JOPLIN, Mo. — Have you heard of fan fiction and the people who write it?  It’s an online explosion of stories based on someone else’s published books, television shows, comics and so forth.

It is, in some ways, borderline plagiarism, because the writers base their stories on published books. Using the characters and worlds of other writers, they supply their own take and post it on the Internet.

The most famous fan fiction has got to be the erotic “Fifty Shades of Grey” books now burning up the world of traditional publishing.

The “Fifty Shades” trilogy by E. L. James started as an X-rated interpretation of the popular, but not-that-sexy, “Twilight” books. Picked up by a traditional publisher, the books have proven a worldwide publishing phenomenon, despite the fact that they were originally free on the Internet with other fan fiction. Lots of other fan fiction.

Nevertheless, “Fifty Shades” in its new incarnation, has sold 15 million copies in less than three months. You can check all this out at www.fanfiction.net. If you do, you’ll find an enormous list of published books, each followed by the number of amateurs using it as a launch for their own fiction.

Listed by popularity, the “Harry Potter” books have inspired 595,450 writers to post their own stories. That is a whole bunch of people. In second place is “Twilight” with 198,719 followers, and then third with “Lord of the Rings” with 198,719. Books at the bottom of the list start at one follower.

Fan fiction attracts millions of readers, according to the Wall Street Journal, and this attracts paper publishers. Among paper publishers getting their start with fan fiction are Amanda Hocking, who writes paranormal, and young-adult fantasy author Cassandra Clare. Meg Cabot, who wrote the “Princess Diaries” books, started writing “Star Wars” fan fiction when she was 11 years old.

How do authors feel about having their books cannibalized? Some authors, including J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer, are all for it, according to Publishers Weekly.  Fantasy writer George R. R. Martin, novelist Anne Rice and Diana Gabaldon, author of the best-selling "Outlander" series, resent and discourage it.

Lots of luck.  Fan fiction-eers are undeterred and write what they please.

The largest fan fiction site on the web, www.fanfiction.net, offers several million efforts in just about every genre you can think of, including the Bible, Shakespeare, TV shows and video games. Another 500,000 pieces of fan fiction are on Wattpad, a site with about 8 million monthly visitors.

PW suggests that “fan fiction is often baffling to outsiders” and I’m one of them Ñ the baffled, I mean.  

“For the casual reader, it can be hard to see the literary merit of a story in which Harry Potter falls in love with Voldemort, then kills off rival suitor Darth Vader in a duel.”

The legal boundaries protecting copyrighted literary works can be fuzzy, says PW, and I know that to be true. Since almost all fan fiction is posted free, it would presumably pose no clear commercial threat to the creators.  Most experts agree that fan fiction qualifies as fair use under copyright law, provided that it differs substantially from the original and its creators don't attempt to profit from it.

Some publishers and authors see it as free advertising. PW quoted a copyright attorney who made a salient point: "It's clear that it's not good business to sue your customers."

How do I feel about this?  I don’t have any room to criticize, because my first piece of fiction was based on Walter Farley’s “Black Stallion” books. Of course, I never finished my book, no one ever saw it and I was only nine or 10 years old.



From rejection to a 7-figure deal

Fourteen literary agents rejected her romance novel so Tracey Garvis Graves published it herself in March. Since then, the book has sold 340,000 copies and made the New York Times bestseller list, according to GalleyCat. Then she sold it to Penguin in a deal she said was for “seven figures, a good seven figures.”

“On the Island” deals with a 30-year-old teacher and her 16-year-old student who get stranded on an uninhabited tropical island. As the months pass and the boy grows older, problems multiply.

That I can believe.