Fan Fiction: Against

[rolanni]

Robin Hobb has posted a cogent rant here. Link from pegkerr

I know that some folks on my friends list write fan fic, and may thus not agree with Robin's points. If you feel compelled to disagree with them here, please be polite and rational. Posts deemed impolite, irrational, or both, by Eagles Over the Kennebec Management will be deleted.

In the service of Full Disclosure and Fair Warning, I do agree with Robin's points. Scott Lynch (link also from pegkerr) does not.

Comments

[cirrussundog.livejournal.com]

Um...now I have to admit to being confused. I bought *Low Port* and enjoyed it very much. Were all the authors included in that book experienced writers, or are you saying they were engaged in a less-than-preferable activity that would hinder their becoming careful craftspeople by contributing to your anthology?

I'm not trying to be difficult. I merely seem to have missed a step in your argument.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I bought *Low Port* and enjoyed it very much. Were all the authors included in that book experienced writers, or are you saying they were engaged in a less-than-preferable activity that would hinder their becoming careful craftspeople by contributing to your anthology?

And now I'm confused. I'm reading the above to imply that Low Port (edited by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Meisha Merlin, 2003), is a work of fanfic. If you read and enjoyed the book, (rather than simply enjoying ownership of it) then you know that Low Port was a collection of original short stories written to a theme, that theme being: Tell a story in which the hero/es is/are someone who lives on the wrong side of the spaceport's (or castle's) tracks. There were no Liaden stories included (not even mine); we said specifically in our guidelines (and in our foreword) that Low Port was not a Liaden Universe(R) shared-world antho. If that's the step you're missing, I'm very sorry, but I don't know how a careful reader could have missed this, or formed the opinion that the stories included had anything to do with the Liaden Universe(R).

To answer your other question -- at least, I think it was a question... Low Port was an open anthology (that means we accepted submissions from anyone who read the guidelines and sent us a story -- and a number of people who apparently hadn't read the guidelines, but sent us a story anyway). We did buy stories from a few "young" writers (meaning that, at the time we bought the stories, those authors hadn't yet seen much published), but I don't think we bought anyone's first pro sale. Of course folks like Lee Modesitt, Ru Emerson, eluki bes shahar, Jody Lynn Nye, Mark Tiedemann -- to name a few -- are well-seasoned authors. While Lee, eluki, and Mark specifically wrote stories set in their own on-going universes, every story appearing in Low Port is, to the best of my knowledge, an original work.

Low Port and Anthologies

[cirrussundog.livejournal.com]

Ahah! Thank you for your clarification. What I didn't pay sufficient attention to was seeing if every author was writing in their *own* universe. (I did recognize several of the stories as being rooted in other works I'd already read, which is what prompted my curiosity.) Such an editorial policy does, certainly, make your practice consistent with your principles: admirable, that.

Since I brought up the topic, may I inquire about what you think of shared-world anthologies which are based on the universe of a single writer? I've always been curious as to why pro writers do or don't get involved with such projects.