Fan Fiction anyone?
Instead of waiting on a slush pile for some editor at the publishing company to discover them, the authors are self publishing and digitizing their works. Novels written by amateurs and posted on community websites, are now available for free!
Cell-phone novels haven't caught on in the U.S.-yet-but we have something analogous: fan fiction. It works like this, a reader reads something that he/she likes, so they want to know the further adventures of their favorite characters. The reader then writes their own story based on the characters of the original work. Fan written stories based on fictional worlds and characters borrowed from popular culture like Star Wars, Star Trek, Jane Austen, Twilight, are all available on Fanfiction.net. Fanfiction hosts 386,490( and counting), short stories, novels and novellas in its Harry Potter section alone!
There are enough of these fan-driven works out online that they now qualify as a literary form of their own. But reader be warned, this is raw content, alive with the good, the bad and the ugly. If you have lived a sheltered, edited reading existence up until now you may be surprised. Publishers have always been the gatekeepers of literature. Only the best and most deserving was published. Now it's anything and everything!
The rise of self publishing, and digital formats will revolutionize the publishing industry and the concept of novels. Copyright law will be stretched to the breaking point to try and encompass this new age. More novels will be presented, episode style, like your favorite TV programs. So tune in next week for chapter 2!
Michele, Children's Librarian
No comments:
Post a Comment