Ask An Author: Fanfic.

Welcome to our $3 reward level, where people ask me questions, mostly about the business, craft, and process of writing, and I answer them as best I can.  Reasons this is a good idea:

* I am an internationally published author
* I release an average of four books a year
* I have won multiple major awards
* I actually make my living doing this

Reasons this is a terrible idea:

* Have you met me
* Like, ever
* I should not give advice to anyone

Now it's time to ask me literally anything, and watch as I flail around in an attempt to provide a coherent answer.  Please feel free to discuss in the comments, and to submit new questions either here or by emailing me through my website contact form.  As a reminder, this reward tier only works if we have questions: please, please feel free to share yours.  If you want to ask anonymously, just send your question in via my website, and say that you'd like me to leave your name off when I answer.  If you do not ask me to redact your name, it will be included, if only because it's fun to see your name in print sometimes.

This month's question comes from Jen, who asks: "I know that you were a fanfic writer...what differences have you noticed, craft-wise, between writing fanfic traditionally published fiction?"

Let's begin by establishing an agreed-upon difference between fanfic (fan fiction) and traditionally published fiction, because I do licensed IP work, and have sometimes gone so far AU with my fanfic that it was effectively original work.  So for purposes of this answer, we're treating anything posted for free online as "fanfic," and anything published through paid channels, whether traditionally published original work, IP work, or something posted on Patreon, as "trad pub."

Now for the actual question!  What is the difference, craft-wise?

Fanfic, regardless of whether it's IP or original work, is innately free.  That's part of what makes the label "fanfic" accurate.  And that means that when I write and release fanfic, while I do go through basic editorial steps, including grammar and spelling checks, I am not acutely terrified of a typo accidentally slipping through.  Not so with trad pub.  Trad pub, money has been exchanged, and people often believe this transforms the author into magically Not An Actual Person.  I know that sounds a little dramatic, especially when talking to y'all, since anyone who's still here understands that I am very much An Actual Person.  I make mistakes, I fuck things up, and going "I found a typo I WANT MY MONEY BACK" is not going to get you much beyond looked at with vague blankness.

Does that sound extreme?  It is, a bit, but it's not outside the realm of what I have experienced as a trad pub author who doesn't self publish save through Patreon, which is an inherently curated experience.  You must have decided to follow me and see what I'll do if let out of my enclosure.  There's a certain acceptance of humanity that comes with that choice.  People will tell me about typos, but they don't get aggressive about them the way they sometimes do when it's stuff they feel more like they've paid for (which is odd, 'cause patrons absolutely pay.)

(If you've ever wondered whether typo reports here are helpful, yes, and also no.  I don't generate my own epub files, so it has to be a pretty gnarly typo for it to be worth Will's time to redo--if it were my time, whatever, but his time has value.  I realize my time has value too, but brains are weird.)

Fanfic, if you tell me there's a typo and I don't care, we're done.  If you tell me there's a typo and I do care, I may fix it.  I may not!  Who knows?  Also, fanfic has a very immediate composition/feedback cycle.  I can write something Monday and know what you thought on Tuesday.  With Patreon, even the absolute fastest speed I'm capable of typing, there's a delay.

In case the comments about typos make it sound like I don't care what readers think: I care.  I care so much.  The best thing for me, psychologically, in adjusting to trad pub has been getting some distance between composition and feedback.  Paradoxically, that's also the worst thing, because I literally cannot fix things people don't like until two/three books down the line, depending on the series and editorial cycle.  I've had people report issues that I just had to live with for two to four years, because the cycle of trad pub is long and slow.

Craft-wise, I still write fanfic with that immediate feedback in mind, and the expectation that I'll be hearing from you soon.  Probably tomorrow.

So that's that.  Like all of us, I'm stressed and sad and cabin fever-y from COVID, but please, please, ask me questions for February!  I don't want to have to start taking questions from Elsie, it would not end well!  Remember that I'll take questions about anything, and that if it can be answered with "yes" or "no," it's not a great question for this format; also if it's something I can't flog for paragraphs, like "how often do you brush your cats."  If you're tired of this reward and want to suggest a replacement, drop those here too.

Meanwhile, if you want your question to be kept for future use, emailing is better than commenting, if only so I've got a long term copy in my inbox.  But I do see all the questions, and try to remember to copy and keep the really interesting ones.