Filing Off The Serial Numbers - Fanlore

Filing off the serial numbers refers to taking a piece of existing fan fiction and removing any details that tie it to a copyrighted source. At the very least this involves renaming places and characters or replacing them with analogues.

This is done by a fan trying to turn pro, trying to sell the work as a piece of original fiction, and is not always easy or successful, as fan fiction depends a lot on the audience's shared knowledge of canon and thus elides a lot of information integral to plot and characterization.

An exception would be Xena uber fiction and other fandom AUs because the characters already have different names, use different settings, and the stories can be (and often are) published as profic with just minimal edits.

In June of 2006 there was a Con.txt panel entitled "Filing Off the Serial Numbers - Is It That Simple? Fanfiction Writers Going Pro." ^[1] Among the suggested panels proposed for MediaWest*Con in May 2008 was another entitled "Filing Off the Serial Numbers: Going Pro with your Fan Fic." ^[2]

Slash Examples

In 1989, a Pros writer turned the first of many of her Pros novels into books published by the UK Gay Men's Press. In 1990, Alexis Rogers filed the serial numbers off of The Cost of Love^[3], a S/H novel, and sold it (with the same title) to Lavender Press.

Other authors have turned their slash into profic, but some fans feel that without specific author permission, pointing to a published novel and saying it originates in fandom would be a form of outing and therefore should be avoided.^[4] However, in this context, pseudonymity can also have its disadvantages. When J.J. Massa^[5] published her novel The Edge, it took a while (and only after it was published in print; the ebook version sold without problems) before a reader recognized it as the Chakotay/Paris AU Another Time, Another Place from Star Trek Voyager fandom. Said reader also knew who the original fanfic author was, and it was not J. J. Massa. When the author learned this, she began leaving comments on several reviews for The Edge claiming that it was actually her own story being republished without permission. Though she was initially met with skepticism, as she was a fanfic writer accusing a published romance author of plagiarism, the evidence was in her favor and the publisher withdrew the title.^[6][7][8]

Femslash Examples

Melissa Good's story Tropical Storm was the first commercially released Xena uber novel. Originally written in 1998, the print publication came in 1999 and other uber novels such as Accidental Love by BL Miller and Lucifer Rising by Sharon Bowers followed within the same year and even more in the years after that. ^{[9] [10] [11]} A few Star Trek Voyager ubers, such as Course of Action^[12] by Gun Brooke^[13], continued this tradition.

References

1. ↑ Uniquely Pleasurable, Original slash panel at D.C. con. Posted June 13, 2006. Last accessed November 16, 2008.
2. ↑ Dusk Peterson, The Slash Skinny. Posted April 2007. Last accessed November 16, 2008.
3. ↑ Alexis Rogers S/H website, accessed November 18, 2008
4. ↑ See Talk:Filing Off The Serial Numbers.
5. ↑ J.J. Massa - The Edge. (Accessed 20 November 2008)
6. ↑ Emily Veinglory, The JJ Massa Thang, 01 December 2007. (Accessed 20 November 2008)
7. ↑ Kayleigh Jamison, Accusations of Plagiarism Against Well-Known Ebook Author, 01 December 2007. (Accessed 20 November 2008)
8. ↑ Ash Arceneaux, JJ Massa plagiarism accusation!, 30 November 2007; holy cow. Massa VS Amanda debacle, 01 December 2007. (Accessed 20 November 2008)
9. ↑ Lunacy's Commercial Fiction Reviews. (Accessed 18 November 2008)
10. ↑ Vielka Clavijo. The Ultimate list of Uber Xena novels ever published, lists #1 - #17, Amazon.com Listmania! Lists. (Accessed 18 November 2008)
11. ↑ Bards In Print. A section of The Bard's Corner archive with updates about novels from authors who started out writing Xena fanfiction and who have ventured out into the publishing world. (Accessed 18 November 2008)
12. ↑ Gun Brooke. Course of Action, self-published in July 2004, then published with Bold Strokes Books in August 2005. (Accessed 18 November 2008)
13. ↑ See FAQs Gun Brooke. (Accessed 18 November 2008)