The great tie-in fiction debate

[Nuytsia]

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.

Ok I admit I didn't actually read the discussion on PFH .. but that won't stop me voicing an uneducated opinion!
Heheh , nah just re the comment above, I am not sure that literary merit is necessarily going to be compromised by the fact that the books have a built-in fanbase and would be expected to sell well based on that alone. Sometimes I wonder what compromises authors might make to their works to ensure 'marketability' and so I thought gees maybe these tie-in book authors are LESS constrained by such worries! It's a possibility but I have no idea if it's true!

[Farseer]

I am not sure that literary merit is necessarily going to be compromised by the fact that the books have a built-in fanbase

Well said !

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Heheh , nah just re the comment above, I am not sure that literary merit is necessarily going to be compromised by the fact that the books have a built-in fanbase and would be expected to sell well based on that alone.

That's not exactly what the argument is saying. What it says is that, because tie-ins will sell anyway, books that are sub-par are more likely to be released anyway. And the fact is that the tie-ins are likely to be more constrained. If it's based on a tv show, it will likely feature the established main characters. Worldbuilding will already have been done to a large degree. And not every author will have the opportunity to unleash worldshaking events, because otherwise the shared world would be doomed every week.

Once again, this is not saying that tie-ins cannot be good, but I can see the issues people have with it.

['thul]

That part is good with the Diablo/starcraft/warcraft books... they either base on characters that do not exist in the games, or they expand the story of existing characters, giving them additional depth. For the most part they also do not tell the same stories as the games tell.


Many of the worse tie-ins break one or more of those things. Either they use fully established characters and do not expand much on them, or they tell the same story as the game. Or both.

One type that isnt too bad, is the kind that tells a story from a different perspective than the game tells it, from a more personal perspective...

[Nuytsia]

Heheh , nah just re the comment above, I am not sure that literary merit is necessarily going to be compromised by the fact that the books have a built-in fanbase and would be expected to sell well based on that alone.

That's not exactly what the argument is saying. What it says is that, because tie-ins will sell anyway, books that are sub-par are more likely to be released anyway.

That is what I thought it was saying.....hmmm I guess I have miscommunicated!

And the fact is that the tie-ins are likely to be more constrained. If it's based on a tv show, it will likely feature the established main characters. Worldbuilding will already have been done to a large degree. And not every author will have the opportunity to unleash worldshaking events, because otherwise the shared world would be doomed every week.
Once again, this is not saying that tie-ins cannot be good, but I can see the issues people have with it.

Yeah I did think well there are constraints due to the existing world, ok big constraints! But you could potentially tell almost any kind of story within a given world.
But yeah, established main characters DO have to be consistent don't they?

Ah well my theory explodes! I was just playing devil's advocate really.
But I DO think 'regular' books are still constrained by the need to be marketable. They just won't get published otherwise. I guess that's where self-publishing may come in, but that's been discussed elsewhere so not much more to add on that!

[joost]

I have several Buffyverse books which don't feature the characters from the TV-show. They're all books dealing with the mythology aspect of the 'verse (mostly stories about previous (or in one case future) slayers).

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Aha, I didn't know there were Buffyverse books like that too.

I'm currently making my way through no less than two tie-in novels and it's interesting to see how different they are.

Reading Keith Baker's The Shattered Land, I finally understand what people mean when they say that some RPG-based novels feel like, well, a write up of a roleplaying session. (Add new chracter to the party. We need that wizard over there to help us, but we have to get him a McGuffin before he will agree to do so, which is hidden in a temple. Distract the priest, sneak into the temple's vault, battle dragon statue which comes to life, then get busted by the priest after defeating the dragon, get away with the McGuffin after defeating the priest, teleport to the wizard's house, random encounter with ugly beast... this is how the story actually goes, folks.) It feels like an endless string of pointless encounters.

Dan Abnett's First and Only, on the other hand, is much better written. it actually starts off with a fifty page battle scene and he manages to keep that interesting the whole time. No mean feat.

[joost]

Some info about Buffy tie-in fiction:

Fray (a story about a future slayer) was published from 2001 to 2003, so during the TV-show. One part of the comic, a red scythe, was later used in the TV-show. So in this case, the TV show was influenced by the tie-in fiction, instead of the other way round.
A picture of Fray holding the scythe: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en...rayTPB.jpg
A picture of Buffy holding the scythe: http://www.moley75.co.uk/letsfoldscarves...Scythe.jpg

Something else happened with a never published storyline in the Buffy comics: The writers of the comics thought of a storyline. They sent the storyline to Joss Whedon (basically with an "Is it OK to use this storyline?"), and he vetoed it because he was going to use that same storyline in the TV-show (7th season).

[Farseer]

This has nothing to do with tie-ins but, just out of interest, are you a fan of Buffy or vampires in general, joost? If it's vampires in general, did you read the Twilight books and, if so, did you enjoy them?

I haven't read/seen them as I tend to avoid vampires as characters, but maybe I'm missing out on some great story-telling (in either Buffy or Twilight)?

[joost]

I don't really have a special interest in vampires. I have read the four Twilight books though, because they were recommended to me by another Buffy fan, and actually enjoyed them. Very light reading, and somewhat sappy at times, but still enjoyable for me.