How One Fandom’s FANFIC WRITERS Got Paid to Write Canon Novels [STARGATE SG-1]

Like most of the Star franchises, STARGATE has published tie-in novels. But unlike other franchises, Stargate’s official, copyright-approved, canon books were written by FANFICTION AUTHORS. The story of how this happened is insane, and I love it.

It involves faxes, even though I’m pretty sure email was a thing in 2003.

Fanfiction has been getting more mainstream, and the intersection between fanfic and publishing is fascinating. To be fair, the writers had to keep to the tv show’s characterizations, so it’s not like they were able to publish actual fanfiction. But it’s still wild.

(However – from my perspective – there is a DARK SIDE to placing canon in the hands of fanfic writers. Particularly shippers. Let’s discuss.)

***


I fully intended this to be a quick, easy video with very few visuals – mostly just me talking – that would post right after New Year’s. But it’s Stargate, so I ended up talking for three hours and had to cut most of it out. And then I decided to go create/search/grab a bunch of visuals to add. Oh well.

P.S. I did not buy that photo of Jack and Daniel just for this video. I’ve had it. I think I bought it when I was in high school.


P.P.S. Why did I have to go through the Wayback Machine for so many things?? It’s frustrating when websites take their articles down. WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO HIDE? Anyway, just in case you’re interested, here are my main sources:

https://www.gateworld.net/news/2009/0...
https://www.thecompanion.app/2022/08/... (This one was taken down, and the Wayback Machine only pulls up a part of it for some reason, BUT I WANT YOU TO KNOW IT EXISTED)
https://web.archive.org/web/202011010...
https://web.archive.org/web/202011280...
https://web.archive.org/web/202107270...

***

Upcoming Videos:

-A classic (actually well-known and not an obscure relic, lol) 90s animated movie that’s surprisingly horny AND scary.