- This topic has 13 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 9 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Hello, there.
Some years past, another publishing firm that prints a ‘rival science fiction novel series’, had released an anthology that was similiar to the recently released Shepherd Moon.
However, the only difference was that the contributing writers were fan fiction writers. Not professional writers.
From what I had read, the stories in the book anthology could be set in any of the science fiction series time frame and could feature any one or more of the series characters according to the submission guidelines. Each anthology had included a selection of stories for the live-action series in question(the novel series was based on a science fiction television series from years past).
Is it possible for an annual collection of short stories set in the Space:1999 universe, written by amateur writers chosen through an open submissions process, to be published in the near future(i.e. allowing fans a chance to write their own Space:1999 stories)?
Thank you for your attention.
P.S. This is the first time I have used Powysmedia’s Suggestion Box.
🙂
I forgot to add this part of the information that I posted in my previous Suggestion Box post. My apologies for the accidental oversight. It was not intentional.
Concerning the anthology, the submissions were open only to “nonprofessional writers” (which the rules define as those who have sold no more than two short stories) who were residents of the United States (excluding Puerto Rico) and Canada (excluding Quebec) over the age of 18 at the time of their submission. The stories themselves were to be original creations no more than 7500 words long and not previously published elsewhere. Writers were permitted to submit more than one story, though required each submission be mailed separately, and no writer could have more than one story published.
Certain tropes that are common to fan fiction were explicitly outlined in the submission rules as cause for a story to be disqualified from consideration, including “hurt/comfort” and Mary Sue stories, though fans have occasionally claimed that some stories published in the anthology do fall into these two categories.[citation needed] Slash fiction was implicitly excluded by prohibiting stories “focusing on explicit sexual activity” or revealing “the hidden passion two characters feel for each other.” Original characters were also prohibited to the extent that stories cannot be centered around “characters that are not past or present regulars or familiar guest characters,” but again, some stories have focused on characters so minor or unknown in the sci-fi series mythos that fans have stated that they might as well have been original characters.
Other prohibitions included “graphic depictions of violence or sadism” and major changes to the canon, such as “the previously unestablished death of a main character” or the existence of “a long-lost sibling.” (However, the rules did not indicate how important a character has to be before such changes are disallowed, and some of the published stories have established important facts about or events in the life of relatively minor characters.)
🙂
Perhaps you could elaborate on the publication that you were talking about – I thought you might be referring to the two [i]STAR TREK – The New Voyages[/i] books that were published years ago by Bantam (Corgi here in the UK) and edited by Marshak and Culbreath. But thinking about what they wrote in their intros to those books, I don’t think they specifically set guidelines as to what could and couldn’t be written about. So I assume you are referring to something else.
From the sort of restrictions and guidelines which you mentioned. they were trying to encourage fan fiction writers to submit stories (so they didn’t have to pay them maybe?) but trying to block out the sort of elements that fan fiction can sometimes feature – wish fulfilment, the author projecting themselves through ‘new’ characters which become the focus of stories, exaggerated romances and ‘relationship’ stories, and so on.
(I’m not suggesting that there isn’t also a lot of extremely well written and very intelligent fan fiction too, because there certainly is, and there certainly has been for [b]Space:1999[/b]…).
I don’t know how Powys would produce a book like that without imposing a whole set of similar conditions – and if they did, then what’s the point in writing something in the first place?
I certainly hope Powys publish another anthology along the lines of [b]Shepherd Moon[/b], but I’m not really in favour myself of the sort of book which I think you are talking about. There is a definite direction in which all the Powys Books are going in as far as I can see, there is a unified sense of purpose amongst the writers and editors, and yet within that, there is the opportunity for writers to come up with some new ideas, some of which I suspect are going to be quite radical (witness what William Latham has said in advance about [b]Omega[/b] here: http://www.williamlatham.net/diaryhome.html …)
There is [i]structure[/i] – or a strategy – to it all; which is different to saying [i]”Space:1999 fans! Send us your stories and as long as they’re written well enough and don’t come over as ‘fannish’, we’ll put them all in a book…”[/i]
I think there are other avenues for that sort of collection, and personally I don’t think it’s a road Powys should be taking.
Apologies if what I’m trying to say – which is of course my own personal opinion! – isn’t clear enough.
– Simon
[b]kalthon wrote:[/b]
[quote]Perhaps you could elaborate on the publication that you were talking about – I thought you might be referring to the two [i]STAR TREK – The New Voyages[/i] books that were published years ago by Bantam (Corgi here in the UK) and edited by Marshak and Culbreath. But thinking about what they wrote in their intros to those books, I don’t think they specifically set guidelines as to what could and couldn’t be written about. So I assume you are referring to something else.[/quote]From the quoted guidelines I think he’s referring to the annual Star Trek: Strange New Worlds anthologies that Pocket ran for about ten or twelve years, from the mid-90s to the mid-noughties.
[b]Lonemagpie wrote:[/b]
[quote]From the quoted guidelines I think he’s referring to the annual Star Trek: Strange New Worlds anthologies that Pocket ran for about ten or twelve years, from the mid-90s to the mid-noughties.[/quote]
Ah – I used to see them racked up on shelves in the Andromeda Bookshop and the like in Birmingham, but never really knew what they were, not being a huge Star Trek fan….
Actually, yes, I was referring to the Star Trek – Strange New Worlds anthology. Not the Star Trek – New Voyages books from the Seventies.
Out of respect to other Space:1999 fans, I didn’t want to mention Star Trek on the boards. The reason being is that, and I’m certain that the fans already know this, is because of the popularity war between fans of both series. John Kenneth Muir mentioned this in his foreward to the book he had written about Space:1999 some years past.
