Any working writer will have encountered the phenomenon that, when you describe yourself as a writer, strangers will ask: ĝhad anything published?"
Such a question tends to raise the ire of the professional writer ¨ especially those who are reasonably known in their fields or have a significant number of titles under their belts. There seems to be a strange assumption by most members of the general public that writers simply churn away at their writing for their own personal pleasure and that publication is a rare bonus. (Sometimes it seems that this extends into the professional sphere ¨ but thats a discussion for a later article.)
The question also assumes that publication is the goal of any writer and that we are divided into two groups: the published, who are regarded with a quasi-mystical awe; and the not-yet-published, whose admission of the fact meets with pity or dismissal. I have friends in both categories and have heard stories of awesome publishing success and a regrettable series of rejections.
But for the last thirty years theres been a growing number of people in a third and largely invisible category. These are the fanfiction writers and while youre unlikely to know who they are, its likely you number at least one among your wider social circle. For many years fanfiction writers have existed below the radar of professional publishing people. The nature of their work would seem to preclude publication, based as it is on the existing canon of a professionally published writer. Many professional writers nowadays have a fanfiction policy and the more liberal among us have a website notice permitting amateur fanfiction as long as its kept on the web and clearly marked as fanfiction. Interestingly fanfiction writers have a similar policy and include a disclaimer with their fiction stating that it is based on someone elses work and they dont own the copyright.
The whole area is ripe for a lawsuit and certain 'big name authors such as Anne Rice have taken an aggressive attitude towards copyright protection and issued individual fanfiction writers and the listed owners of web archives of such fiction with 'cease and desist notices. In certain circles ¨ or 'fandoms ¨ this has had the effect of driving the fanfiction underground. Its still there ¨ but shared in private locked groups, the passwords to which are guarded by an inner circle of writers. But the more permissive attitudes of other big names has allowed fanfiction to spread into the mainstream of the web through sites such as fanfiction.net. J K Rowlings Harry Potter novels have spawned one of the largest fandoms on the internet with a vast host of fanfiction writings ranging from 100word 'drabbles to multi chapter ¨ in some cases multi volume ¨ epics.
If you ask a fanfiction author if they are working towards publication, youll gain a variety of responses. Some have no interest in creating original work; they prefer to play in someone elses universe and would utterly reject the view of some professional writers that they should come up with their own ideas. Others may already be published, but in another genre and almost always under another name. (On the internet most fanfiction authors use net names, not specifically to occlude their identity but with that effect.) And then there are the fanfiction writers who are working towards publication, some of whom already have a fan base of their own who professional writers might envy.
Welcome to the world of the 'big name fan, shortened to 'BNF in fandom circles. Not all BNFs are writers; some run archives or other types of websites, a growing number are academics engaged in studying the culture and politics of 'fannishness. (Theres a growing wealth of articles, legal arguments and statistical analyses which can be explored on the internet.) But among the BNFs there are fanfiction writers who are successfully making the transition to professional authors of original fiction and publishing companies and film makers are signing them up to highly lucrative contracts.
Take Naomi Novik, author of the Temeraire series, a historical fantasy series set in the Napoleonic era published in the US by Random House. According to Noviks website: ĝHis Majesty's Dragon (UK Temeraire) has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, as well as the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel, and the Locus Awards for Best First Novel. Naomi has also been nominated for the Campbell Award for Best New Writer." (Novik has now won the Crompton Cook Award.) Widely reviewed and lauded on both sides of the Atlantic, the film rights for all three books have been optioned by director Peter Jackson.
But before Novik was an award-winning author with a film deal she was an amateur fanfiction writer and had spoken about her experiences in a number of interviews.
In 2006 Novik explained her enjoyment of fanfiction as follows:
ĝI do think that for all of us who write it, its about falling in love with characters. In fact with my own work, the way that I sort of knew that I had a fun idea was that I felt the same sort of pleasure, the same desire to write about my own characters, about Laurence and Temeraire, as I felt about writing fan fiction, because of course with fan fiction its done for love because you cant do it for money, unless youre writing tie-in novels, which in fact dont have the pleasure of fan fiction because theyre so constrained by the requirements of the publisher, the original media creators, and so forth."1
In a oddly recursive twist Novik herself has a fanfiction disclaimer and has explained that she doesnt read fanfiction based on her own work. This is a common view of professional authors who dont want to leave themselves open to lawsuits by fanfiction authors who have explored similar ideas. This has actually happened to Mercedes Lackey who now expressly forbids any fanfiction based on her work.
