Question About Fan-made Novels

[Falcon197]

Greetings 343i and Halo community!

 

This is my first time posting on the forums.  Even though I'm a long time Halo fan, I haven't had any reason to come on here ... until today.  I've got a big question for any mod or forum vet to answer.  I only hope that I didn't miss a sticky someplace that provides detailed info on this -

 

What options are open to fan-based writers who have completed large-scale projects?

 

I'll elaborate some background.  About three years ago, I started writing a short fiction piece, set in the Halo universe which adopted its themes and canon but in a post Halo 3 timeframe that I created (which does not focus on Master Chief).  Originally, the project was intended to be a brief story that featured myself and some friends of mine as the main characters - as Spartans, specifically - working together as an elite team on a special mission ... I'll spare details to stick to the point.

 

At any rate, after I started writing this "short work", I realized by page 40 something that I was really getting into it and had no shortage of ideas for where to go next.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Three and a half years later, I've put the finishing touches on an almost 900 page book which is split up into 4 parts, each one featuring 15 chapters.  It is well written and was painstakingly assembled based off pages and pages of notes I put together whilst drafting it.  I'm currently in the edit process since Halo 4's arrival did a number on a few of my storyline elements and I have a few new ideas, but the majority of the work is still consistent with Halo canon, as I originally intended.

 

I say all of that to go full cycle back to my original question - because now that it's all done, I have absolutely no idea what to do with the book aside from posting it on some back alley sci-fi, fan-fic site where the really good stories end up getting ripped off or ignored ... and I happen to believe in the quality of my work and would go so far as to say it deserves a bit better fate than that.

 

I've actually contacted Eric Nylund, William Dietz, and Karen Traviss to inquire what (if any) doors are open for getting a fan work published.  All of them pretty much told me the same thing - that it's a no-go.  I can understand the rationale because I know I'm not the only one to try my hand at writing Halo-inspired works ... but I might just be the first to do one this big.

 

I'm not posting on here to brag on myself or make an absurd demand to have my work considered if 343i has their rules about this sort of thing.  All I'd like is to get some feedback and hopefully hear from a mod or someone on this.  I'm aware my post is coming out of the blue, but I haven't had any luck finding my answer elsewhere.

 

I've been a Halo fan for 10 years and ran a clan for that long that got its start on Halo PC.  I've watched a lot of good games come and go, but Halo remains my all time favorite franchise and I'm proud to be part of its community - even if I only did just register

 

Thanks in advance for any responses or advice.

 

Faithfully,

-Falcon197

[RedStarRocket91]

The absolute biggest problem you're going to have with the direction 343 are taking at the moment is whether or not what you've written fits within the established canon: at the moment they're trying to make sure that all Halo media fits together and ties in to the story without any conflicts, so if there's anything which happens in your work - at all - which doesn't fit with something that's already been established in another book, graphic novel, film or game, unfortunately that's going to result in immediate rejection.

 

But if what you've written does happen to fit perfectly with everything else, then you've got a better chance. The first thing you could do is try sending your work to various staff at 343. If you can afford it, physically print the thing out along with all of your notes, because an enormous pile of paper landing on a desk is much harder to ignore than an email with a couple of sentences and a few attached files; at the very least they'll have to open the package up, and recognise that they've been sent something. Stick a quick note on it with your email address and a request to either give it a quick read or hand it over to someone relevant, and that's probably the best chance you'll have of getting it read.

 

Sadly I don't really know who would be the best people to send your work to: unfortunately the people most involved with the story and production side of Halo are the ones least likely to actually have the spare time to read through 900 pages' worth of fiction. That said, you could always try getting in touch with their legal department and ask them if they'd be willing to license the rights to Halo to you: at the very least that way someone would have to read your work to evaluate it, and even if they refused to license it, they might be able to tell you whether it's or not it's actually worthy of publishing. If it is, then they may be able to pass it on to someone in the franchise team who otherwise wouldn't take the time to read it, who could get in contact and tell you whether or not they'd be willing to use it.

 

I hope this helps: best of luck on getting your work published!

[BaconShelf]

I really hope I can read this. If what you said is true, you have much more determination than me!

 

Anyway, good luck in getting recognised. One way may be posting on Halo Waypoint and hope an admin sees it, or email it to [email protected] (me thinks) and hope for a response. I know of fan ART that's been recognised as official canon so there is a CHANCE. Seriously, I hope to read this!

[Falcon197]

I've just posted a clone of this topic to Waypoint under the Community Creations forum.

 

Now we wait

 

I really hope I can read this. If what you said is true, you have much more determination than me!

 

Thanks!  I hope to share it with you and many others very soon!

[D-38 Boss]

Another option would be to post it on Fanfiction.net, just to get a general opinion on it.

 

900 pages though... I can barely get past 20 with my writing...