I've got a bad feeling about this

[rthstewart]

Yesterday, via duncatra and Club Jade, I saw that Random House announced that it has jumped the shark and will be sponsoring a fan fiction contest at San Diego Comic Con.  From the press release:

Random House Audio Invites Fan Fiction Authors to Record Their Stories at Comic-Con International in San Diego
One story will be selected by RH Audio producers to

Comments

[harmony_lover]

I'm all for people making the jump if they wish to, though I'm not sure reading audio at a con is the way to do it. I'm also for keeping control of your own work as much as you can, but I don't think that makes book publishers, even big ones, inherently bad.

I can't talk about 50 Shades. I haven't read it. Even the idea of it repulses me so much I get nauseous, and to think that there are so many women out there reading it just sickens the feminist in me.

[rthstewart]

There are so many different ways of slicing 50 shades. The yuckiest one, to be sure, are the women and the commentators who thinks this somehow reflects a desire by achieving women to be dominated and that we all really hope for the Cinderella dream come true. Yet, in these economically dicey times, hoping for someone else to provide economic comfort from the Cinder in the ashes existence isn't irrational. Then there is the fact that the author took someone else's property, made a HUGE name for herself on fanfiction.net, then took it down, took it private, filed off the serial numbers and started selling it to her readers -- who BOUGHT IT and then did SO WELL a major publishing house finally bought it too and now she's making gadzillions. That is, I think, an interesting part of the story

[harmony_lover]

Okay, first of all, the "OMG, women read porn?" deserves an eyeroll

[cofax7]

I have a really deep ambivalence to all of the BDSM in 50 Shades

It's also worth noting that, aside from all the issues you point out, from what I hear is it's not particularly accurate BDSM. As in, the way the characters behave is not congruent with the standards of the mainstream American BDSM community (inasmuch as there is one, anyway).

So not only does the work lend itself to a misinterpretation of women's sexuality and women's roles in society (which the work is not really to be blamed for), it misrepresents the community it takes its substance from.

[snacky]

Well, to be fair, this is not the first time something like this has been done. Star Trek has a whole series of published fanworks - they held a contest every year, if I am remembering right - and there are several familiar fandom names among the authors. So it's not necessarily trying to cash in on FSOG.

[min023]

Hmmm. Don't these things usually come with a hidden sting in the tail? OK, yes, it's RH, therefore big publishing, and they shouldn't need to resort to some of the scams I've read about, like pay to enter and surrender your copyrights to the competition owner, but still. No free lunch, and all that...