Fan fiction promises to be a rich vein for publishers – The Guardian – James Bridle

The transformation of EL James’s Fifty Shades of Grey from free ebook to paperback bestseller shows that fan fiction communities are a potentially lucrative source of material…

As publishers hunger for popular content while cutting promotional budgets, such ready-formed, literate and ebook-reading groups are likely to become the engine rooms of fiction.

*low whistle* Hmm…what do you guys think about this?

I remember reading Cassandra Clare’s (at the time, Cassandra Claire) Harry Potter fan fiction – she was the Queen Bee with her Draco Trilogy. It’s been off the internet for almost 10 years now, because she wanted to pursue a “real” writing career and started her own Mortal Instruments series. In this case, I think fan fiction is beneficial! Writers receive feedback from readers, it’s a chapter-by-chapter series that becomes a learning experience for writers and readers alike. But as for making money off of fan fiction? A place for publishers to scour instead of looking at the manuscripts sent in daily?

I’m just not sure how I feel about this. Thoughts?