Having existed on both sides of the fence Novik has a progressive attitude towards the legal issues involved: ĝI actually keep meaning toI haven't had timeto get in touch with some of the people at the Creative Commons to figure out if there's some way that I could use a Creative Commons license to allow people to write fanfiction which I could then read without jeopardy. 99% of fans are going to be perfectly reasonable and understand that if I happen to write about something that they wrote about in their fanfic story, it's really not that I was stealing their idea; it's just one of those things that happens coincidentally. The fact is, people have the same idea constantly, and it really is about execution. The problem is, of course, that the cost of getting involved in the legal issues is such a tremendous cost in time and money and personal stress that you're not going to risk it. I can read fanfic about other people's stuff instead."2
I dont know how much Noviks BNF status has contributed to her sales but it certainly cant have hurt that her writing has a pre-existent fan base. And Novik is not the largest of fish in the fanfiction pond. That title could be said be belong to the newest fanfiction writer to hit the professional scene: Cassandra Claire or Clare, depending on which field shes writing in. Both names are pseudonyms.
Clare/Claire is an interesting case because its very possible youve read some of her fanfiction already. The Very Secret Diaries, a series of satirical fanfiction stories, were an internet fad which achieved wide circulation. Written in a Bridget Jones style they describe the events of Tolkiens Lord of the Rings epic. A typical entry is this from 'The Very Secret Diary of Aragorn, son of Arathorn:
ĝDay One:
Ringwraiths killed: 4. V. good.
Met up with Hobbits. Walked forty miles. Skinned a squirrel and ate it.
Still not King."3
Among fanfiction circles Claire (with an 'i) is primarily known for her 'Draco Trilogy an epic fanfiction series based on the Harry Potter books which has gained a huge internet fanbase. Thousands of people followed her fanfiction writing and will continue to follow her as she makes the break into professional writing. History does not record what J K Rowling thinks of her success.
As Cassandra Clare (no 'i) she has now leapt to publishing success with the US publication of City of Bones, first of the Mortal Instruments series, published in the US by Margaret K. McElderry, in the UK by Walker (on 2nd July 2007) and with foreign editions due later this year in Italian, Danish, German and French. The first volume has already made the New York Times bestseller list.
The link between her professional and fanfiction identities is well established. This is in part because she has chosen to use such similar pseudonyms and she might have used the same name for both if the dot com domain for her fanfiction name had not been already registered by someone else. For Clare fame has come at a price, one she paid several years before attaining professional recognition. To be known as a BNF in fandom is to be dogged by gossip and scandal and in addition to her many admirers Clare has some fairly vocal detractors. Unlike Novik I havent been able to find a policy statement from Clare about how she thinks of the increasingly blurry line between fanfiction and 'pro-fiction and the profile on her website makes no mention of it. But reviews of her published novel attract a number of comments linking the identities and accusing her of derivative and plagiaristic writing. Her luck is plainly not unmixed.
Armadillo will be reviewing City of Bones in the next issue and we hope to interview Clare herself when she visits the UK and get her own views on her career so far. In the meantime I recommend doing a web search and then taking what you read with a grain of salt.
Clare is clearly a writer with a wealth of knowledge and interest in her own field. In City of Bones she references the Modern Faerie Tales series by Holly Black with cameo appearances from Blacks characters ¨ doubtless with permission since Clare and Black are writing partners. She also references her own 'pop culture notoriety ¨ with a character wearing a badge which reads 'Still Not King. She has also used lines from her fanfiction in her original fiction ¨ names and places changed as appropriate. Shes even written a fanfiction piece with the same title as her series title: Mortal Instruments.
Are Novik and Clare the first of a new breed of writers? Writers who, far from aggressively protecting copyright and viewing amateur infringements with fear, have grown up in the fanfiction culture of shared storytelling? Writers who have used their BNF status to build a powerful fanbase and parlayed that into professional recognition and remuneration?
From where I sit on the fence, I can only hope so. As a liberal, I permit fanfiction but as a professional Id like to see its status regularised. With the estates of certain authors such as James Joyce aggressively protecting their copyright from references by professional authors and the US extending rights every time it looks as if Disneys work might pass into the public domain, the copyright system could do with overhauling. Creative extensions and revisionist readings of classic works have earned themselves a place on reading lists and exam syllabuses. Now fanfiction writers are moving into the mainstream and the industry is welcoming them with open arms.
Still not King? Perhaps. But with big contracts, coeditions, awards and film deals the amateurs are the new aristocracy. Love them or hate them but ignore them at your peril.
1 From http://www.scifidimensions.com/Jun06/naominovik.htm
2. From http://www.strangehorizons.com/2006/20060814/novik-int-a.shtml
3. From http://www.bellaonline.com/misc/lotr/index.asp