Fanfiction Confusion

I received a message through my Facebook author's page, asking me to participate in a university study with the goal of proving it's okay to make a profit from selling fanfiction. I declined and wished them the best of luck.

I'm disturbed by this message for several reasons. One, it's a highly unscientific study, more of a “popular opinion” poll. Might as well poll a bunch of high school cheerleaders for all the difference it would make. Two, seeking a profit from fanfiction is illegal. It's called plagiarism and copyright infringement for a very good reasons.

There's been a huge growing trend to publish fanction, especially online “self-publishing,” which are nothing more than vanity presses. Mainly because legit publisher won't touch fanfiction with a ten foot pole. So, I'm dedicating this article to clearing up confusion and defining terms, both legally and from the perspective of an author of original fiction.

Fanfiction – Fiction that's based on favorite characters/stories, because the writer is a fan. Hence, Fan Fiction. Once anyone attempts to put a price tag on fanfiction, it becomes plagiarism and copyright infringement. However, sharing is not illegal. If a writer seeks to simply share their fanction and breaks even only, it's not illegal. The second a writer seeks to make a profit from fanfiction, it's illegal.

Original Fiction – Fiction that's inspired by books/movies/music/life itself, or just imagination, in which the writer created their own original fiction based on their own talent and skill. 100% legal, no matter where the writer got their inspiration.

Derivative Fiction – A legal gray area, fiction that's inspired by favorite characters/stories but still has the writer's own original perspective. Borderline legal. The difference is inspiration versus fan.

Now, looking at these common sense definitions, it can be easily seen what legit publishers see. Fanfiction will never make you a published author of original fiction. EVER. And that is why publishers refuse to touch fanfiction. It could be the most brilliant, stellar fanfiction written in all of writing history, but it still isn't original fiction. It's not discrimination. Publishers/agents are not rejecting fanfiction because they're stupid, etc. They're rejecting because it's not original or legal. And that's the bottom line.

Yeah, I'm well aware there are plenty on the internet who get away with it. But so what? It means nothing, and certainly doesn't mean the rest of us who actually know what we're doing have to become criminals in order to get published. Ignore them and be true to your own writing. Those who get away with it, never achieve success.

From strictly an author's perspective, in terms of a writer's development, attempting to use fanfiction as a stepping stone towards publication and profit, is cheating. That's something I personally find rather sad. There are so many talented and skilled authors out there, especially all over the internet, who are directly denying themselves the opportunity to bring out and use their own talent. I can see how writing fanfiction, or even derivative fiction, could be a beneficial exercise for anyone, but that's the most of it – a writing exercise, nothing more. Time and again, I've found the real underlying cause of the whole problem with publishing fanfiction is lack of confidence.

Believe me, it took me years to develop that confidence in my own writing abilities. I still second-guess myself on a regular basis. It's taken a lot of constant practice. You can look through this blog and see a major difference with the early posts. I honestly didn't know what I was doing back then.

The internet is fast and easy. So much can be attained by just a click of a button online. But the internet is only a communication tool, not a substitute for anything. Don't cheat yourself, believe in your talent, and allow it to take as long as it takes. Being an author of original fiction is a lifetime commitment. It will never be fast, easy, or make you millions overnight. I don't know about you, but I'm in this for the long-haul.

"It took me 20 years to achieve this overnight success." - Old saying in business.

Word Count

Is meaningless.

Word count was initially created as a standard to make it easier to assess the printing cost for a manuscript. Divisible by four, printers print four pages at once. 64K was the standard word count for any manuscript in any genre, and for many, it's still the standard. Agents or publishers could see the word count, already know the printing cost then quickly move on to answering the question of, is this manuscript worth the printing cost?

When submitting to an agent, traditional publisher, or independent press, it's all about business. That's their job. Your work as an author is to write a manuscript that's worth the printing cost, not just word count, but also a marketable story. However, it's impossible to be objective when you are the one that created this baby. Let the business people do their job, and just be an author. In fact, there's no need to worry about any technical details such as word count. Always go by what the agent/publisher ask for. If it's not clear, then be responsible for your writing and ask a lot of questions. Establish working relationships.

Of course, online publishing has clouded the issue of word count. In many ways, online publishing is a risky business that hasn't been established yet. Time is the biggest factor. Is this manuscript worth the amount of time it would take to edit and create an ebook? When time is the biggest consideration and printing costs isn't, the rules change. But either way, a huge word count will never increase your chance of publication and more often than not, decrease your chance of acceptance.

A happy balance, with either printed books or ebooks is 64k – 70k words. If you have that much, you have a healthy start.

However, the most dependent factor of all is the story itself. Some stories need a high word count, some don't. When going by word count only, the chance of cheating the story is pretty high. Believe in the story above all else. If the word count ends up being 150k, and that means working a bit harder at getting one Yes from an agent or publisher, than that's the way it is.

If you believe in your story 100%, you will do the work that's needed, regardless of word count.