So, I'll admit I read a lot of fanfic. I actually created this journal to read the fanfic on LJ, I never actually planned to post something. But I've had this rattling around in my head for a while now, so I thought it might be therapeutic to get it out.
There are quite a few writers that don't allow fanfic, it still gets written and I noticed that I got to know quite a few of their worlds through the fanfic first before I bought the books.
Anita Blake, I never heard of that world before I read some of the fic on twisting the hellmouth. If I'd seen the books in the store I'd never have bought them, mostly because the covers look like those of crappy romance novels to me and with a first book named "Guilty Pleasures" what are you supposedto expect.
David Webers Honor Harrington series was the same, apart from the fact that I downloaded some of the free ebooks after I read the fanfic. But I now have a considerable stack of his books. But if I'd seen them in the bookshop first I'd probably have thought they were just another dime 'a dozen sci-fi books.
Then there is the Black Jewels Trilogy, the first I heard of it was in a buffy halloween crossover (which I can't find anymore, but that's besides the point.) I was curious so I went and bought the books, the original trilogy first, and "Dreams made flesh" and "Tangled webs" later.
What I noticed was that none of the three writers (Laurell K. Hamilton, David Weber, Anne Bishop) allow fanfic, but I spent mony on their books after learning about them in fic, and I can't be the only one. Is that just ironic or are these writers missing out on valuable word of mouth advertisements?
