Why fanfic can be so much better than authorised spin-offs

[charis_kalos]

It's always puzzled me as to how officially recognised spin-off novels of my favourite television shows can be so bad, given that the authors presumably have access to the show in ways that amateur fanfic writers can only dream of. But over my holiday last week I read Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers and Other Media Paratexts by Jonathan Gray

Comments

[starrylizard]

Yep! I often think the novels that really work must have authors who are either fans themselves of the show and/or are connected with fandom itself enough to know what is important to the fans to get right. I know I have read some great spin off novels in my time... and some stinkers. :)

[charis_kalos]

Thank goodness for the internet. Nowadays by the time I think about reading a tie-in it's usually been read and reviewed by lots of other people and I can usually rely on them to tell me what I should spend time and money on and what I should avoid. Because they can't all be dismissed - some are really could - but they can't all be read - some are putrid!

[ficwriter1966]

I often talk about the Quantum Leap tie-ins - the fine thing about that series is that ALL (or nearly all) of them were written by fans. The editor attended all the QL cons and bought great piles of zines, looking for writers, and the result was 15 books that were really enjoyable for fan readers

[charis_kalos]

The editor attended all the QL cons and bought great piles of zines, looking for writers, and the result was 15 books that were really enjoyable for fan readers.

That's a brilliant idea! I wonder if that could still be dome today, or if there is just too much fanfic out there. Maybe publishers could commission some dedicated fans to weed through the slush for them first?

This book talked about the way that someone like Peter Jackson made sure that everything connected to LOTR came out of the same place, so the DVD extras and the games and even the posters and the packaging all had a shared artistic integrity. Imagine if there was that level of commitment and connection to SPN products! No hideous mistakes to be picked up be fans like the colour of Dean's eyes or John initially driving another car!

[anniehow]

That looks like such an interesting book! Did you buy the hard copy or did you download it somewhere?
(I remember doing a comparison post on an SPN tie-in novel with one of BigPink's fanfics, both of which used the same setting. Guess which one was better? ;-P)

[charis_kalos]

I bought an actual hard-copy because I have vague ideas that sometime I'm going to do a second PhD or write a book on something to do with theology in popular culture and so I'm building up a little library of media studies books in preparation. Although by the time I get round to doing it in fifty years or so all these books will be out of date!

[anniehow]

You could do a "history of" type of thing ;-)