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My Statement on Fan Fiction & Fanworks
by Cecilia Tan

A slew of authors lately are speaking out against fanfic.

Everyone is entitled to their feelings, of course. I wouldn’t try to impose my feelings about fanfic on other writers any more than I would try to impose my polyamorous, kinky lifestyle on a monogamous vanilla couple. (Even though I feel certain they are missing out, and even though they may feel my very existence may undermine all the values they hold dear.*)

As you might gather from my tone, I am not one of those who is against fan fiction. I am wholeheartedly for fan fiction and other ways fans can engage their imaginations with the stories I tell. Isn’t that the whole point of writing fiction? To create a world inside the reader’s head, instead of just keeping it here in my own head?

This debate in the blogosphere is hitting at a very timely moment for me, as I recently stumbled across some actual fan fiction “in the wild” based on my Magic University universe and characters.

Some years ago I attended a panel on fanfiction and fanworks on which several lawyers sat. The audience was mostly fans, but I asked the lawyers the question, what can writers do if they want to encourage, rather than discourage, their fans, and what should a writer do if she discovers people writing fanfiction in her universe?

The advice I was given at the time was

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Mirrored from Circlet Press: Welcome to Circlet 2.0.