50 Shades of Grey trilogy goes from fan fiction to Random House

Torgo said:

If we didn't know it began as fanfic, would we be able to tell?

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Like I mentioned above, the average reader that isn't heavily involved with fandom, I'd say that is a no, the reader wouldn't know. Nor would they care, which I think has been proven out to be the case. Readers, by and large, just want a good read that speaks to them.

To those of us in fandoms in general and who have read quite a bit of fanfiction in their time? I can't speak to 50Shades specifically since I haven't read it but I know that many times I can identify that what I'm reading was once fanfic that is dressed up to go out in public.

bearilou said:

Like I mentioned above, the average reader that isn't heavily involved with fandom, I'd say that is a no, the reader wouldn't know. Nor would they care, which I think has been proven out to be the case. Readers, by and large, just want a good read that speaks to them.

To those of us in fandoms in general and who have read quite a bit of fanfiction in their time? I can't speak to 50Shades specifically since I haven't read it but I know that many times I can identify that what I'm reading was once fanfic that is dressed up to go out in public.

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I disagree a bit. I think people would notice the fan-fiction-ness of it if they were acutely aware of the books whose copyright has been infringed. The thing about fan fiction is that it's amateur-hour. There's no character building. They take established characters and put them in different scenarios. In this case, as was pointed out up thread, the author used character templates from twilight. I haven't read the early reviews of the book but I'd be willing to bet that people were saying, "hmm, this is a lot like twilight."

Mustafa said:

I disagree a bit. I think people would notice the fan-fiction-ness of it if they were acutely aware of the books whose copyright has been infringed. The thing about fan fiction is that it's amateur-hour. There's no character building. They take established characters and put them in different scenarios. In this case, as was pointed out up thread, the author used character templates from twilight. I haven't read the early reviews of the book but I'd be willing to bet that people were saying, "hmm, this is a lot like twilight."

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The bolded is not necessarily true. Good fanfic is like good fiction of any kind. There's character-building, world-building, conflict, tension and plot, all woven together in enjoyable proportions.

What kind of fandom the fanfic comes from can also influence how much character building is available/needed. Comic book fanfics, for example, often have a lot of characterization and character growth because thirty years of revolving-door authors and soap-opera plots tend to destroy the characters, so fanfic is one way for the fandom to see those characters returned to their original glory.

Aerial

Aerial said:

The bolded is not necessarily true. Good fanfic is like good fiction of any kind. There's character-building, world-building, conflict, tension and plot, all woven together in enjoyable proportions.

What kind of fandom the fanfic comes from can also influence how much character building is available/needed. Comic book fanfics, for example, often have a lot of characterization and character growth because thirty years of revolving-door authors and soap-opera plots tend to destroy the characters, so fanfic is one way for the fandom to see those characters returned to their original glory.

Aerial

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My first quip with your post is that I think "good fanfic" is an oxymoron

My second quip, is that the hardest part of character building is making the character seem real. I can tell you how Harry Potter would react in a new situation because JKR spent 7 books helping me get to know the character. That I make him react appropriately in a fanfic is not a testament to my writing ability. It's a testament to JKR's.

Mustafa said:

I disagree a bit. I think people would notice the fan-fiction-ness of it if they were acutely aware of the books whose copyright has been infringed. The thing about fan fiction is that it's amateur-hour. There's no character building. They take established characters and put them in different scenarios. In this case, as was pointed out up thread, the author used character templates from twilight. I haven't read the early reviews of the book but I'd be willing to bet that people were saying, "hmm, this is a lot like twilight."

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Like ebook piracy, literary vs. genre fiction, self-publishing vs. trade publishing, and Twilight, the fan fiction wars have been fought many times here on AW. Realize that if you come cannonballing into the pool with "fan fiction all sucks and everyone who writes fan fiction sucks and suckity-suck teh SUCK!" about fan fiction, you're (1) saying nothing new or original; (2) insulting a lot of people who write or have written fan fiction; and (3) wrong.

Mustafa said:

That I make him react appropriately in a fanfic is not a testament to my writing ability. It's a testament to JKR's.

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You'd be surprised how many fanfic writers think they're doing this and not pulling it off at all. Keeping an established character "in character" is difficult, but good practice.

I do agree that fanfic takes most of the pressure of world-building and characterization off, which is why it's easier to write for many writers than original fiction.

Mustafa said:

My first quip with your post is that I think "good fanfic" is an oxymoron

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You obviously know nothing about fanfiction.

You do know that television writers are technically fanfiction writers, too. Anyone who writes a spec script, or ghost writes, or continues a novelization, or writes with a team of writers on a movie, is working with characters that aren't their own. It's requires a certain amount of talent. But, yes, go on about something you know nothing about. See how far that gets you here.

