Tie-in novels
There's an excerpt of an upcoming Supernatural tie-in novel floating about on the internet. And someone created a poll about it. The results are kinda ouch...And to be honest, I did read the excerpt yesterday and wasn't impressed myself either. As many have said in the comments to the poll, there is much better fanfic out there.
In my (limited) experience, that's not just the case for Supernatural. Most of the t.v. tie-in novels I've read (fandoms include Dark Angel, Buffy and Earth 2), the novels mostly fall in the "well, okay" category. Technically correct writing, if often somewhat formulaic, the characters superficially recognizable. But no 'wow'-factor.
You can't really blame the authors. They're not fans like we are, but people who write for a living and do that mostly well enough. Assuming they base their stories on a general outline of the 'verse they're asked to write in, they don't do so badly. Not to mention they have to keep the 'general reader' in mind as well. But there's no love, like there is in fanfic.
Combine this with the recent uproar over Fanlib, which may or may not result in fanfic going back deeper underground, making the gap between 'authorized' and 'non-authorized' material that much bigger... If I were the PTBs, I'd probably go look for the real best fanfic out there and offer those authors a publishing deal for tie-ins. Win-win on all sides.
But as a Dutch writer once said, "Tussen droom en daad staan wetten in de weg en praktische bezwaren..." (Between dream and action laws and practical objections stand in the way... --Babelfished because I'm lazy).
Anyway, curious to hear your experiences with tie-in novels.
In my (limited) experience, that's not just the case for Supernatural. Most of the t.v. tie-in novels I've read (fandoms include Dark Angel, Buffy and Earth 2), the novels mostly fall in the "well, okay" category. Technically correct writing, if often somewhat formulaic, the characters superficially recognizable. But no 'wow'-factor.
You can't really blame the authors. They're not fans like we are, but people who write for a living and do that mostly well enough. Assuming they base their stories on a general outline of the 'verse they're asked to write in, they don't do so badly. Not to mention they have to keep the 'general reader' in mind as well. But there's no love, like there is in fanfic.
Combine this with the recent uproar over Fanlib, which may or may not result in fanfic going back deeper underground, making the gap between 'authorized' and 'non-authorized' material that much bigger... If I were the PTBs, I'd probably go look for the real best fanfic out there and offer those authors a publishing deal for tie-ins. Win-win on all sides.
But as a Dutch writer once said, "Tussen droom en daad staan wetten in de weg en praktische bezwaren..." (Between dream and action laws and practical objections stand in the way... --Babelfished because I'm lazy).
Anyway, curious to hear your experiences with tie-in novels.