serious

Q: Why do you bother to write this franchise fiction when you're a "serious" author?

I realise that there are some who are surprised that I voluntarily write tie-ins. That's a shame. If only they'd open their minds, chill out a bit and find out a little more about the universes I work in, I think the world would be a happier place. Why does a serious, respectable SF writer like me take the tie-in shilling as well as writing her own books? Let me tell you...

1. The money's good. The cheques are on time.

2. The teams I work with are the nicest, funniest people imaginable. If you usually work alone, as a novelist does, it's great to be part of a top-notch team. And I get to work with artists, too. Who wouldn't want to work with genius teams like Epic Games?

3. Most tie-in fans are the best. They're my second family.

4. I had to become a better writer very fast just to handle tie-ins. It's a professional challenge on a scale I'd never imagined - plotting through tough continuity, picking up existing characters, having to grapple with genuinely difficult philosophical ideas. You think I'm joking? Ask me at a con some day.

5. I sell an awful lot of books. Star Wars made me a best-selling author.

6. Writing tie-ins is still the most fun I've ever had - and I didn't know a damn thing about them before March 2004. It pushes my creativity beyond its limits. I get paid to play.

7. Hell, I'm nobody. Then - out of the blue - I get to be part of, and add to, a creative icon that's embedded in our global culture. Remember, who writes, remains - and who writes Star Wars will probably remain even longer. Now I write for a whole lot of other franchises. I make a good living and I can pick and choose what I do, how much of it is my own copyright work and how much is for others. Great break, or what?

8. The publishers and franchise owners don't dumb me down, crimp my style or limit me. I can pose serious questions to hundreds of thousands of readers at the same time as I'm entertaining them. Hmmm....do I want to do that, or a critically-acclaimed book that'll be read by five literature professors nobody's heard of except their students? Don't rush me...

So, what was that question again?