Fanfic on Goodreads.com
Jul. 4th, 2013 01:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pslasherI've discovered that Goodreads has recently updated it's rules to allow Fanfic to be listed on the site. There are now five lists for voting for your favorite fic (up from two in the last couple of weeks, Goodreads must have just changed the rule because I know that previously Goodreads was deleting fanfic off the site), but here are the three biggest: Fanfiction. You know you want to, Favorite Fanfiction (Completed only), and M/M Supernatural and J2 Fanfic Compilations. You can find more by searching "fic", "fanfic" or "fanfiction" on the Lists page (you may need a Goodreads account for this). I'm not sure how I feel about all this.
On the one hand, I think fic is just as deserving of praise and recognition as published fiction. It takes just as much skill to write good fic as good published fiction, it's just a little different. And I have to admit, showing the world that fanfic can be WAY better than 50 Shades of Grey appeals to me greatly. I've really enjoyed reading some of the comments on some of the fics listed.
FayJay's The Student Prince (which is currently at the # 1 or #2 spot of both the general lists) had some lovely and interesting comments. For example:
Julesmarie: "I can't believe it's free. I can't believe it's fanfic. Honestly, if this is as good as fanfic and be, I might have to start reading more of it!"
" **Off to find more Arthur-Merlin fan fiction.**"
Carole-Ann Warburton: "First off: I've never had any inclination whatever to read Fanfic (and only did so unawares with the ridiculously famous vamp-thingies) so I went into this with extreme scepticism.... A huge THANK YOU for a lovely story!"
I was also amused by Julio-Alexi Genao saying: "I liked that it's not precisely a fanfic; it owes as much to The Sword in the Stone as to The Mists of Avalon, and I think co-opting the Merthur iconography (Merlin's big ears, Arthur's posh condescension) was a successful gambit—especially since it's set in modern Britain, not the Dark Ages." Fanfic can and often does acnowledge multiple sources, especially with a cannon as rich as the Authorian legends.
Kaje Harper: "The more on-page sex is well done when it does show up, but I almost wish it had stayed just a little less graphic, because I'm going to have to tag this with the "explicit sex" tag for the YA group. It's really borderline as acceptable for YA at all, but is such a great story, and so upbeat, fun, and positive, that I think it needs to be on our YA bookshelf." I think this person found it recced in a YA bookclub group, or maybe found it then decided to rec it to the YA club, I'm not sure.
I can't even remember the number of times people said "I can't believe it's free, I'd pay for this".
The Doors of Time by Felisblanco
Monika: "This was my first time reading fanfiction, I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was very pleasantly surprised. This was a beautifully written love story that captured my heart right from the beginning."
Vio: "A whole lot of wonderful and the guys are awesome, the story went far beyond my expectations (not that I really knew what I was in for)."
Td: "I must admit I don't watch TV or in any way keep up with entertainment news at all. So although I saw this was fanfic, I had no idea who these guys were that inspired the story until after I read the book and looked them up. I know I read another fanfic story with them in it, but it didn't interest me enough to get a clue about Jensen and Jared. Whatever, it's not really important. My point is that I didn't see this as fanfiction. I simply got caught in this lovely, magical story which felt so real to me and was very much enchanted."
PointyEars42: "If only the other MM novels I've read were this good. Why some authors get published while others are side-lined as writer's of "mere" fan ficiton, I'll never know..."
Heather K: "This book rises far above the realm of fan-fiction into something much, much greater." This one irritated me - fic isn't some terrible, bottom-feeding thing, and that's a general opinion that I hope changes as more people read fic.
Shelby: "I don't know much about this being a fanfic. Aside from character names I see nothing that indicates that really. All I see is a beautiful story."
Heart In Hand by salifiable
Camilla: First read: "First of all.. This is apparently some kind of fanfiction about two real hockey players? (forgive me if I’m wrong)"
Second read: "The biggest change though, is that now, 1½ years later, after reading one fanfic story, I now LOVE hockey! I love watching Ovie play and I love watching Sid play, and the few times a year they actually play each other in real life? Holy fuck. It’s come close to something of an actual holiday for me, all because of one single fanfic story. That’s how much a story can change a person’s life."
The Blessing and the Curse by The Black Arrow
Natalie: "i loved this one so much. It makes me a kinda sad to rate all these fantastic fanfics 5 stars because most of the REAL books I read aren't half as good, why IS that anyway??"
Restraint by DarkEmeralds
LenaLena: "I have spent a solid couple of years trying to find a good Regency m/m. I read maybe one or two 3 star ones, but most of the ones I've read I've rated meh to yuk.... Disappointments all. But here it is, another winner from the makers of I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Published, from the unpaid anonymous masses of fanfiction writers: the Regency Romance that has everything I have ever wanted. And things I didn't even know I wanted." Lol, fanficcers aren't anonymous, except when they are.
