Wait, some authors don't allow fanfiction of their works?

[Mellusia]

I'm sure there are creators out there that may not like the way their creations are portrayed in fanfiction, but I'm actually surprised there is a legal right to not write fanfiction against the author's wishes.

I mean, I'm not saying I don't understand an author's feelings, but that there's a legit prevention kind of baffles me, you know?

(Eh, sorry, just stumbled upon a no-fanfiction allowed list and it surprised me, and just wanted to share)

[Casanova]

Hmm, that's interesting. Can you post the list?

Like you, I can understand artists being wary of how their creations will be portrayed, but at the same time you have to expect that kind of thing if you release something popular into the public domain. People will want to be a part of the world you've created and craft stories of their own, granted some people take it too far, but I think it's healthy overall, and a good thing. Personally, I think I'd be flattered if someone wrote fanfiction of anything I'd created.

[Aleister Black]

I found this on RObin Hobb's FAQ page which will probably shed some light on the main issue, for authors at least:

Question: I read that you allow fan art but not fan fiction. That’s not fair! Why do you do that?

Answer: Fan art can never be confused with my writing. Art is pictures (or sculptures, etc.) It isn’t words on a page. No one will look at a picture of a wolf and say, “That is Robin Hobb’s work.” Even if you Google for Robin Hobb and Nighteyes, and that image comes up, no one will think it is a page of text from my book. It’s that simple.

Also, it's probably a legal issue in that an author may have contracts with publishers that don't allow it because they figure only they have the rights to the story. Here's another exerpt from the same FAQ:

Question: Can I make a Role-playing game based on your world or books? It’s only just for fun, not profit, for this role-playing group on the Internet. Or, Can I make a little film from your books? It’s only for a contest, or just to share with my friends or only to put on my website. I don’t plan to make any money from it. Or, may I self-publish a little graphic novel I made from a scene in your book? I’ll make sure to say that I don’t own any of the rights.

Answer: Rights are a rather tricky thing for a writer. You simply want to set up an RP or make a little movie and have some fun. You are not expecting to market a game or to profit from a movie.

It probably seems like it would be fun and simple if I simply said, “Sure, go ahead.”


But if the writer gives official permission, it can have unintended consequences in the future. If a game developer approaches the writer and wants to purchase the rights to make a game based on the books, the writer has to say, “I already gave someone else permission to do an RP of that.” Then the game developer may simply end the negotiation.


Or if the game developer purchases the rights and markets the game, the game developer may later take issue with someone else doing for free what he has paid for. The game developer may see it as a copyright infringement on the rights he has purchased. Or the person who has made the RP may look at the game developer and say, “You took a lot of the ideas that I first came up with for my RP and used them in your game that you sold for money. That’s not fair!”


Often, when an author sells a publisher the right to publish a book, the contract will specify that the publisher can sell ’sub rights’ as in movie rights or merchandise rights or gaming rights. If the publisher does sell those rights, then the author and the publisher share in the income from those rights. The publisher might not be happy to discover that the author had already given someone those rights for free.


This is why all rights permissions have to go through my agent. The agent keeps track of what rights have been purchased and by whom. If a writer gives someone permission to make a comic or an audio book version and at the same time the agent is negotiating a sale of those rights, things can get very messy for everyone, with possible law suits.


This is a long answer to what was probably seen as a fairly simple question. But often a writer is seen as stingy or selfish if he or she simply says, “No, you can’t do that, even if you are not planning on making money from it.”

[Mellusia]

Sorry, sorry, forgot to check back on the thread. This was the post I saw with the following list:

Archie Comics
P.N. Elrod
Raymond Feist
Terry Goodkind
Laurell K. Hamilton
Robin Hobb
Megan Lindholm (Robin Hobb)
Dennis L. McKiernan
Robin McKinley
Irene Radford
Anne Rice
Anne Rampling (Anne Rice)
A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
Nora Roberts
J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts)

And thanks for the additional info, Aleister. A lot of good points were made.

Still...I doubt fanfiction will be stopping anytime soon. Not to mention there's probably been several exceptions made over the years (I swear I saw a manga version of "Interview with the Vampire") :/

[Krikie]

I can understand how some fanfaction could be considered insulting to authors though, especially after they have worked so hard to develop a character. Fanfiction gives a person the opportunity to change everything, and can be upsetting to the original author.