Life Without FanLib

As a former member, I would say that you're right about Trek fandom being in decline. I suspect there are quite a number of reasons for it, from demographic shifts and fandom migration to the lack of new content and new series fatigue, but I'm not going to go into it here. Instead, what I do find very interesting is about this competition that Trek already has a long running and very successful fanfic competition, Strange New Worlds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Strange_New_Worlds). Winners of this contest, it must be noted, get published and paid at a rate of 10 cents a word, plus bonus prize money for the place getters. Indeed, a number of winners have gone on to write novels for the Trek line. It makes me wonder if Paramount and Simon & Schuster intend to phase this contest out.