I’ve never understood why science fiction fans always have to ‘stir up a hornet’s nest’ when it comes down to which show, movie, or book is better.
All that aside, I think it would be interesting if there were something similiar like the aforementioned anthology, but one used in the Space:1999 universe. An idea that could be thought over for future use.
It’s just some food for thought.
🙂
I don’t think there are any rules about not mentioning other series on here – most of us are likely fans of more than one show. 1999, Trek, Dr Who, Blakes 7, and lots of others – I love em all.
(mind you, I’m biased, having now written for Trek *and* 1999 as well as Dr Who…)
[b]Papillon wrote:[/b]
[quote]Actually, yes, I was referring to the Star Trek – Strange New Worlds anthology. Not the Star Trek – New Voyages books from the Seventies.Out of respect to other Space:1999 fans, I didn’t want to mention Star Trek on the boards. [/quote]
I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s a fan of both. I’ve encountered Space: 1999 fans many times at TrekBBS, for example.
[quote]The reason being is that, and I’m certain that the fans already know this, is because of the popularity war between fans of both series. John Kenneth Muir mentioned this in his foreward to the book he had written about Space:1999 some years past.
[/quote]I would have liked that book a hell of a lot more if Muir hadn’t mentioned Star Trek on almost every page, usually to accuse the later Trek series of having ripped off 1999. Realistically, the chances are pretty remote that anyone who wrote Trel on TV ever saw Space: 1999, much less ripped it off. I’ve heard Muir did pretty much the same thing with his Blake’s 7 book, which is why, though I’ve had it for years, I haven’t actually read it yet. That said, I really liked The Forsaken; it’s my fave new Space: 1999 novel so far.
[quote]All that aside, I think it would be interesting if there were something similiar like the aforementioned anthology, but one used in the Space:1999 universe. An idea that could be thought over for future use.[/quote]
The problem that Pocket finally gave up trying to solve was making money off SNW. Everyone wanted to be in it, but no one wanted to buy it, especially if their story wasn’t published. By definition, there were no big names to get people’s attention, and there simply weren’t enough people willing to buy a book just because it was Star Trek for it do better than breaking even. Might be a slightly different situation here, but it’d be a lot of work for minimal payoff.
In all due respect to John Muir, regarding the comment about those who wrote for Trek were unlikely to watch 1999, actually People Magazine did a story in the late 1980s with the Roddenberry’s. Part of the article mentioned their son who was an avid fan of SPACE: 1999.
Additionally, I clearly remember growing up in the 1970s and there are several articles featuring interviews with Trek writers and actors who mentioned seeing SPACE: 1999 (usually they had negative remarks) during the series two season run. SPACE: 1999 was a popular series (yes…both seasons) in the U.S, so it was widely seen in most areas of this country for several years even after its cancellation (due to budget problems) in 1977.
If you would like further information, may I suggest checking out The Catacombs website. There are substantial articles you can check out on the history of this series on that site.
Best,
DavidThanks for your post suggesting a fan-fiction anthology, first of all. One of the reasons we put a forum on this site was to discuss issues of interest to fans of our various books as well as the original series that have inspired them, and this is certainly an issue worth discussing.
In the earliest days of this company’s relationship with first Carlton, then Granada, now ITV, one of our concerns was being inundated with submissions by hopeful writers – every publishing company out there generally has to deal with so-called “over the transom” submissions. We made a decision very early on to discourage such submissions, partly because we lack the infrastructure to handle them, but more importantly, we wanted to avoid the entire issue of people thinking we were stealing anyone’s ideas. When we receive submissions, we don’t even read them. We return them. It’s not because we don’t think they’re good, it’s because we don’t want to get caught up in arguments over ownership of ideas.
Space:1999 has been around for more than thirty years, and fan-fiction writers have explored all kinds of things in the Space:1999 universe. That’s one of the fun things about fan-fiction – you can do interesting crossovers, you can explore aspects of the characters and their relationships in whatever way you want. There are very few rules in the universe of fan-fiction. There are also some fine writers out there who are very talented and write good stories. But we’re all playing the same universe and the odds are always good that if you can come up with something, we might come up with something similar. By avoiding fan-fiction, we avoid the potential for controversy.
As other posts have already pointed out, there are avenues for fan-fiction to reach a wide audience, two obvious examples being Space1999.org’s ebook series and the Space:1999 Fiction Archive. For what it’s worth, we don’t view either site as competitors – we’re all adding to the same universe. As a business and a license-holder, however, we have obligations to the license owner to protect their property (which is why crossovers, for example, are something we can’t even consider). If you’re a fan-fiction writer, going to either of the aforementioned sites can help you get your work out there. When we hear buzz about a particular writer of fan-fiction, we do pay attention, and when it’s warranted, we may even approach the writer and gauge their interest in collaborating with us.
The Powys line, as Simon has pointed out, has a consistent thread running through all of our Space:1999 books. It’s one of the reasons we pursued the license in the first place. But we really need to maintain a separate identity from the fan-fiction world, for the reasons already stated and also because our focus is to deliver a product, not necessarily to provide a service to authors – our clients are readers.
Providing an anthology of fan-fiction really falls outside of our mission parameters. But for fan fiction writers out there, do your best and get your work out there. If we start hearing about it, we may come and find you.
Hi There,
I’d welcome A Shepherd Moon 2, and love to be in it as I am in the first one. It’s interesting to see the longevityof the show and the loyalty of the fans.
Powys has had long time off the scene and I remember Mateo emailing me with some really good spin off ideas that i think could be contained within another anthology.
The road may not end at Omega?
Best to all
Stephen Jansen B)
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.