The great tie-in fiction debate

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I remember a discussion once on Pat's Fantasyhotlist about tie-in fiction. It was pretty interesting; the blog owner had read a Forgotten Realms trilogy and commented how it was better than most tie-in fiction, but still handicapped by being a tie-in. In the comments section, a discussion ensued between the blog owner, the author and a few authors. It can be found here and contains some interesting arguments.

One of the things noted is that a midlist tie-in novel sells better than a non-tie-in midlist novel. The reasoning following is that this doesn't encourage ambition. Because the books come with a built-in fanbase, they will sell anyway.

By the way, the author I mentioned as writing the best MtG novels, Jeff Grubb? Turns out he only writes tie-ins too, including Forgotten Realms, Starcraft and Warcraft. Even though I like his writing, I am loath to give these books a try because I am not invested at all in those universes.

By the way, The Wertzone has pretty good Warhammer 40k for newbies article over here. I had previously only played the related videogame Dawn of War, which was awesome. It was his article that renewed my interest in 40k, and there is now a Dan Abnett omnibus waiting on my to-read pile...