Yesterday, I saw this article on Slate.com about how J.K. Rowling is suing a group of her fans who want to publish a lexicon explaining terms, creatures, etc., from her books. The article does a better job of explaining why she doesn’t legally have a leg to stand on—because they’re not wanting to reproduce her work or put her characters into another work of fiction. They’re just trying to make a comprehensive compendium of all of the unique things she came up with in her stories for the enjoyment of her millions of fans, which is completely legal (just look at all of the peripheral materials for the Lord of the Rings books).

Legal issues aside, when I first started reading the article, all I could think was, are you kidding me??? With millions of fans worldwide, not to mention a fortune of (I think I heard) half a Billion pounds (worth more than the US dollar), J.K. Rowling is going to sue her fans for loving her books and wanting to help others to understand them better so that they’ll love them too?

If my books ever become popular enough that someone wants to create, what?, a guide to the characters and places in Bonneterre, while I would want oversight of the project to make sure that all the information contained in it is correct, I would look at it for exactly what it is: fans who have so fallen in love with the place and characters I’ve created that they want to share it with other people who love my books.

I could understand if she were only concerned about making sure the information is correct, that the book won’t contain anything inappropriate, or that they aren’t adding their own stuff into it. But to me, this move seems more out of an attempt to keep them from making money off of it. Yes, the woman worth more than the GDP of many countries is worried about her fans making money by writing something in tribute to her books that might lead more people to buying her books.

“I cannot,” she said in a statement “approve of ‘companion books’ or ‘encyclopedias’ that seek to preempt my definitive Potter reference book. …” [page 2 of the article]

Preempt her definitive Potter reference book? See—it is all about making money for her. Doesn’t she realize that no matter how many peripheral books come out, people are going to buy all of them, especially the ones written by her? Again, if I were in her position, I would be grateful to these fans for doing the work, maybe even to the point of financing them and getting my name on the cover (“Authorized by Kaye Dacus”).

One of the points the article goes on to raise is the issue of how if this case is ruled in her favor, where does it stop? Does every published author (or his/her estate) then have the right to stop the publication of CliffsNotes, of critical evaluations in academic publications, of reviews that go up on Amazon or people’s blogs, of encyclopedic entries? While, as an author, I don’t want someone taking my characters and writing them into other stories or publishing stories with my fictional setting because those do infringe upon my intellectual property and copyright, I could not imagine wanting to keep others from writing about my books.

So, if anyone out there wants to write a Guide to Bonneterre or Families of Bonneterre guide once I’m multi-published, go for it! Please just respect the work and, if you have any questions, check with me for accuracy!