Discussion Post #97

[empressearwig]

Change of plans! We were supposed to talk Brandon Sanderson today, but instead, we have bumped that back to next Saturday. And yes, that's technically June, but sometimes the calendar just works that way. In the meantime, you should go here to nominate books for us to read in June. Our theme is summer reading, which you can take as broadly or

Comments

[katayla]

Here are the restrictions:

Pornography: We don't accept pornography or offensive depictions of graphic sexual acts

[empressearwig]

And those restrictions are why I don't think this will work. They seem to want plotty gen and/or g rated ship fic and I think they're overestimating the amount of both of those things. Also, to a certain extent, the size of the fandoms. Gossip Girl the tv show doesn't even have its own section at ff.net and the only one of any substantial size is TVD, but again, I suspect a lot of what there is is porn.

Idk, I have enjoyed tie-in novels in the past and if this were being presented more as that, I wouldn't have a problem with it. Or at least I'd have less of one. Instead, it feels like Amazon (and the publishers) trying to capitalize on something they don't really understand and I think it's going to flop.

[katayla]

I could see people being interested in writing stuff specifically for this, but, yeah, this isn't really what most fanfic is about.

[empressearwig]

Oh, sure. Though I'm still not convinced that any of these fandoms lend themselves to that particularly.

But part of the reason that so much Twilight fic has been PTP is that that's what Twilight fandom WAS. (I found this fascinating.) So there was a wealth of material ready to be snatched up, whereas in this case, I think it is going to have to be written to spec and if they can't write porn, well, then who is going to buy it? Not people from fandom who can get it for free. Teenagers who really like the shows? Maybe. I'd be curious to see if sales numbers for any of those book series went up after the tv shows launched and if it was sustained over the course of the series.

[katayla]

That IS interesting. I didn't realize the Twilight fandom was that filled with the AU-type stuff. (And, of course, it's such a huge fandom, so has a huge audience.)

I do think they might be aiming for, like I said before, the people who want more, but aren't really aware of fandom.

Well, obviously I am just one person, but I've tried all those book series, haha. Though Gossip Girl was before the show was created.

[katayla]

Haha, TRUE.

And they get final say anyway, so following all of those is no guarantee your work will be accepted.

[theepiccek]

"We don't accept pornography or offensive depictions of graphic sexual acts." THEN WHAT IS EVEN THE POINT

[redbrunja]

EXACTLY.