which is pretty much the kind of example I'm referencing in the original work -- where it's pretty blatant. The problem is that if the editors have never heard of say, Star Wars, you could do the young man with unlimited potential and the princess with the cinnamon rolls on her head and they'd think it's a rollicking good read. A lot does hinge on the slush reader or editor or agent being knowledgeable, although the other side of saying that is that it's not like any of those three really need more stress on their plate to police the refried fanfic at the same time.
you don't find much reused fanfic at NY levels
That hasn't been my experience -- it's just that a lot of it is well-written, or has been adapted and revised and originified to a degree that you can only barely catch the origins, or you only find out later when someone in the shared fandom mentions that so-and-so pulled his/her story and rewrote it and is now profic published. I actually can name more than just one hands' worth of fingers in the fantasy genre alone for stories that are NY-published yet have roots in a fanfic work. With the exception of Clare, I've read many of them, and even in cases where I learned I'm generally familiar with the fandom, I've twigged only to the degree of, "the premise/setting reminds me of such-and-such, but the author took it in completely different directions..."
The thing is, if the author's good, you'll never know how much of the work is reused.
And that's exactly my point: that it does take skill and effort and technique and work to file off those numbers, such that even we who are generally familiar don't twig to it being a complete rip-off, and instead read it as, at most, "affectionately inspired by". I don't consider rewriting fanfic into ofic to be a task of rubbish, thus I will continue making noise -- because sometimes the only way someone who's mediocre gets better is by being reminded of how to avoid the more egregious mistakes.
no subject
Date: 9 Feb 2010 05:02 am (UTC)which is pretty much the kind of example I'm referencing in the original work -- where it's pretty blatant. The problem is that if the editors have never heard of say, Star Wars, you could do the young man with unlimited potential and the princess with the cinnamon rolls on her head and they'd think it's a rollicking good read. A lot does hinge on the slush reader or editor or agent being knowledgeable, although the other side of saying that is that it's not like any of those three really need more stress on their plate to police the refried fanfic at the same time.
you don't find much reused fanfic at NY levels
That hasn't been my experience -- it's just that a lot of it is well-written, or has been adapted and revised and originified to a degree that you can only barely catch the origins, or you only find out later when someone in the shared fandom mentions that so-and-so pulled his/her story and rewrote it and is now profic published. I actually can name more than just one hands' worth of fingers in the fantasy genre alone for stories that are NY-published yet have roots in a fanfic work. With the exception of Clare, I've read many of them, and even in cases where I learned I'm generally familiar with the fandom, I've twigged only to the degree of, "the premise/setting reminds me of such-and-such, but the author took it in completely different directions..."
The thing is, if the author's good, you'll never know how much of the work is reused.
And that's exactly my point: that it does take skill and effort and technique and work to file off those numbers, such that even we who are generally familiar don't twig to it being a complete rip-off, and instead read it as, at most, "affectionately inspired by". I don't consider rewriting fanfic into ofic to be a task of rubbish, thus I will continue making noise -- because sometimes the only way someone who's mediocre gets better is by being reminded of how to avoid the more egregious mistakes.