Have you ever read a novel that you suspect was originally fanfic?

[ownedbycats]

Theres been some well-noted examples of fanfic rewitten into an original novel. 50 Shades of Grey, I think is most famous example. (For this post, I actually couldn't remember the title and searched "shitty bdsm romance that was twillight fanfic" )

Have you ever read a novel and recognized certain characters, plotlines, etc from something else?

[Sirtel]

Lots of genre fiction has similar characters or plotlines. That doesn't mean they were originally written as fan fiction, so I don't even know how I should recognize this.

[JSWolf]

If anyone has read 50 Shades of Grey then you've read a book that was originally a (I think) Twilight fanfic.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If anyone has read 50 Shades of Grey then you've read a book that was originally a (I think) Twilight fanfic.

Yes, I said that in the OP?

[salamanderjuice]

Does officially licensed fan fiction count? Like the 6th Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book?

[ownedbycats]

Not disguised.

[Byrdie]

I've read official and sorta-semi-official adaptations and books that were set in other folk's IP universes but they were perfectly upfront about it. And of course I read fanfiction. LOTS of it, have even written some too. So I pretty much know it when I see it. Couple years back though I got a bit thrown off by one book, an M/M paranormal mystery romance. Less than 10 pages in it was quite obvious that the author, whose name I did NOT recognize from fandom circles and so wasn't expecting it of them, had written a very thinly disguised story based on a 90s TV series, The Sentinel. Had I bought the book instead of borrowing it I'd have been disappointed because frankly, it did not work as well with the serial numbers filed off as they say.

And no, I did not manage to track down the fanfic it was based on, which was probably the better version.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Byrdie

Had I bought the book instead of borrowing it I'd have been disappointed because frankly, it did not work as well with the serial numbers filed off as they say.

You're not alone:
https://fanlore.org/wiki/Filing_Off_The_Serial_Numbers

In recent years, fewer fans are supportive of these pro publishing activities. Ironically, this comes at a time where fans are finding it much easier to self-publish their fanfic or work through smaller, non-traditional presses. Fans may not appreciate having a beloved, or worse, unfinished WIP suddenly disappear so an author can publish it. Other fans have expressed dissatisfaction at buying a professional gay romance novel, only to discover they've already read the story in its earlier Slash fanfic guise.

[Cactus Chef]

I've seen it more frequently in other entertainment mediums I interact with. It's pretty common in videogaming modding communities...fans work on a modification to a game ("mod" for short) to recreate some kind of existing franchise in the game engine. Contrived example: "Let's create X-Men in Unity engine!" Project will build momentum, gain anticipation in the online community, then it will get the inevitable Cease & Desist letter from the IP rights holder. Half the time the project will shut down, the other half they will suddenly pivot the project to "an original IP", remove all the trademarked assets, and then reintroduce it as an original concept which is still X-Men With the Serial Numbers Filed Off, e.g. you'll now control Blaster Man, Vicious Badger, and Typhoon as your main party. The project still inevitably dies when fan anticipation dries up, because no one really cares about unknown modder's project if it doesn't even have the existing characters that drew you to the project to begin with.

DOTA 2 might be one of the few examples that maintained its momentum after rebranding from the original Warcraft 3-based mod, and there are still a few heroes where you can see the character's origins as a WC3 character, if you know what you're looking for.

Can't say I've encountered it much in literature, mostly because I tend to stay away from anything that even remotely smacks of fan fiction. I suppose I did read The Sword of Shannara, but I hesitate to even call the first one fan fiction because at least fan fiction tends to do something new plot-wise with its LOTR setting.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

I've seen it more frequently in other entertainment mediums I interact with. It's pretty common in videogaming modding communities...fans work on a modification to a game ("mod" for short) to recreate some kind of existing franchise in the game engine. Contrived example: "Let's create X-Men in Unity engine!" Project will build momentum, gain anticipation in the online community, then it will get the inevitable Cease & Desist letter from the IP rights holder. Half the time the project will shut down, the other half they will suddenly pivot the project to "an original IP", remove all the trademarked assets, and then reintroduce it as an original concept which is still X-Men With the Serial Numbers Filed Off, e.g. you'll now control Blaster Man, Vicious Badger, and Typhoon as your main party. The project still inevitably dies when fan anticipation dries up, because no one really cares about unknown modder's project if it doesn't even have the existing characters that drew you to the project to begin with.

DOTA 2 might be one of the few examples that maintained its momentum after rebranding from the original Warcraft 3-based mod, and there are still a few heroes where you can see the character's origins as a WC3 character, if you know what you're looking for.

Palworld is in a legal battle with Nintendo. Weirdly, Nintnedo is claiming patent infringement.

[cfrizz]

Yes, I have read several books that started out as fanfic, that then got published. Naturally the names etc were changed to protect the innocent. Eventually, the writers branched out and created their own characters and continue to get published.

If the talent is there it's there.

As a matter of fact, I read a story that was a crossover between movie characters and books characters. All due credit was given. I was so intrigued by the book characters that I ended up looking up the books and buying the whole series! This wouldn't have happened if I had never read the fan fiction.

[ZodWallop]

Fantasy author Dennis L. McKiernan wrote a sequel to The Lord of the Rings. When he couldn't get permission from the Tolkien estate, he filed the numbers off and it was published as The Silver Call.

However, the publisher now needed Dennis to write the story before The Silver Call, so he wrote The Iron Tower which was accused of being a clone of The Lord of the Rings, because it pretty much had to be.

[ZodWallop]

Not quite a fanfic, but I would have loved to see a Galaxy Quest where they got permission to use Star Trek and access to the original cast.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Not quite a fanfic, but I would have loved to see a Galaxy Quest where they got permission to use Star Trek and access to the original cast.

Aren't they mostly dead?

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Aren't they mostly dead?

Of the original series, only three of the main cast (William Shatner, George Takei, and Walter Koenig - Kirk, Sulu, and Chekov) are alive.