You know, I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Where I Am: family room

What I'm Listening To: some program on the History Channel about what happens to stuff when humans are all gone - my husband's choice


I started something of a firestorm over at the Absolute Write Water Cooler the other day (for those of you unfamiliar with this wonderful place, it's a great forum board for writers and can be found here http://absolutewrite.com/forums/index.php ) totally unintentionally. I posted a link to a recent post written by Diana Gabaldon on her own blog. In that post, she blasted fanfiction and all writers of fanfiction. Ms. Gabaldon doesn't just dislike the idea, she REALLY HATES it. If you haven't seen the post and would like to, here's a link. http://voyagesoftheartemis.blogspot.com/2010/05/fan-fiction-and-moral-conundrums.html


Now, my initial reaction was amusement that Ms. Gabaldon was so worked up over the problem. My next reaction was a mixture of embarassment and disappointment that she would choose what, in my mind, seemed unfortunate ways of describing her distaste. My personal feeling was that it lacked some grace and professionalism. After all, the writers of those fanfiction stories are her fans.

When I posted the link at AW, I wanted to see what, if anything, other writers thought about the subject. Well, more than 300 replies (as of this writing) later, I can tell you that tempers are running high. Some dislike the air of entitlement on the part of the fans that they believe it should be okay to write stories based on the work of an author. Some dislike the air of entitlement on the part of the authors that they should have total control over the way their fans see the characters and settings. For my part, I expressed my opinion early on (I don't mind fanfiction and would be flattered if fans wrote based on my work but would never write fanfiction based on the work of an author who has expressed a dislike for it - basic respect there) and then sat back to watch the discussion unfold. I like spirited discussion, after all.

However, this evening, I noticed another thread in the forum on the subject of used book stores and libraries. In it, the poster wondered how published authors feel about sales of used books and readers borrowing a book from the library since these represent no royalty income for the author. It's a fair question, really, and the replies were predictably tolerant and along the lines of, "I'm okay with it."

So, this lead me to wonder about entitlement. I didn't see any replies from authors bemoaning the loss of revenue due to used book sales and I think this is a good thing. After all, I'd many times rather see a book change hands than see a book thrown away. But, do authors have a right to resent this royalty-less transaction? If, as some on the first thread argued, the author should be able to totally posess the characters and settings of the book and not have them in any way altered or misrepresented by a fan writing fanfiction, why do they not also have the right to expect some remuneration for every sale of every copy of the book, even used, or expect some sort of payment for each time the book is borrowed from the library?

Now, lest this sound really petty, I should point out that a musician is paid each time their music is used in a public arena. My own experience with this is in church music. In my past life, creating song sheets for congregational use at weekend services was a part of my job and I had to keep track of each time a song was used. This was reported on, as I recall, a quarterly or maybe semi-annual basis to the music publishing company and the composer was paid royalties based on the number of times the music was used.

So, why not authors?

Let me be clear. I'm fine with fanfiction that carries an appropriate disclaimer and makes no attempt to earn money for the fan writing. In fact, I wrote a bit of fanfiction myself as a means of working on some writing skills I felt to be exceptionally lacking. I do think that if the author expresses a dislike for fanfiction and makes it clear that she would prefer her fans desist, I really, really think they should. Respect, right? The author can be civil about it and the fans should comply even though there may not be a legal requirement they do so (this seems to be settled on a case by case basis so it's unclear to me if there is a legal issue here). I'm equally fine with used book sales and library usage because it is utterly impractical not to be. How would you regulate the sales of books at the millions of jumble sales across the U. S. each weekend? You couldn't. There's just no way. So, I think the author must roll with it and derive some pleasure from the fact that the book isn't in the garbage but finding a home with a new reader. The story goes on, right?

However, this leaves me pondering the ways in which we view our work and how we behave about it. Am I okay with used book sales because I can't help it or because I'm in favor of affordable books for all? I believe it's the latter but since I am not yet published, I'm not really tested, am I? I believe I'm okay with fans wanting to try their hand at shuffling my characters around in a story but, as I say, I've never been tested (oh, to have this problem before me!).

When does this sense of entitlement lead us, as authors, into a bad place? When does it guide us fairly?

You know, I just don't know the answer to that.