That the Weekend Journal would devote so much ink to Fan Fiction was surprising on the surface. I mean, it's still technically not kosher, and much of it's unmitigated crap, so what's the hook? Turns out that it's a way to do the "X online activity gets book deal" peg that's been the habitual hallmark of previous articles on bloggers. And so 19 year old Hannah Jones, who has something of a reputation for her elaborate Harry Potter 'fic, is held up as the newest poster girl of such things, thanks to her book deal with the tiny independent New Babel Books (a company, Lee Goldberg points out, that's published five books to date, three by the publisher)for her first volume of poetry.

Which is all well and good, but the only major publishing deal cited in the article was for the three-novel trilogy built around Pride and Prejudice originally published 10 years ago that Simon & Schuster reprinted as trade originals recently. After that? Not so much, though some authors, like Meg Cabot, are admitting their early dabblings in fanfic. "I never told anyone. I've started admitting it now," she said about writing stories inspired by Anne McCaffrey's fantasy novels about dragons when she was in high school and college.

Ron adds: It's a shame the article missed my favorite fanfic controversy, which I wrote about here last April: that woman who tried to sell her unauthorized Star Wars novel on Amazon.com...