Once a person becomes a reader they tend to stay one. The hard part is getting people comfortable with reading, especially the young.

One of the best things about JK Rowling was the unprecedented ground swell of interest in reading she generated in 9 to 15 year olds. It’s almost a shame her books were made into movies.

Getting more people into the reading habit is important. And sometimes the only way to do that is to get them to read ‘easy stuff’ first, like ‘spin-off’ books about characters they already know and love. As in Buffy, Angel, Charmed, Star Trek and Star Wars books, plus a whole host of others.

I get many emails from young people asking if it’s okay to write this kind of ‘fan’ fiction. Well, of course, any kind of writing is good, no matter where you start or end up. But beware. Writing this kind of ‘spin-off’ fiction for TV and movie books is not quite as simple as you’d think.

The publishers of these books have very strict guidelines that, if you want to try your hand, you can request from them. They will normally send you very detailed reports on the particular ‘universe’ you wish to write for. They will also stress that your story must be completely consistent with that ‘universe.’

There are lots of rules in this game. For instance, you can only kill off characters you personally create. And with any submission, you must normally specify the EXACT time when your story takes place – at which point in the series – so that their editors can check whether your story ‘fits.’

Usually you are not allowed to bend any of the rules laid out for characters, or insert any type of activity, place or influences that would not make perfect sense to a fan of the series. It’s the way these things are done.

I’ve known writers who have come close to despair after the dozen or so re-writes requested by various editors, agents and publishers in this genre. A friend of mine once spent months writing a Star Trek Next Generation script.

A huge fan of the series, he came up with what he thought was a brilliant concept that would blow everyone away. He wrote and wrote, rewrote, editing to perfection and eventually sent off his ms, convinced of its genius.

Almost one year later he received it back, tattered and torn. It had a pencil scrawl on it that said simply, ‘This could never happen.’ Needless to say the writer decided that never again would he ‘waste’ so much time on a project, no matter how much fun it was!

The message is, if you think you have an idea for movie or TV series follow up, get the guidelines, read them thoroughly, and stick to them like superglue.

Better still, change the characters, setting and plot and write it as an original piece. It’ll probably be easier in the long run!