Lovely surprise in the mail.

[shadowscast]

I had an amazing surprise in the mail today. A friend sent me—without even telling me ahead of time—a whole pile of books! Mostly Buffy-related stuff: Slayer Slang: A BTVS Lexicon, BTVS and Philosophy, The Quotable Slayer, BTVS Pop Quiz, and three fairly random tie-in novels.

Needless to say, this pile is shiny and exciting.

But here's a question: does anyone else look at stuff like that and get jealous of the writers? 'Cause damn it, they're doing pretty much the same kind of stuff that we're doing, and they're getting paid for it!

Comments

[jans-intentions.livejournal.com]

I don't think any of the novels are as good as the fan fic I've read. Partially maybe they aren't allowed to do more, I don't know. :)

Nice that you got such an amazing gift! Enjoy it!

[spacedoutlooney.livejournal.com]

I agree with sexymermaid. I usually find that fic, essays, and such that people put on blogs and websites to be far better than the stuff that's published.

[trepkos.livejournal.com]

...and they're not doing it very well...

...so, yeah.

[that_mireille]

I wasn't. Until that one novel came out this summer (or possibly spring) where Buffy was pregnant with some mystical baby, and I just thought, "If I wrote fic like this, my friendslist would smack me." And then I got cranky because she got paid for that, and I've written things that actually, y'know, make sense.

Of course, I mostly don't read the tie-ins. I've read two; one wasn't bad, and one was... well, never read a tie-in book based on a videogame based on a TV series. That way lies only pain.

The non-fiction, I can't do anyway (I suck at meta and trivia), so I'm far less jealous.

[shadowscast.livejournal.com]

never read a tie-in book based on a videogame based on a TV series. That way lies only pain.

That sounds like sage advice, right there.

[that_mireille]

And advice I wish someone had given me about a year ago, before I bought Chaos Bleeds. ;)

[liliaeth]

even worse, I've read much better unbetaed fanfic than most of those books, and still those people get paid for writing them...

[cindershadow.livejournal.com]

Well, this is why I feel rather guilty about being so delighted about the quality of fanfiction . . . because it is so much better, and because it's right there whenever you need it, and (obviously) because it's free! So one hopes that compliments in the comment thread are some small, small recompense, but (as a person whose best friend is an unpublished mystery author whose books are better than, say, Anne Perry's) I do think it must burn, and it is certainly not fair.

So--again . . . thanks, y'all!

(no, really, *this* time I'm logged in correctly!)

[shadowscast.livejournal.com]

Seriously, though, the feedback is pretty awesome. I totally work for feedback. *g*