Everyone Who Loves Fanfic
January 1, 2013 8:43 AM   Subscribe

Please help me find examples of copyright holders (ideally, with citation) who actively encourage fanfiction.

I am contemplating putting together an issue of a online literary magazine that would be devoted to fanfiction. In the call for submissions, I'd prefer to give a list of acceptable subjects rather than a list of prohibited ones.

I'm aware of this Wikipedia article and will be doing some digging on my own, but I'm hoping fanfiction enthusiasts will chime in with examples that I might miss otherwise.

Thanks for your help!
posted by gnomeloaf to Writing & Language (17 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
I know I've read other bits on Joss Whedon's feelings regarding fanfic, but I just caught this recently.
posted by FlamingBore at 9:08 AM on January 1, 2013


Teen Wolf (the MTV TV show) ran an official fanfiction contest this year. Here's an article about the winning story.
posted by warble at 9:32 AM on January 1, 2013


The creator of Supernatural more or less admits to following fanfic sites and the lead characters discover slash fiction about themselves at one point ( its that kind of show).

Teen Wolf's contest was interesting because it provided a legal shield to read fanfic, that show in particular has embraced its online fandom HARD.

I know a lot of authors on social media and such who enjoy fanfic but a few of them, Diane Duane for example, expressly ask to be shielded from fic of thier own work due to legal concerns.

TGWTG video people occasionally perform dramatic adaptations of fanfic about them, but that's not exactly encouraging as much as gentle mockery.
posted by The Whelk at 9:47 AM on January 1, 2013


Professional writer and editor Cecilia Tan's statement on fanfic regarding her works.
posted by rmd1023 at 9:47 AM on January 1, 2013


Star Trek has always encouraged it - many novels were written by fans. Copyright holder is Paramount. Besides that, there are also actors who actively support fan films (i.e. Tim Russ) by appearing in them at low or no cost.

The game series Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights are supportive of fan mods and several modders were hired (for Neverwinter Nights Expansions, I believe).
posted by MinusCelsius at 9:49 AM on January 1, 2013


This article on Fanlore seems directly relevant.

There may also be some useful info courtesy of the Organization for Transformative Works.
posted by xenization at 9:49 AM on January 1, 2013 [1 favorite]


Naomi Novik (also board member of OTW) not only encourages fanfic of her own works, she writes fanfic for other works.
posted by elizardbits at 10:03 AM on January 1, 2013 [1 favorite]


It's tricky, because many creators are supportive of fanfic but not all of them are the exclusive copyright holders.

For instance, this blog post that went up this morning suggests that writer/director Duncan Jones is fine with fanfiction of his films, but I have no idea what the studios associated with those films would have to say.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 10:04 AM on January 1, 2013


Eric Flint, author/editor of 1632 and its sequels, encourages people to write stories in his universe. I don't know that I would call those stories fan-fiction, since he actively solicits the work and will publish and make some of them an official part of his literary universe, but the stories themselves are freely and publicly posted and are generally written by fans.
posted by EatenByAGrue at 10:12 AM on January 1, 2013


My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - the producers blog and repost fan fiction and mashups regularly.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:11 PM on January 1, 2013




iO9 has an article about well-established authors who've written fanfic. (I found it by looking for Lyda Morehouse's fanfic, as I know she's written some and is enthusiastic about fanfic set in her Link universe.)
posted by jiawen at 4:01 PM on January 1, 2013


Mefi's own jscalzi on his policy - essentially noncommercial.
posted by Lemurrhea at 6:56 PM on January 1, 2013


HP Lovecraft, more or less.
posted by Artw at 12:35 AM on January 2, 2013


There's an extensive and well-cited list of author policies about fanfic on Fanlore. Fanworks Inc. also has a fairly extensive list. Those two resources are probably the most comprehensive and useful for your purposes--at least, I've not seen anything more extensive, and between the two of them I suspect that they cover a solid bulk of the people who have explicit policies.
posted by MeghanC at 3:39 AM on January 2, 2013


also "The Magicians" author Lev Grossman mentioned fanfiction in his most recent Reddit AMA

Summary: he likes it, admits it's influenced him, but refuses to read any fic of his own works until he's finished the last book.
posted by The Whelk at 1:05 PM on March 24, 2013


And filmmaker Lindsay Ellis is writing a column on how being enmeshed in a fandom and fic writing and how it ended up being a direct influence on her early 20s (making friends, making things, etc)
posted by The Whelk at 1:07 PM on March 24, 2013


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