Opinion: FanLib

[nebroadwe]

I'm more of a reader and writer than a fan, so I came late and befuddled to the FanLib controversy. This morning I am somewhat less confused about what FanLib intends itself to be -- not an ad-supported fanwriting archive, but a rightsholder-supported creative sweatshop. That is, I found a link to the marketing brochure, which renders the entire idea of FanLib risible. The brochure claims that "Fanlib works like the classic 'campfire' chain-storytelling game in which a group of players improvises a story one passage at a time" but that the "action takes place in a highly customized environment that YOU control" -- i.e. the rightsholders will set the parameters in which the fanwriters work and cherry-pick the good stuff for actual use somewhere (as part of the original work or as a media tie-in). I smack my forehead with the palm of my hand: by golly, Mabel, they've reinvented the slush pile! Submissions editors all over the world look up from their desks and exchange evil grins. Or, more sinisterly, as Teresa Nielsen Hayden points out,

It’s a perpetual motion machine — excuse me, an automatic content generator. This content generation will be done by fanfic writers, who’ll be moderated to an inch and made to color inside the lines. Their work will be used as raw material to be finished and exploited by professionals. And all shall be done for the profit of FanLib’s backers and customers.

I'm not enthused by this. If a rightsholder wanted my collaboration on his/her creation, I'd be thrilled to bits whether I was offering them a paid consult or a free gift, but FanLib's arrangements strike me as potentially exploitive (not to mention inefficient). I doubt their enterprise will prosper.