The corporatization of fanfic?
Just came across two articles today, the first hyping the release of the final Harry Potter book by featuring discussion of Potter fanfic, and the second a press release for the launch of FanLib.com which discusses its corporate partners while Spiderman fanfic is featured on the home page.
While fan fiction has existed for decades, FanLib is launching a new era by packaging it for mainstream audiences
I find the use of the term "mainstream audiences" rather interesting since the term isn't explained but I would guess it refers to fanfic content. For example a quick glance at SPN fic doesn't reveal any tags indicating pairings or even "romance" even though easily half the content on LJ is Wincest or RPS. Similary the BtVS fanfic listed does have romance as a term but nearly half the content is rated "All."
Thoughts? Are projects such as FanLib (or even fanfic.net which no longer permits NC-17 material) going to create 2 categories of fanfic -- corporate gen and back-blog explicit and dark fic -- even as genres such as slash inch their way into commercial publishing?
ETA Since this post is still getting comments I thought I'd add that the question of what constitutes "mainstream" can be answered here. Apparently it means abiding by U.S. TV network standards and practices.
While fan fiction has existed for decades, FanLib is launching a new era by packaging it for mainstream audiences
I find the use of the term "mainstream audiences" rather interesting since the term isn't explained but I would guess it refers to fanfic content. For example a quick glance at SPN fic doesn't reveal any tags indicating pairings or even "romance" even though easily half the content on LJ is Wincest or RPS. Similary the BtVS fanfic listed does have romance as a term but nearly half the content is rated "All."
Thoughts? Are projects such as FanLib (or even fanfic.net which no longer permits NC-17 material) going to create 2 categories of fanfic -- corporate gen and back-blog explicit and dark fic -- even as genres such as slash inch their way into commercial publishing?
ETA Since this post is still getting comments I thought I'd add that the question of what constitutes "mainstream" can be answered here. Apparently it means abiding by U.S. TV network standards and practices.