Possible publication

[igenlode]

Having seen the number of "Phantom of the Opera"-based novels being marketed to the fans, I've been very tentatively wondering if this new story might possibly be commercially saleable: "Blue Remembered Hills" would have worked as an SF retelling in its own right if it hadn't been for the explicit Blake's 7 content, and this 'Swedish' story is pure Leroux as well as being book-length.

But I don't think I could take the embarrassment and rejection of submitting it to a proper agent, and even if they could understand the 'based on an existing novel' concept (viz. Laurie King's Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell books), I don't think 'fanfic AU' is a mainstream concept; it's not a sequel to Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera", it's not a retelling, it's a story that branches off towards the end of the original novel and contradicts its ending. And the opening chapter doesn't make any concessions at all to establish who the characters are and how they got there; it assumes you can make the deduction. Opening sentence: "Goodbye, Raoul," Christine said gently, holding out her hand...

I assume this sort of thing is self-published, although I find it incredible that prose like this apparently won an award for "best fiction book of 2010", even a little local one; it's not bad, but it's pretty clumping and pedestrian. (And there's a typo in the excerpt given :-p) But since my book isn't E/C and isn't Erik-centric, I'm afraid I don't think it would stand a chance on the self-published fan market, even if I had the talent for promotion and publicity required to get anyone to notice it in the first place.

Although intriguingly, The Phantom's Apprentice seems to be well rated by fans despite not being an E/C romance: Erik is a criminal lunatic, Raoul is "swoon-worthy" (so maybe not all that close to Leroux, then!), and Christine is rewritten as a young woman whose heart's desire is to earn her own living as a stage illusionist -- an interesting tie-in to the Phantom's undoubted talents in that direction, but something of a departure from the original character...

Comments

[igenlode]

My main acquaintance with POTO novels comes from the Phantom Reviewing Project (I see Theodora Bruns features on that page; I thought the synopsis of her first novel sounded familiar). Judging by those reviews, the vast majority of 'Leroux-based' novels are in reality clearly movie-based -- presumably claiming otherwise for copyright evasion purposes? Otherwise they tend to be generic modern-day romances following a 'Beauty and the Beast' pattern, in which a Christine-analogue learns to see beyond the slight facial ugliness of an Erik-analogue with a HOTTT! body while ditching her generic insensitive boyfriend with a Raoul-analogue name of some kind (who may or may not persecute the two of them evilly as a result). And quite a few of the supposedly historical ones contain a foreword about how the author feels she is in contact with the spirit of Erik or is providing the real version of the story or similar...

I find it hard to envisage any readers of commercial fiction, even generic roamnces, seeking out self-published fan-fiction novels; I feel that that's territory reserved for fans who are desperate for anything to feed their particular fix.

I suspect that thanks to numerous adaptations the 'Phantom' story has attained the status of a generic modern legend, like "Dracula", and that a lot of people are familiar with its existence in vague outline without knowing or caring about minor plot/character details. (There seems to be a hazy idea in circulation that it involves the Phantom romancing Christine on the roof of the Paris Opera while wearing a swirly cape -- judging by casual pop-culture references and remarks from non-fans.) I know of at least one person who was thoroughly confused by reading my Perros-Guirec story This Mask of Death when his sole knowledge of POTO was derived from its Wikipedia article... where none of these Leroux-specific events get even a passing mention!

This particular Swedish story already starts in media res -- the first chapter consists almost entirely of flashback explaining how the characters arrived at the non-canon framing scene at the start of the story. I have to say I'm not sure it would make much sense to someone who has only seen the movie, or knows of the Phantom 'legend' in general; the whole business of Raoul eventually promising to help Christine find a hiding-place on the understanding that she will not be marrying him isn't a detail that normally makes it into any of the adaptations, since it's a narrative red herring that has no effect on the eventual climax of the plot. And working in enough detail to explain the entire backstory to that point to someone who hasn't read the original novel would be severely challenging, I feel :-(

[butterflydreaming]

If having a book out in the general market something that you want, then it can be possible to rework something that is a good fanfic but not a good stand alone, to that purpose. As you pointed out, though, its a lot of work to promote a book, with no guarantee of being a money maker for the effort.

[igenlode]

It is a lot of work to promote a book, and it's something for which I have no talent at all; I can't even get people to accept free leaflets if it's my job to hand them out in order to publicise well-known local events, never mind 'selling' things to people with no prior interest in buying them! My novel-length zines sold a hundred copies or so on the back of enthusiastic reviews on the Internet and active selling by the publisher at conventions etc. -- that had nothing whatsoever to do with me.

Which is why I feel the only viable approach in practice would be to get the book taken on by an agent for 'normal' publication, at which point it's the agent's job to try to place it with a publisher and the publisher's job to deal with formatting, cover design, copy-editing, publicity etc. If it's just one more in a sea of self-published Amazon works of dubious quality it's apt to disappear as thoroughly as the work I published on Wattpad -- I have enough trouble getting people to read stuff for free, never mind trying to get them to pay for it!

To be frank I'm not at all interested in making money by writing; I think it a highly improbable achievement. I'm more interested in the cachet of having my ability acknowledged, but sufficiently insecure to question whether the work is actually of commercial standard...