Thinking exercise: so how about if we published the "good" fic
"I don't mind that these fics with the serial numbers filed off get published commercially. I just wish they'd publish the good fic."
I've seen a lot of people react like that to Fifty Shades of Grey, and it seems to be bubbling up again with the news that a book based on a One Direction fic* called Me, Myself, and One Direction is also getting published. The problem for many people seems to be that these fics aren't very skilfully written. A lot of fans would clearly have preferred for the first fic that caught the public eye** to be something, well, more impressive in a literary sense? Something less embarrassingly representative of what most fic is like?
Personally speaking, I also feel it would have been nice if the first publicly acknowledged fic had been a literary masterpiece. But I like to think of it like this. If it had been *insert my favorite stunningly well-written story here*, then fic would have been noticed by literary critics and a niche audience, and they would have loved and respected us. But instead we got a crowd-pleaser, so now fic has been lovingly read by millions of women (and men) who may never have heard of it otherwise. They may even decide to look for more fic and join fandom.
That really sucks! I wish we'd gotten the respect of literary critics instead of the love of millions of potential new fans.
Er.
Anyway. Big publishing houses are unlikely to start publishing what we (here in this particular corner of Dreamwidth/LiveJournal) might consider "good" fic, because they'll probably go for whatever got the most hits on some large archive and isn't likely to cause controversy. Although you never know. Stranger things have happened, and publishers in some parts of the world already have no problem whatsoever with slash or other "risky" content. Still, most big mainstream publishers are never going to publish what we want. If big mainstream publishers gave us the stuff we want to read, there would be no need to write it ourselves.
I'd like to gently suggest that instead of wondering when the "good" fic will be published, anyone who feels really strongly about introducing a general book-reading audience to "good" fic consider doing it themselves. Now that established publishing houses are openly publishing fic, it suddenly seems a lot less risky for fans to try it themselves. (I am not a lawyer in any country, and this is just a thinking exercise.) Practically speaking, it's entirely doable to set up a system for distributing e-books these days. It shouldn't be that hard to set up A Publishing House of Our Own or Serial Numbers Books or somesuch, and approach some writers of "good" fic who may agree to publish an e-book edition of their fic with the serial numbers filed off.
(But in the name of Tophgod, make sure writers keep the usual free version of their fic online too. Nobody wants a system for commercial fic publishing where there are fics that people can't read unless they pay for them. Aside from the ethical issues involved and the massive wankstorms that would surely follow, it'll never work. Fans who find themselves denied access to a fic will be rightly pissed off and just spread the e-books around for free. And be careful with licenses. And outlets that might restrict sales to one region only. And and and.)
There would be a lot to consider, obviously, but I'd love to see fans take matters into their own hands with regard to commercial fic publishing. If we're smart about it, it could work great and benefit fandom as a whole as much as the individual writers.
(Inspired by a Twitter conversation with
sylvaine)
*Qualified because it's not clear how much of the book is new and how much is from the fic
**ETA: In the English-speaking world. This entry was originally posted at http://unjapanologist.dreamwidth.org/62215.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
I've seen a lot of people react like that to Fifty Shades of Grey, and it seems to be bubbling up again with the news that a book based on a One Direction fic* called Me, Myself, and One Direction is also getting published. The problem for many people seems to be that these fics aren't very skilfully written. A lot of fans would clearly have preferred for the first fic that caught the public eye** to be something, well, more impressive in a literary sense? Something less embarrassingly representative of what most fic is like?
Personally speaking, I also feel it would have been nice if the first publicly acknowledged fic had been a literary masterpiece. But I like to think of it like this. If it had been *insert my favorite stunningly well-written story here*, then fic would have been noticed by literary critics and a niche audience, and they would have loved and respected us. But instead we got a crowd-pleaser, so now fic has been lovingly read by millions of women (and men) who may never have heard of it otherwise. They may even decide to look for more fic and join fandom.
That really sucks! I wish we'd gotten the respect of literary critics instead of the love of millions of potential new fans.
Er.
Anyway. Big publishing houses are unlikely to start publishing what we (here in this particular corner of Dreamwidth/LiveJournal) might consider "good" fic, because they'll probably go for whatever got the most hits on some large archive and isn't likely to cause controversy. Although you never know. Stranger things have happened, and publishers in some parts of the world already have no problem whatsoever with slash or other "risky" content. Still, most big mainstream publishers are never going to publish what we want. If big mainstream publishers gave us the stuff we want to read, there would be no need to write it ourselves.
I'd like to gently suggest that instead of wondering when the "good" fic will be published, anyone who feels really strongly about introducing a general book-reading audience to "good" fic consider doing it themselves. Now that established publishing houses are openly publishing fic, it suddenly seems a lot less risky for fans to try it themselves. (I am not a lawyer in any country, and this is just a thinking exercise.) Practically speaking, it's entirely doable to set up a system for distributing e-books these days. It shouldn't be that hard to set up A Publishing House of Our Own or Serial Numbers Books or somesuch, and approach some writers of "good" fic who may agree to publish an e-book edition of their fic with the serial numbers filed off.
(But in the name of Tophgod, make sure writers keep the usual free version of their fic online too. Nobody wants a system for commercial fic publishing where there are fics that people can't read unless they pay for them. Aside from the ethical issues involved and the massive wankstorms that would surely follow, it'll never work. Fans who find themselves denied access to a fic will be rightly pissed off and just spread the e-books around for free. And be careful with licenses. And outlets that might restrict sales to one region only. And and and.)
There would be a lot to consider, obviously, but I'd love to see fans take matters into their own hands with regard to commercial fic publishing. If we're smart about it, it could work great and benefit fandom as a whole as much as the individual writers.
(Inspired by a Twitter conversation with
sylvaine)
*Qualified because it's not clear how much of the book is new and how much is from the fic
**ETA: In the English-speaking world. This entry was originally posted at http://unjapanologist.dreamwidth.org/62215.html. Please comment there using OpenID.