I have a fan fiction story that happens in the world of a computer game. I merged the story from the game with my own story and created quite an interesting hybrid. The local characters from the game are in it but the main characters are mine.

Can I possibly publish this?
 

Numerous fansites are dedicated to publishing fanfics, especially gaming related ones. Try some of those.

[This message has been edited by EP Kaplan (edited June 08, 2008).]
 

Attempting to publish that kind of "fan fiction" without the permission of the original creator is copyright infringement and can lead to nasty legal experiences.

While some authors allow "fan fiction" with the understanding that the fans who write and share it with other fans are not making any money from the original creator's creation, others are very protective of their creations.

Only writers who are actually licensed to write such stories (as EP Kaplan has said) by the original creator who has made some kind of arrangement with a professional publisher, can publish such work for payment, and often it is under a "work for hire" arrangement, where the licensed writer doesn't receive royalties and may not even get a byline.

The other kind of "fan fiction" is much older and involved original stories written by fans of science fiction and fantasy who also shared their stories with each other in much the same way that derivative fan fiction is shared around. The writers of the original fan fiction were quite dismayed to find their term for what they wrote being taken over by those who write derivative fiction, but that's the way things happen, I guess.
 

There are websites specifically devoted to publishing amateur fanfiction, but the chances of garnering any professional attention from those is nil, in my opinion. I know people who have fun with it though. Since no money is involved the copyright holders generally turn a blind eye.
 

quote:

---

Because KDW, I sent them a cover letter explaining my idea to them.

It wasn't the plot they commented on, just the idea that a series of novels could be written about their cartoon. That's all.

---

Ah! Thank you for the clarification, snapper.
 

As for getting it to whoever's producing the source material, good luck---but don't pin your hopes on it. Nearly every place of this sort won't read, say, any unsolicited material for fear of plagiarism lawsuits. (They won't read fanfic for the same reason.) A lot are "closed shops," where the only material they consider are solicited submissions---they asked somebody to write something for them.

Still...Star Trek emerged from the muck of fanfic and established itself as a viable sub-genre of publishing. Others have, too. Near as I can tell, these are pretty much closed shops as their originals, but you might be able to get something to somebody who might give it a fair hearing.

Yes, I've done Internet Fan Fiction, and relatively recently in my career. Roughly from 2000 to 2004, it was all I wrote. I have a strict policy of not mentioning the series by name here---others have, but I don't. But I put them out under my own name, so I, and they, can still be tracked down.

I got into it because I was attracted to a number of good works in the field, because I had some ideas I wanted to work out, and because I had little luck trying to get something published in book or magazine form. I had barrels of fun---I knew I would never make any money from it, and never considered trying it on the series creators. I believe more people read my fanfic than read anything I submitted to the magazines---and a number of people took the time to tell me how much they liked what I had written.

(The notion that none of it is any good is false---I found much of it every bit as good as what I was seeing professionally published. And I know of at least two fully professional writers, lotsa sales and everything, who turned out some of it while I was still writing.)

I got out of it when it ran its course...feeling refreshed and reconfirmed in my ability to write. Even if none of the so-called "professional publications" I submitted to thought so...

But I digress...

A possibility in getting something like this professionally published is to offer to buy the rights---negotiate a payment to them for the right to publish something with the copyrighted characters and background. It might get expensive, but some places might be amenable if the money is right. (Good luck with that.)
 

So many people sneer at fan fiction. I, for one, admire fan fiction that is written skillfully and with an equal amount of love and care as original work. It is true that the majority of the fan fiction out there is unskilled and, perhaps, not worth reading. However, one must understand the challenge it presents. When you write your own, original story you can do whatever you want with it. Writing fan fiction means you must play by someone else's rules (their 'backyard'). There has to be an integrity involved...an adherence to the 'canon' of a series, film, game, etc. The characters must think, talk, and feel like those from the source material, or else the fan fiction will fall flat on its face.

It's an endeavor in playing with another's toys so well that others can't help but think it a seamless extension of the original activity.

In this sense, fan fiction is a valuable way of practicing one's skill. However, it also possesses an inherent danger: one can be easily snared into writing only fan fiction...mainly because that becomes one's comfort zone.

This can spell death for any professional writing career that might have been (or greatly hinder it). It is important to balance fan fiction as a method of writing exercise, and the cultivation of original works, lest you become trapped by its particular advantages.

Inkwell
------------------
"The difference between a writer and someone who says they want to write is merely the width of a postage stamp."
-Anonymous

[This message has been edited by Inkwell (edited June 10, 2008).]
 

I found fanfic quite a good way of sharpening my writing pencil, so to speak. I learned a lot about my own writing skills, from what I read, what I wrote, what others said, and what I thought when I reread what I wrote.

I might yet write another (a couple of ideas flit through my brain, occasionally demanding attention), but I thought it better to move on to other things, including another stab at submitting for publication.