Star Wars Fan Fiction Pulled From Amazon.com

Posted on April 28, 2006

Amazon.com has pulled the listing for a novel that was fan fiction set in the Star Wars universe. The fan fiction novel by Lori Jareo was called Another Hope. Lucasfilm reportedly asked the writer to remove the book and she complied. It has also been removed from Barnesandnoble.com and is listed as out of stock on Powells.com.

Patrick Lee, news editor at Scifiwire.com (link no longer available) says the new first broke on the blogs of several authors.

Lee writes, "Lucasfilm spokeswoman Lynne Hale had told SCI FI Wire that the company asked Jareo to remove the book from sale, and that she had complied happily. SCI FI Wire e-mails to Jareo have gone unanswered. News of the book first broke on the blogs of writers John Scalzi, Nick Mamatas and Lee Goldberg."

You can read more about the entire incident here. There is a lot of discussion going on right now on the Web about fan fiction, whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. But just a legal word of warning: whether you think it's a good thing or not it's illegal. Some (but not all) copyright holders turn a blind eye towards fanfic so long as it's not in print and the author doesn't try to sell it for profit.

If you decide you simply have to write stories in someone else's fictional world, it's best to keep them to yourself and your friends. You're going to get busted if you try to sell them to make a profit and LucasFilm in particular takes this kind of thing very seriously.