It was absolutely delightful seeing people who (best I can tell) had no prior interaction with fic discover the delight that fanfic can be (some of them may have had prior knowledge of fic, it was sometimes hard to tell. Some of them obviously knew about fic). This is something we all know, but this is one of the delightful benefits of fic hitting the mainstream - sharing the joy with more people! Also, it's interesting to see that at least some fics have an extremely strong appeal outside of fandom.
Also, several people said they had Goodreads rec them some of the good fic, and that sounds really cool.
On the other hand, I see issues.
I'm not entirely comfortable with people adding fic to Goodreads without consulting the authors first. Especially RPF fic. There is the potential for these entries to be widely viewed amongst a non-fannish audience, and I think the authors themselves should be deciding themselves whether or not to put their fic on Goodreads. You could argue that many of these stories are big enough to be found by anyone who googles for them - and that's correct. But if you don't know to look for them you probably won't find them. Now anyone can stumble on them; I think that makes a difference. Also, I wouldn't be comfortable putting my RPS on Goodreads, and I'm not sure I'd want someone else putting it up there for me.
I saw at least one person who confused a posting on Goodreads with the fic being professionally published. Also, I'm curious to know how they convert the word count to page count?
Goodreads says you can only put up Novel-length fic, but doesn't say what constitutes novel-length. Also, I'm not sure why they changed their rule? Goodreads has recently been bought by Amazon, and given their recent Kindle Worlds launch I suspect that has a lot to do with the change. I don't know if that's a problem so much as a side-eye look at Amazon changing the site when they said they wouldn't. Like, what will they do next?
I don't know if I'll vote for the fics or add them to my book list. I like the idea of keeping my fic and pro fic reading separate. In part because some people I know in RL know my Goodreads account and I'm extremely cautious about what I share in RL about my reading habits. But also because... they just feel like two separate things to me. Pro fic belongs on Goodreads, fan fic on AO3, where the bookmarking feature is built-in for all the fic I read there. Also, the number of amazing fics I've read that would need to be transferred over if I started that is... daunting. The infrastructure just feels different for the two different things, and I'm done with shoehorning my fannish experience into applications they weren't meant for - fic belongs on AO3. I do understand people's desire to have all their reading in one place, but I'm thinking it may not be for me. I may feel differently about this down the line, but I may not. *shrugs*
Also, I'm curious to know what you think of people adding fic to Goodreads, either adding other people's fics, or adding any fic at all.
On the one hand, I think fic is just as deserving of praise and recognition as published fiction. It takes just as much skill to write good fic as good published fiction, it's just a little different. And I have to admit, showing the world that fanfic can be WAY better than 50 Shades of Grey appeals to me greatly. I've really enjoyed reading some of the comments on some of the fics listed.
FayJay's The Student Prince (which is currently at the # 1 or #2 spot of both the general lists) had some lovely and interesting comments. For example:
Julesmarie: "I can't believe it's free. I can't believe it's fanfic. Honestly, if this is as good as fanfic and be, I might have to start reading more of it!"
" **Off to find more Arthur-Merlin fan fiction.**"
Carole-Ann Warburton: "First off: I've never had any inclination whatever to read Fanfic (and only did so unawares with the ridiculously famous vamp-thingies) so I went into this with extreme scepticism.... A huge THANK YOU for a lovely story!"
I was also amused by Julio-Alexi Genao saying: "I liked that it's not precisely a fanfic; it owes as much to The Sword in the Stone as to The Mists of Avalon, and I think co-opting the Merthur iconography (Merlin's big ears, Arthur's posh condescension) was a successful gambit—especially since it's set in modern Britain, not the Dark Ages." Fanfic can and often does acnowledge multiple sources, especially with a cannon as rich as the Authorian legends.
Kaje Harper: "The more on-page sex is well done when it does show up, but I almost wish it had stayed just a little less graphic, because I'm going to have to tag this with the "explicit sex" tag for the YA group. It's really borderline as acceptable for YA at all, but is such a great story, and so upbeat, fun, and positive, that I think it needs to be on our YA bookshelf." I think this person found it recced in a YA bookclub group, or maybe found it then decided to rec it to the YA club, I'm not sure.
I can't even remember the number of times people said "I can't believe it's free, I'd pay for this".
The Doors of Time by Felisblanco
Monika: "This was my first time reading fanfiction, I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was very pleasantly surprised. This was a beautifully written love story that captured my heart right from the beginning."
