more money being exchanged for that, but as a recipient, you get a thing.

I'm stunned by some of the things I see people offering for sale on Deviant Art, though. Prints of themselves as demons? Crappy porny photomanips of actors and not characters? Seriously? There's an actual *market* for that? I do wonder if they sell.