- Anti-Fanfic Bingo, part four

[mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com]

Rounds one, two, and three of Anti-Fanfic Bingo produced some terrific responses, including a great little vid for the third round. Let's see what you can come up with for the fourth row:



How would you respond to these accusations? As before, please tell ComRel!

Graphic by the wonderful Ciderpress.

Ithiliana's post that started it all is here

-- femmequixotic, bethbethbeth, ciderpress, mirabile_dictu, shrift, svmadelyn
Community Relations Committee

Comments

Re: *good* fanfic and market dilution

[elaere.livejournal.com]

Interesting. It seems that you know what is happening in the world of publishing nowadays. The competition of the free time of consumers is fierce. One group of people who suffer from that are professional published writers; I agree with you on that. I even admit that if there are fanfics available original works will get less of the time of the readers than fanfics.

I would like to add something, though. The whining of the writers seems to be based on the belief that if there wasn't fanfiction the writers would sell more books. I don't think that they would.

What is the factor that has the greatest impact on a writer's number of sold books? In my opinion, the answer is the strengths and weaknesses of the book in the competition with other available activities. People choose the best purpose for their money and time. The competitor could be a computer came, trip to Ibiza, a new shirt, fanfiction or whatever. If the writer's book is the best use for the money the fan can find at the moment, the fan buys it. The fan might even read it, if the time is right.

What is the significance of fanfiction, then? In my opinion: less significant than is implied by professional writers. The number of books a writer writes is the same whether there is fanfiction or not. A writer can only sell copies of the books s/he has written, nothing else. A professional writer cannot hope to write enough to fill the fans every free moment with a previously unread text. A reader can't buy something that doesn't exist.

A writer can and, in my opinion, should hope to gain a fandom that is big enough to give him/her a living. Fandom's are great marketing channels. If a writer gains a fandom, there might be fanfiction (it doesn't happen automatically), and then there is the chance that the writer benefits from the fanfiction and other fannish activities. Fanfiction keeps the interest of the fans in the work of an author alive through hiatuses between publications. However, I think that, for the most part, fictive works and their creators never gain fandoms.

Ela