Vio: "A whole lot of wonderful and the guys are awesome, the story went far beyond my expectations (not that I really knew what I was in for)."
Td: "I must admit I don't watch TV or in any way keep up with entertainment news at all. So although I saw this was fanfic, I had no idea who these guys were that inspired the story until after I read the book and looked them up. I know I read another fanfic story with them in it, but it didn't interest me enough to get a clue about Jensen and Jared. Whatever, it's not really important. My point is that I didn't see this as fanfiction. I simply got caught in this lovely, magical story which felt so real to me and was very much enchanted."
PointyEars42: "If only the other MM novels I've read were this good. Why some authors get published while others are side-lined as writer's of "mere" fan ficiton, I'll never know..."
Heather K: "This book rises far above the realm of fan-fiction into something much, much greater." This one irritated me - fic isn't some terrible, bottom-feeding thing, and that's a general opinion that I hope changes as more people read fic.
Shelby: "I don't know much about this being a fanfic. Aside from character names I see nothing that indicates that really. All I see is a beautiful story."
Heart In Hand by salifiable
Camilla: First read: "First of all.. This is apparently some kind of fanfiction about two real hockey players? (forgive me if I’m wrong)"
Second read: "The biggest change though, is that now, 1½ years later, after reading one fanfic story, I now LOVE hockey! I love watching Ovie play and I love watching Sid play, and the few times a year they actually play each other in real life? Holy fuck. It’s come close to something of an actual holiday for me, all because of one single fanfic story. That’s how much a story can change a person’s life."
The Blessing and the Curse by The Black Arrow
Natalie: "i loved this one so much. It makes me a kinda sad to rate all these fantastic fanfics 5 stars because most of the REAL books I read aren't half as good, why IS that anyway??"
Restraint by DarkEmeralds
LenaLena: "I have spent a solid couple of years trying to find a good Regency m/m. I read maybe one or two 3 star ones, but most of the ones I've read I've rated meh to yuk.... Disappointments all. But here it is, another winner from the makers of I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Published, from the unpaid anonymous masses of fanfiction writers: the Regency Romance that has everything I have ever wanted. And things I didn't even know I wanted." Lol, fanficcers aren't anonymous, except when they are.
It was absolutely delightful seeing people who (best I can tell) had no prior interaction with fic discover the delight that fanfic can be (some of them may have had prior knowledge of fic, it was sometimes hard to tell. Some of them obviously knew about fic). This is something we all know, but this is one of the delightful benefits of fic hitting the mainstream - sharing the joy with more people! Also, it's interesting to see that at least some fics have an extremely strong appeal outside of fandom.
Also, several people said they had Goodreads rec them some of the good fic, and that sounds really cool.
On the other hand, I see issues.
I'm not entirely comfortable with people adding fic to Goodreads without consulting the authors first. Especially RPF fic. There is the potential for these entries to be widely viewed amongst a non-fannish audience, and I think the authors themselves should be deciding themselves whether or not to put their fic on Goodreads. You could argue that many of these stories are big enough to be found by anyone who googles for them - and that's correct. But if you don't know to look for them you probably won't find them. Now anyone can stumble on them; I think that makes a difference. Also, I wouldn't be comfortable putting my RPS on Goodreads, and I'm not sure I'd want someone else putting it up there for me.
I saw at least one person who confused a posting on Goodreads with the fic being professionally published. Also, I'm curious to know how they convert the word count to page count?
Goodreads says you can only put up Novel-length fic, but doesn't say what constitutes novel-length. Also, I'm not sure why they changed their rule? Goodreads has recently been bought by Amazon, and given their recent Kindle Worlds launch I suspect that has a lot to do with the change. I don't know if that's a problem so much as a side-eye look at Amazon changing the site when they said they wouldn't. Like, what will they do next?
I don't know if I'll vote for the fics or add them to my book list. I like the idea of keeping my fic and pro fic reading separate. In part because some people I know in RL know my Goodreads account and I'm extremely cautious about what I share in RL about my reading habits. But also because... they just feel like two separate things to me. Pro fic belongs on Goodreads, fan fic on AO3, where the bookmarking feature is built-in for all the fic I read there. Also, the number of amazing fics I've read that would need to be transferred over if I started that is... daunting. The infrastructure just feels different for the two different things, and I'm done with shoehorning my fannish experience into applications they weren't meant for - fic belongs on AO3. I do understand people's desire to have all their reading in one place, but I'm thinking it may not be for me. I may feel differently about this down the line, but I may not. *shrugs*
Also, I'm curious to know what you think of people adding fic to Goodreads, either adding other people's fics, or adding any fic at all.