Orson Scott Card

This creator does not appreciate fanworks, and has pursued legal action against fans.

Orson Scott Card mostly writes without a pen name, but has also written under the names Gert Fram, Byron Walley, Frederick Bliss, P.Q. Gump, Brian Green, and Noam D. Pellume. He created the Ender's Game series, the The Tales of Alvin Maker series, and the Pathfinder series. Card sees fanworks as flattering, even as advertising, but has pursued legal action against fans in the past. Although he announced that he would edit an anthology of fanfiction, it has not yet materialized, and Card very well may continue to send "cease and desist" letters to fans.

Statements

2012

After spending years fending off fan fiction, and occasionally sending out "cease and desist" letters through his lawyer to block potential copyright violations, science-fiction novelist Orson Scott Card has started courting fan writers. Mr. Card, author of the best-selling "Ender's Game" series, is planning to host a contest for "Ender's Game" fan fiction this fall. Fans will be able to submit their work to his Web site. The winning stories will be published as an anthology that will become part of the official "canon" of the "Ender's Game" series.

"Every piece of fan fiction is an ad for my book," Mr. Card says. "What kind of idiot would I be to want that to disappear?"

2000

I'm flattered; and then, if they try to publish it (including on the net) except in very restricted circumstances, I will sue, because if I do NOT act vigorously to protect my copyright, I will lose that copyright -- and that is the only inheritance I have to leave my family. So fan fiction, while flattering, is also an attack on my means of livelihood. It is also a poor substitute for the writers' inventing their own characters and situations. It does not help them as writers; it can easily harm me; and those who care about my stories and characters know that what I write is "real" and has authority, and what fans write is not and does not. So it's all pointless. I'd prefer simply to ignore it when it happens, but the way copyright law functions, I am told that I cannot ignore it. So there it is.

Statement sources

2012—https://web.archive.org/web/20141215213543/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303734204577464411825970488

2000—https://web.archive.org/web/20010430010912/http://hatrack.com/research/interviews/yoda-patta.shtml

Works

• The Apostate (1970)
• In Flight (1970)
• Across Five Summers (1971)
• Stone Tables (1971)
• Father, Mother, Mother, and Mom (1974)
• Of Gideon (1974)
• Liberty Jail (1975)
• Abraham and Issac (1976)
• Rag Mission (1977)
• Fresh Courage Take (1978)
• "Sandmagic" (1979)
• Capitol (1979)
• Hot Sleep (1979)
• A Planet Called Treason (1979)
• Elders and Sisters (1979)
• Songmaster (1980)
• Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories (1980)
• Notes from a Guardian Angel (1982)
• Wings (1982)
• The Worthing Chronicle (1983)
• Hart's Hope (1983)
• Saints (1983)
• Ender's Game (1985)
• Speaker for the Dead (1986)
• Seventh Son (1987)
• Wyrms (1987)
• Cardography (1987)
• Red Prophet (1988)
• Treason (1988)
• "Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow" (1989)
• Prentice Alvin (1989)
• The Folk of the Fringe (1989)
• The Abyss (1989)
• The Worthing Saga (1990)
• Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card (1990)
• Eye for Eye / Tunesmith (1990)
• Ender's War (1991)
• "Gloriously Bright" (1991)
• Xenocide (1991)
• The Memory of Earth (1992)
• The Call of Earth (1992)
• "Atlantis" (1992)
• Lost Boys (1992)
• The Changed Man (1992)
• Flux (1992)
• Cruel Miracles (1992)
• Monkey Sonatas (1993)
• The Ships of Earth (1994)
• Lovelock (1994)
• Alvin Journeyman (1995)
• Earthfall (1995)
• Earthborn (1995)
• Children of the Mind (1996)
• Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)
• Treasure Box (1996)
• Stone Tables (1997)
• Barefoot to Zion (1997)
• Heartfire (1998)
• "Grinning Man" (1998)
• Homebody (1998)
• Ender's Shadow (1999)
• Enchantment (1999)
• Magic Mirror (1999)
• Sarah (2000)
• A Dixie Christmas Carol (2000)
• Shadow of the Hegemon (2001)
• Rebekah (2001)
• Waterbaby (2001)
• Shadow Puppets (2002)
• First Meetings (2002)
• Doorways (2002)
• "The Yazoo Queen" (2003)
• The Crystal City (2003)
• Robota (2003)
• Rachel and Leah (2004)
• An Open Book (2004)
• Posing as People (2004)
• Clap Hands and Sing (2004)
• Lifeloop (2004)
• Sepulchre of Songs (2004)
• Shadow of the Giant (2005)
• "Mazer in Prison" (2005)
• Magic Street (2005)
• Ultimate Iron Man (2005)
• "Pretty Boy" (2006)
• "Cheater" (2006)
• Empire (2006)
• Red Prophet: The Tales Of Alvin Maker (2006)
• Wyrms (2006)
• Getting Lost (2006)
• "A Young Man with Prospects" (2007)
• "The Gold Bug" (2007)
• "Ender's Stocking" (2007)
• A War of Gifts: An Ender Story (2007)
• Invasive Procedures (2007)
• The Space Boy (2007)
• Taming of the Shrew (2007)
• Shelter (2007)
• "Ender's Homecoming" (2008)
• "Ender in Flight" (2008)
• Ender in Exile (2008)
• "Stonefather" (2008)
• Keeper of Dreams (2008)
• Shadow Complex (2009)
• Hidden Empire (2009)
• Pathfinder (2010)
• The Lost Gate (2011)
• Laddertop: Volume 1 (2011)
• Hamlet's Father (2011)
• Shadows in Flight (2012)
• Earth Unaware (2012)
• Ruins (2012)
• Earth Afire (2013)
• Ender's Game Alive (2013)
• The Gate Thief (2013)
• Laddertop: Volume 2 (2013)
• Earth Awakens (2014)
• "Alvin and the Apple Tree" (2014)
• Visitors (2014)
• Gatefather (2015)
• The Swarm (2016)
• Children of the Fleet (2017)
• "Renegat" (2017)
• "Governor Wiggin" (2017)
• "Messenger" (2018)
• A Town Divided by Christmas (2018)
• The Hive (2019)
• Lost and Found (2019)
• The Last Shadow (2021)
• Duplex (2021)
• Laddertop: Volume 3 (2022)
• Wakers (2022)