The Vorkosigan Companion - Lillian Stewart Carl [31]
LSC: What do you think of fan fiction based on your own work?
LMB: I find it very flattering, like fan mail but in different media. It tells me my work touched someone on a very deep level, for it to evoke that kind of energy in return. It's art in response to art: some folks sew costumes, some write or sing songs, some draw or paint pictures. Some write fanfic.
For a while there was a theory that if you did not defend your copyright from these things you would lose it, but I think reality has changed so much that theory is never coming back. You can't stuff the genie back in the bottle. That's a relief, because I understand what kind of game those people are playing. Writers who don't like fanfic may not understand the psychology of reading for pleasure, or may fear their own work could be distorted in readers' heads by the adulteration, which is I think true but inescapable; all original texts are altered in the first place by the mere act of different minds reading them. I think there's more power to be had by figuring out the flow and going with it. It's a huge, fascinating new phenomenon and I think it's going to go some interesting places. Nevertheless, I daren't read fic on my own work, because I get idea and style leaks—I pick up voice like lint—and I'm afraid of losing track of where an idea might have come from.
LSC: What has the Internet done for you personally?
LMB: It has given me a window on the world, and is in process of eating my life, or at any rate, most of the waking time in it. I'm only just beginning to learn to use its resources. Usenet chat groups have been a laboratory of human behavior and blogs are a kind of networking out, tentacles reaching into all corners of society, so people who have otherwise been completely isolated are finding each other. My fan e-mail has been fabulous, but makes up for being easier to answer than snail mail by being more copious. I love being in easy e-mail touch with my agent, my editors, my friends and my children.
The main thing the Internet has done for my writing, I'm afraid, is slow it down. And it's severely cut into my reading time, unless you count reading off the screen.
LSC: Conversely, what have you done for the Internet?
LMB: I have a Website, The Bujold Nexus at www.dendarii.com, entirely fan run, which has proved to be a wonderful resource for all my PR needs. It came as manna from e-heaven. I was guest writer at a science fiction convention in London in 1995 and a British fan named Michael Bernardi came up to me and asked, "Do you have a Website?" to which I replied, "What's a Website?" At the time I didn't even have a modem. So computer-professional Mike, bless him, put one together for me, and has filled it with wonderful things and all sorts of useful links. So now when reporters or anyone else wants to know, "Who is this Lois/Louis/Louise . . . um, how do you pronounce that last name?" without having to read a pile o' books, I can just direct them to The Bujold Nexus.
LSC: And there's the on-line publishing of your most recent novels' first chapters at the Baen Website.
LMB: I adore the advent of on-line sample chapters, not least because they allow my books to sell on the basis of their words instead of their packaging. "The first sample is free. . . ." It allows people to browse on-line and make an informed buying choice. Every bit of increased exposure helps. People can't choose what they don't know about.
There are the e-books available from Fictionwise, too. As a new market, e-sales don't have to beat their way through the system of middlemen to get shelf space, and they're available to