Entry tags:

author entitlement, authors, creator wank, doesn't mean what you think it means, fanfic, suck it up and deal, writers are often pompous douches, your kink is not okay

Diana Gabaldon, author of the wildly popular Outlander series, has an opinion on fan fiction: I think it’s immoral, I _know_ it’s illegal, and it makes me want to barf whenever I’ve inadvertently encountered some of it involving my characters.

Highlights include:

Writing fanfic is just like breaking into someone's house.
Fanfic is WAY WAY WAY TOO PORNY omg ick people have sexual fantasies!*
What to do about an auction offering fanfic to raise money for a cancer patient? She doesn't want to "seem heartless"! So she seeks advice in the comments. Which are mostly full of "Fanfic? I have never heard of such a despicable load of garbage! Also, CRUSH THAT CANCER PATIENT!"

ETA: Unpublished author Eddie Louise (who cannot write the word "shit" and seems to fail spectacularly at reading comprehension) offers fanfic writers A CHALLENGE! Accept it if you dare, sniveling pedo thieves!

ETA 2: Previously, Ms Gabaldon has said fanfic is like selling your children into white slavery. Well. Now. I don't even know what to do with that.

ETA 3: Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has some discussion on the topic.

ETA 4: And bookshop on LJ/DW has a rebuttal.

ETA 5: See what happens when I leave the sweet embrace of the internet for a few hours? Ms. Gabaldon updates her blog!

ETA 6: Evidently Ms. Gabaldon deleted all evidence of her hissyfit, but some wankas have screencaps in this thread.

ETA 7:

kate_nepevu has screencaps and the text of Gabaldon's posts here. And via

alchemynerd, more screencaps available here:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/tiz4vp
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ibidpj
http://www.sendspace.com/file/r6zik6
http://www.sendspace.com/file/hlknqo
http://www.sendspace.com/file/d9alsh

Thanks for all the links! :)

MOD REMINDER: Remember, my little wankas, we DO NOT troll the wank. Nor do we write fanfic after the author has specifically requested people not and post it in the comments here, no matter how tempting it may be. Carry on. oh god my inbox ow ow

*Just as a point of interest, I was a bookseller for 12 years, and had several customers tell me about the sex scenes in her books. Some were pro ("My friend told me to read these books for the sex scenes, and she was totally right, they are so hot, this is best thing to happen to my sex life in years!") and some were con ("What is up with all the sex all the time? Where's the story?"), but one thing you can't say about her books is that they're sexual-fantasy free. :D

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

pariforma
2010-05-03 05:28 pm UTC (link)

I think you're right. I know there have been situations where fan writers' work has negatively affected the original author's creative freedom and/or profit (in cases like the fan author alleging "I had that idea first and you stole it from me!"), but I think that happens less and less. Harry Potter fanfic obviously didn't lessen sales of the book. People are not, I think, reading Dr. Who fanfic but not watching the show. Writers have less and less to fear financially from derivative fan works.

I also think there's a fallacy with Gabaldon and a lot of other authors that interest in her characters = interest in her and her private life. Actually, it doesn't. Nobody is writing porn about her and her husband. If she identifies with her characters that strongly... maybe she'd better take a little vacation and leave the laptop at home.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

quantumreality
2010-05-03 05:39 pm UTC (link)

(in cases like the fan author alleging "I had that idea first and you stole it from me!")

You know, when I see things like that my first instinct is to think, "what an utter asshat that fanfic author is", 'cause wankery like that is usually what makes an author just throw up their hands and give up. I remember one reported case where it ALMOST got amicably settled and then the fanfic author buggered up the deal by pushing for more money - result? No more books, EVAR.

Apparently, this is why a lot of authors these days explicitly disavow fanfic - they're not keen on jumping into the quagmire. I can also see why some authors would overreact and insist that fanfic is bad for... well (insert reason here).

Eh it's early in the morning and I need to do other things now :)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	pariforma 2010-05-03 05:49 pm UTC (link)
	Yes, as you said in your comment further up, stating "for legal reasons I cannot read or review fan fiction and I cannot protect you from the legal consequences of writing it" really should be enough. Because the sort of thing you reference does happen--and the fan writer is an asshat who makes it hard for all the rest of us. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	talec 2010-05-04 08:04 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, J. Michael Straczynski has said that he avoids fanfic for that reason, and that one episode of Babylon 5 had to be sidelined until a deal could be made with a guy who posted his awesome episode idea! on the newsgroup (that JMS was omnipresent at). (They did reach an accord, and "A Late Delivery From Avalon" was finally produceable) (Reply to this)(Parent)

herongale
2010-05-03 06:07 pm UTC (link)

Hell, I think that Harry Potter fanfic actually helped contribute to the popularity of that series. People who write fanfic tend to be uber fans. Henry Jenkins actually discusses this in his book "Convergence Culture," and points out that the truly savvy media production companies, writers, and artists understand that invested fans help push the franchise, and create a market for ancillary items that serious fans will want to buy.

A writer doesn't even need to be that good to understand that indulgence towards fans can be financially rewarding. Look at all the Twilight merch that's out there. You can't tell me that most people buying it are simply consuming the books and movies without interacting with them. Fanfic equates to emotional investment on the part of fans. I can't understand why any writer would seriously want to suppress that. And I agree: there are instances where writers have been burned by malignant fans, but those situations don't happen very often, and fans who try to do that shit end up being seriously shunned by the fandom they wish to court.

These days, everyone should be aware of the story of Harry Potter fandom... and should understand that a robust, active fandom is actually the best DEFENSE of the author's interests, because fans will always want to protect their favourites.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

cleolinda
2010-05-03 07:02 pm UTC (link)

I feel like there should be two cardinal rules of ~~Fight Club~~ fandom--We Don't Make Money Off Fanfic and We Don't Show It to the Author (both create legal problems that can result in the sandbox being shut down for everyone), but other than that? It strengthens the fandom, and a strong fandom is financially good for the author, by which I mean "helps her to be able to afford to keep writing."

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	lady_ganesh 2010-05-03 09:12 pm UTC (link)
	This. And I have actually bought/legally viewed or read the canon source of things I read fanfic for first, or checked them out because my fanfic-writing friends were getting into them. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	artimusdin 2010-05-03 09:13 pm UTC (link)
	You are not alone in that. Sadly, a great majority of my fandoms happened that way. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)