Recently Asked Questions (RAQs)

I wanted to host a fanfiction writing contest for my teen department, as we have a lot of teens who enjoy writing fanfiction about their favorite characters and fandom. However, I know fanfiction is always a little tricky.

The idea was to set rules and guidelines, such as:

“Respect for Source Material: If using established characters or settings, submissions should honor the original creator’s vision, themes, and tone.

Originality: Plagiarism will result in disqualification. All work must be the author’s own, with clear inspiration rather than direct copying from the source material.”

The prize would be a gift card that was sponsored, not purchased. We wanted to publish these works on a small, local scale—hosted on our blog or website. However, I am starting to think that using public-domain characters and literary works may be the safest option, especially considering they are minors. A secondary question about publishing in general: if they are minors, is parental consent required?

The library's podcast (Your Friendly Neighborhood Librarians), hosted by two librarians here, recently started interviewing guests from outside the organization. We are concerned about a few things: what the ramifications are if a guest does not like the way their interview was edited and whether the library owns the rights to the interview and recording. We only edit for clarity and length, and haven't done anything in regards to copyright. Additionally, any advice on whether we should be using some sort of contract or agreement with guests would be helpful. We don't have any sort of agreement in place at present, and are mostly interviewing people who are somewhat library-related. Thank you for your help!