Disclaimer: This is not a formal legal document and I reserve all rights to a final decision.
Permissibility
SUMMARY:
Fanfiction and adaptions should be legal in its content, should not promote harm, and be plausibly cannon. However, if you wish to hijack the protagonist’s plotline, hijack the worldbuilding, or change aspects of the story you don’t like — write your own book. And as always, do not try to pass off my creative work as your own, credit where credit is due, and you may not sell your fanfiction/adaption without permission.
The Travels of Nos Printer is primarily a satirical work of existential horror, however, it was heavily inspired by the lack of originality in the romance genre’s world building department and my petty need to one-up the Omegaverse. As such, it is intended to be fan-fiction friendly by providing a pseudo-world-sandbox for romance writers wanting to write without having to think too hard — because thinking while being hard is apparently very, very difficult for the good lot of you….
That said, my respect for your work extends only as far as your respect of mine. In the end, The Travels of Nos Printer is copyrighted content and fanfiction/fanart is a grey area. This page is intended to provide a guide for you to navigate that.
To start, I want to distinguish SIX categories:
- Fan Fiction — You like the story and want to build off it.
- Adaptions — You want to take one of the sub-stories and adapt it to a new medium.
- Spite Fiction — You don’t like parts of the story and want to change it.
- Hijacking — You want to insert yourself as the creator/author of the overall story, or otherwise attempt to “cowrite” without my permission or consent.
- Nested folklore — You have a character who tells original folklore stories.
- Content that promotes abuse or problematic content — Glorification of sexual assault, child exploitation, bestiality, incest, and so forth
Some things you desire write may also be illegal in your respective jurisdiction or against Terms of Service on your chosen publishing platform. That is a separate legal issue I won’t cover here, but I do hope you have the intelligence to understand “but the author said I could do it on their website!!!” isn’t how legal defense against broken laws or ToS violations work and I do not, in fact, give anyone permission to be an idiot.
As a base rule…
NOT PERMITTED
- Spite Fiction
- Hijacking
- Content that promotes abuse/Problematic content
Examples of what is NOT permitted:
- You may not use Nos Printer, their home island, or inhabitants of Matare’ekon in your work. (Hijacking)
- You may not change established facts of a character’s life and story–including their romantic orientation/sexuality. (Spite Fiction)
- The mechanics of how a country, kingdoms, etc. works. No changing or ignoring stuff you don’t like. No overthrowing governments, cults, and so forth. (Spite Fiction)
- You may not “add your own island” or “pre-write” a place Nos has yet to visit. (Hijacking)
- You may not write from the POV of a god, creator, or other supernatural entity. (Hijacking, refer to EFON)
- You may not portray abusive/problematic relationships as anything but what they are. (Content that promotes abuse)
- You may not write works that promote harm to a protected demographic. (Content that promotes abuse)
- No child pornography, bestiality, and so forth. (Problematic content/abuse)
I will consider all these things copyright violations and if you are familiar with copyright laws, you will notice many of these things equally do not fall under the category of fair-use. If this is an issue, the simple solution is to write your own original story detached from mine.
PERMITTED
- Fan fiction
As mention, this is supposed to be fan-fiction friendly. Duh. Though I think a better way to describe it would be a D&D sort of situation. I make the world and rules; you make the characters and run af*ck amok.
Examples of what is permitted, assuming they do not violate the above:
- You may write believable canon for existing characters.
- You may create original non-deity characters (OCs) navigating whatever culture, place, or circumstances they find themselves in.
Please ensure you follow requirements (below), avoid not permitted (above), and refer to the “Established Facts of Nos’ekon” (EFON) to assist you with your respective shenanigans. As I said: you respect my work, I respect yours. There is a chance your work may be formally declared “cannon,” you can receive permissions to sell your work, and I will equally share it here on the platform. This is one big experiment for me as I am insane, and I created this on the understanding many fan-fiction writers do wish to respect fellow creatives.
(Note: What I’m willing to read and what I have time to read is limited. I’m not a publishing company or a literary agent. I do not, in fact, enjoy romance or erotica. I have high standards for plot and the capacity to use spellcheck. Unsolicited “notice me sempai” dumps and “read my porno fantasy, lol” links to your work will marked spam, deleted, or otherwise ignored. If you like the idea of your fanfiction becoming “canon”–(1) please wait for submission requests to be announced, (2) expect public vetting, public voting, and contracts to sign, (3) I will know who you are and what you wrote.)
PERMITED WITH LIMITATION
- Adaptions
- Nested folklore
Both of these have specific considerations for their circumstances, so breaking this down even more.
** Adaptions
As Nos travels about the world, they meet people and those people tell Nos their stories — whether this be stories of their past or stories of their culture/folklore. An adaption would be to take one of these stories and make it a different medium. If you want to “expand” these stories in written form, that would be fan fiction (see above).
You are permitted to adapt these stories into songs, comics, or short film — with the condition you keep requirements (below) and do not engage in unpermitted behavior (above).
** Nested folklore
This is a little bit more complicated to explain, so the first thing to know (refer to EFON):
[IN PROGRESS]
Requirements for all Permitted
- This must be of your own creation and efforts. You may not use Generative AI to write fan fiction or create adaptions for you.
- You must credit that this is a derivative work of The Travels of Nos Printer / Nos’ekon and that you are not the original creator. Attempts to charade this as your own IP is blatant copyright violation.
- Any derivatives based on your own work, derivatives based on that derivative, derivatives based on that derivative, and so forth—all must follow these rules as well.
- Your work must be freely accessible. If your fanfiction or adaption on a platform where you get ad-revenue (example: Youtube), so long as the work is otherwise freely accessible, I don’t presently consider this violation of copyright.
- If you wish to sell your work or place it behind a paywall of any kind, including cases of “payment is only for early access; it will become free later” (example: Webtoon coins), you are not permitted to do so without permission.