Q for the published (no fanfiction clause in contract?)

There is absolutely no such clause in my contract. Furthermore, I've publicly posted about writing fanfic myself and being glad that people have written fanfic about my book; both publisher and agent are fine with it.

I think fanfiction is a relatively new phenomenon, that agents and publishers either haven't really concerned themselves about, or don't really care. I know there are several authors who don't approve of fanfiction being written about their works, but that was entirely an author's preference.

Yeah she is. I believe she's also sued someone (or someones) for writing fanfic based on her books. I wouldn't be surprised if it was still being written, just that the writers were being less open about their works. I don't think it's something you can really stop.

I can see the concern, especially if the fanfic writer is making money off the works. But I would think that would fall under copyright law if that were to happen anyway. Me personally, I'd negotiate that out of a contract if I could (and if I ever got one that included it). Writing good fanfic is IMO harder than writing something of your own creation; you have an established set of boundaries and rules you have to abide to. Things you can't change. I respect any fanfic writer who can write good fanfic in whatever fandom they favour. Whether my stuff would ever be that good I have no idea, but to me it's a form of flattery.

I was the one who mentioned Tanya Huff -- I'm not sure how easy it would be to find since it's from last year, but the mention of the fanfic clause is on her blog (andpuff at livejournal).

I would be more than happy to sue writers of fanfiction, whether it was in my contract or not.

To clarify - I'm not published yet, but when I am - I'd be 100% against fanfic, as I am now.

I'd be really happy if people wrote fanfics about my books (not that I have any yet). For one thing, it would tell me that they like the story enough to put their time into that. Another thing is that I both read and write fanfics. It would make me a giant hypocrite if I told people not to.

The thing I'm most worried about is making sure the horse is in front of the cart.

Write the book. Get it published. Become phenomenally popular enough to worry about these things.

Fanfiction within reason, is my stance. I don't want to squash someone's writing, and I do recognize that FF is actually a type of flattery -- but I also recognize my work as my intellectual property. And to me, this property is violated when someone takes their efforts as a fan too far -- such as the infamous Potter wiki.

That said, I have no real call to have an opinion on this subject. If someone is writing fan fiction about my novel, then he or she is a hacker with an unhealthy obsession.

A contract demands you have sole copyright to the work. I see no reason why it would require the author to bear the cost of suing in the case of infringement.