Mustafa said:

My first quip with your post is that I think "good fanfic" is an oxymoron

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As bloodfiend said, there is good fanfic. An example Sherlock Holmes adaption is basically fanfiction. Doctor Who and most shows are fanfiction in some form of another at this point.

fireluxlou said:

An example Sherlock Holmes adaption is basically fanfiction.

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AKA -- House.

Hell, you don't even need to defend fan fiction with the argument that licensed tie-ins and spin-offs are fan fiction. There is plenty of honest-to-gosh fan fiction fan fiction that is good. Yes, a very small percentage of the total - but if fanfiction.net is particularly worse than the average slushpile, it's only because the average age of the writers is a lot lower.

I've read a fair amount of fan fiction that's miles better than much of what is posted in SYW, and a small amount that's better than some of what I've seen professionally published.

50 Shades of Grey is morally sketchy because of its fan fiction origins, but it's bad writing because it's just plain bad writing.

Cyia said:

AKA -- House.

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Yep and don't forget the current bbc Sherlock and & Elementary.

bearilou said:

I can't speak to 50Shades specifically since I haven't read it but I know that many times I can identify that what I'm reading was once fanfic that is dressed up to go out in public.

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I'd have to agree. I've been called on it myself, when I joined a group which encouraged reviewing stories based on fandoms that you weren't necessarily familiar with. A very good fanfic writer there, who's also a published original fic author, pointed out to me that I tended not to describe stock settings at all. That's something which you specifically get with TV and movie fanfic, where everyone's familiar with what the main settings look like so you can get away with no more than saying which room they're in.

I worked on it. I do better now But it's now something I notice in other people's fanfic, with or without the numbers filed off.

I saw the set in a Barnes and Noble yesterday and went, "Oh God! It's real!" Somehow I convinced myself it wasn't coming out for another, I dunno, three months or something.

skylark said:

I worked on it. I do better now But it's now something I notice in other people's fanfic, with or without the numbers filed off.

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Yeah. I have to watch it with myself as well. So I guess I can pick up on it occasionally in other writing.

Oh, wow. That tumblr girl is mean.

And with that, and the caveat that I swear I don't wander around the internet looking for this stuff, here's SNL's 50 Shades commercial (scroll down to the video).

Fifty shades of hype....

I decided to post a new thread regarding all the hoopla surrounding the fifty shades of grey book. Since I am a new author (not published...yet) who writes erotic romance, I was curious if there are other writers who have an opinion on the hype surrounding this book.

I want to make it clear that I have not read the book. Not even an excerpt. Reason being, that I myself am in the middle of a trilogy along the same genre and I never read the subject I am working on. I did, however, read some reviews. OMG! I would be mortified, but the author must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Do you think agents/publishers will be harder on authors who present this type of story or easier due to the popularity of its subject matter? Just curious what other authors are thinking.

This isn't the right place for this post so admins might need to send it somewhere else, but I can see you're new, so welcome to AW.

Welcome to AWWC.


I don't think they will be harder.

Cherrie Mack said:

I decided to post a new thread regarding all the hoopla surrounding the fifty shades of grey book. Since I am a new author (not published...yet) who writes erotic romance, I was curious if there are other writers who have an opinion on the hype surrounding this book.

I want to make it clear that I have not read the book. Not even an excerpt. Reason being, that I myself am in the middle of a trilogy along the same genre and I never read the subject I am working on. I did, however, read some reviews. OMG! I would be mortified, but the author must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Do you think agents/publishers will be harder on authors who present this type of story or easier due to the popularity of its subject matter? Just curious what other authors are thinking.

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Its subject matter has been very popular for close to a decade now, so I don't think it's going to make a huge difference.

We do have a whole big thread on this book here in the Roundtable, which might interest you. http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=239969

Welcome to AW!

Yes, I am new... not even sure where this thread popped up. Thank you for the welcome and pointing me in the right direction.

Har, har, har. This from Publisher's Weekly:

<Fifty Shades... author EL James indicates to USA Today she has two other novels--one erotic, and the other a young adult paranormal--"stashed away" already. She says, "I've got several more good ideas but how do you follow this? I've set the bar quite high in terms of storytelling.">

Really. This goes well beyond the Dunning Kruger Effect, and straight into The Emperor's New Clothes. She believes her own hype, now. Random House has dropped to the bottom of my Big Six Publisher list, both in terms of books I want to buy, and books I want my agent to query.

^Oh dear. God help us all if someone drops an unfavorable review on Amazon. The flame wars will be EPIC.

She's not worth my time to review. I'd have to read more than three chapters and the Wiki to give a fair review, and that's effort and hours better spent on something that matters.

I would think that the difficult act to follow would be to find another work that she could copy so thoroughly and still manage not to be sued...

Maybe that was what she meant by setting the bar high?