Tie-In Books versus Original Novels

There’s a great conversation posted over at Jeff Vandermeer’s site between Dan Abnett and fantasy author Mark Charan Newton (whose day job is in the Marketing team for Games Workshop’s Black Library range of Warhammer tie-in novels). As you may know, Dan has published over three dozen novels, though his recent book from Angry Robot – Triumff: Her Majesty’s Hero – is his first non tie-in book.

Mark and Dan talk about the frustrations (and advantages) of writing tie-in work versus the advantages (and frustrations) of working in your own universe.

It could be argued… that in many respects, there’s little difference between original SF and franchise fiction, except for the brand or the built-in fanbase. There are rules for each. There is originality in both. There is room, in both, for talented prose and show-off art, and there’s plenty of scope for thought-provoking stories.

It’s a superb read – so go.