Imitation Can Have Its Rewards

We recently commented on the phenomenon of fan fiction, or “fanfic,” which Wikipedia defines as “fiction about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creators.” What we didn’t realize then, is that for some fanfic writers there can be financial rewards and book deals, especially if the characters you’re writing about are high-profilers such as Harry Potter. The BBC reports:

The debut novel from a Chilean writer who shot to fame after writing her own “fanfic” version of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter stories has been released.

La Septima M--The Seventh M--is the first of three books that 23-year-old Chilean journalism student Francisca Solar was contracted to write by publishers Random House, following the online success of her unofficial sixth Harry Potter story, Harry Potter and the Decline of the High Elves.

Launched at the recent Frankfurt Book Fair, La Septima M centres on a mysterious series of suicides amongst young people in the fictional community of Puerto Fake.

“All the things I know about literature, about writing, I learned in the fan fiction world,” Solar told BBC World Service’s The Word programme.

“I owe it everything.”

No doubt about it: the world gets stranger by the day.

READ MORE: “Harry Potter, Meet Your Biggest (and Most Famous) Fan,” by Erin Teeling (The Bivings Report).