coraa | (no subject)

One of the arguments against fanfiction that I understand the least goes something like this:

"But if you just file the serial numbers off, you can submit it to market!"

or:

"But writing fanfic doesn't give you the practice you need for writing professionally because you don't learn how to [make your own characters | make your own world | plot properly].

or, what it all boils down to:

"But why would you write something that you couldn't ever sell?"

Well.

Why do people draw, paint, cook, garden, make jewelry, sew clothing, knit, crochet, play card games, throw pots, sing in the shower, dance, play racquetball, ride their bike, birdwatch, hike, swim, go camping, play the guitar... when they aren't going to do it professionally? When they will not earn a single red cent, and in fact may spend quite a bit?

Because it's fun.

And, you know, I hope someday to be a published author, and I support authors making money on their works.

But the idea that there's no purpose to writing besides to sell what you write? That's pretty depressing, isn't it?

Sometimes people write things because it's fun. Radical thought!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Has anyone ever actually 'filed the serial numbers off' their fanfic and achieved any kind of commercial success with it? I've heard of fans getting spec scripts turned into episodes of, e.g. Star Trek, and I know Shards of Honor started out as a Trek novel, but neither of those is really the same thing.

I honestly don't know. I can't think of any clear cases offhand, but on the other hand, authors who file serial numbers off are... mmm, probably pretty unlikely to advertise that fact.

That raises an interesting legal question. Suppose you write, say, a Harry Potter fanfic, then change all the names and maybe an identifying detail or two. You publish it like that. Then you put up a website with a "key" to all the characters and such: Jack is actually Harry, Mr. Thomson is actually Snape, Wizard Rugby is actually Quidditch, et cetera. Does J.K. Rowling have any legal recourse?

Of course, you'd probably piss an awful lot of people off if you actually did this, but it's an interesting intellectual exercise.

I once saw Elizabeth Bear commenting, several years ago, that at least one of her published short stories was fanfic-with-filed-off-serial-numbers. (I don't regularly read her journal, so I have no idea if this is something she's mentioned/done more than once.)

I can't recall if she mentioned the specific fandom at the time, but based on comments I've since seem from readers, I believe it was something related The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Denis McKeirnan's first trilogy was originally set in Middle Earth. (This would be the draft he wrote longhand while he was laid up in traction after a motorcycle accident.) To sell it, he filed off Tolkein's serial numbers and soldered on ones for Mithgar.

---L.