Re: Man, did I put the fox in amongst the chickens...

On Mar 30, 10:00 pm, Erol K. Bayburt <Ero...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Fri, 30 Mar 2007 11:27:49 -0700, Alma Hromic Deckert



<angh...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 30 Mar 2007 17:29:02 GMT, "Dan Goodman" <dsg...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On yet another hand: At the two Minneapolis specialty sf bookstores,
the new book racks include a lot which isn't quite specfic. Paranormal
romance, paranormal mystery, non-supernatural horror.

And a very large percentage is movie, tv, and gaming tie-ins. (The sf
pros who lament the lack of "gateway" novels for young readers
apparently don't count the science fiction tie-ins.)

I'd be interested, on THAT count, in statistics which show how many
readers of tie-innovels actually go on to pick up the real thing
afterwards. I would suspect that a hefty percentage of tie-in readers
will pick up the book because it's a Buffy book, or a Star Wars book,
or a <insert your favourite show here> book - and not because it's *a
book*. The concept of an original story between covers doesn't seem to
appeal, or at least not as much..

For the little it's worth: Reading Blish's Star Trek books is what led
me into reading general science fiction; I had been reading YA science
fiction and fantasy, but that wasn't leading me in the direction of
the general stuff. Just one data point.



I'm damned if I can remember who said it now, but one particular quote
stuck with me and still gives me chills - a tie-in reader demanding
why on earth they should be interested in a book whose characters they
don't know anything about...

Well, I'm a spoiler-phile with some of the same attitude toward plots,
so I can understand this (intellectually, at least) as the equivalent
wrt characters. Emotionally, OTOH... this is why writing fan-fic
never appealed to me: Creating characters & settings is the part I
consider fun, so why should I leave the fun part to the original
writers and get stuck with the chore of coming up with a plot & story?

Oh, that is it exactly!

I've actually wondered what was wrong with me that I couldn't
comprehend the draw of fan-fic and couldn't imagine writing it.

-Julie

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Man, did I put the fox in amongst the chickens...
    ... romance, paranormal mystery, non-supernatural horror. ... And a very large percentage is movie, tv, and gaming tie-ins. ... I would suspect that a hefty percentage of tie-in readers ... why on earth they should be interested in a book whose characters they ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: Man, did I put the fox in amongst the chickens...
    ... romance, paranormal mystery, non-supernatural horror. ... And a very large percentage is movie, tv, and gaming tie-ins. ... I would suspect that a hefty percentage of tie-in readers ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)