Fix-up

Fix-up
A fix-up (or fixup) is a novel created from several short fiction stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published. The stories may be edited for consistency, and sometimes new connecting material, such as a frame story or other interstitial narration, is written for the new work. The term was coined by the science fiction writer A. E. van Vogt, who published several fix-ups of his own, including The Voyage of the Space Beagle, but the practice (if not the term) exists outside of science fiction. The use of the term in science fiction criticism was popularised by the first (1979) edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, edited by Peter Nicholls, which credited van Vogt with the creation of the term.
The name “fix-up” comes from the changes that the author needs to make in the original texts, to make them fit together as though they were a novel. Foreshadowing of events from the later stories may be jammed into an early chapter of the fix-up, and character development may be interleaved throughout the book. Contradictions and inconsistencies between episodes are usually worked out.
Some fix-ups in their final form are more of a short story cycle or composite novel, rather than a traditional novel with a single main plotline. Examples are Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, and Isaac Asimov's I, Robot both of which read as a series of short stories which may share plot threads and characters, but which still act as self-contained stories. By contrast, van Vogt's The Weapon Shops of Isher is structured like a continuous novel, although it incorporates material from three previous van Vogt short stories.
Fix-ups became an accepted practice in American publishing during the 1950s, when science fiction and fantasy—once published primarily in magazines—increasingly began appearing in book form. Large book publishers like Doubleday and Simon & Schuster entered the market, greatly increasing demand for fiction. Authors created new manuscripts from old stories, to sell to publishers. Algis Budrys in 1965 described fixups as a consequence of the lack of good supply during the "bad years for quality" of the mid-1950s, although citing The Martian Chronicles and Clifford D. Simak's City as exceptions.
Examples
Science fiction and fantasy
Slan (1946) by A. E. van Vogt
The Book of Ptath (1947) by A. E. van Vogt
The World of Null-A (1948) by A. E. van Vogt
Triplanetary by E. E. Smith
The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950) by A. E. van Vogt
The Martian Chronicles (1950) by Ray Bradbury
I, Robot (1951) by Isaac Asimov
City (1952) by Clifford D. Simak
The Mixed Men (1952) by A. E. van Vogt
More Than Human (1953) by Theodore Sturgeon
Mutant (1953) by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore (as Lewis Padgett)
The Weapon Shops of Isher (1954) by A. E. van Vogt
Earthman, Come Home (1955) by James Blish
Men, Martians and Machines (1955) by Eric Frank Russell
Hell's Pavement (1955) by Damon Knight
Lest We Forget Thee, Earth (1958) by Robert Silverberg (as Calvin M. Knox)
The Outward Urge (1959) by John Wyndham (as John Wyndham and Lucas Parkes)
A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) by Walter M. Miller Jr.
The War Against the Rull (1959) by A. E. van Vogt
The Great Explosion (1962) by Eric Frank Russell
Hothouse (1962) by Brian W. Aldiss
Savage Pellucidar (1963) by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Stormbringer (1965) by Michael Moorcock
Rogue Ship (1965) by A. E. van Vogt
The Dying Earth (1950) by Jack Vance
The Eyes of the Overworld (1966) by Jack Vance
Counter-Clock World (1967) by Philip K. Dick
Pavane (1968) by Keith Roberts
The Silkie (1969) by A. E. van Vogt
The Ship Who Sang (1969) by Anne McCaffrey
Quest for the Future (1970) by A. E. van Vogt
Half Past Human (1971) by T. J. Bass
Operation Chaos (1971) by Poul Anderson
Puzzle of the Space Pyramids (1971) by Eando Binder
To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971) by Philip Jose Farmer
The Fabulous Riverboat (1971) by Philip Jose Farmer
The World Inside (1971) by Robert Silverberg
334 (1972) by Thomas M. Disch
The Godmakers (1972) by Frank Herbert
To Ride Pegasus (1973) by Anne McCaffrey
A World Out of Time (1976) by Larry Niven
In the Ocean of Night (1977) by Gregory Benford
The Mercenary (1977) by Jerry Pournelle
If the Stars are Gods (1977) by Gregory Benford and Gordon Eklund
Born to Exile (1978) by Phyllis Eisenstein
Space War Blues (1978) by Richard A. Lupoff
Catacomb Years (1979) by Michael Bishop
The World and Thorinn (1981) by Damon Knight
Windhaven (1981) by George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (1982) by Stephen King
The Crucible of Time (1983) by John Brunner
Icehenge (1984) by Kim Stanley Robinson
Emergence (1984) by David R. Palmer
The Postman (1985) by David Brin
Saturnalia (1986) by Grant Callin
Tuf Voyaging (1986) by George R. R. Martin
Life During Wartime (1987) by Lucius Shepard
A Different Flesh (1988) by Harry Turtledove
Prince of Mercenaries (1989) by Jerry Pournelle
Mirabile (1991) by Janet Kagan
The Sword of Destiny (1992) by Andrzej Sapkowski
Crashlander (1994) by Larry Niven
Amnesia Moon (1995) by Jonathan Lethem (fix-up of all previously unpublished stories)
Vacuum Diagrams (1997) by Stephen Baxter
Kirinyaga (1998) by Mike Resnick
Rainbow Mars (1999) by Larry Niven
From the Dust Returned (2001) by Ray Bradbury
Coyote (2002) by Allen Steele
Sister Alice (2003) by Robert Reed
Roma Eterna (2003) by Robert Silverberg
The Carpet Makers (2005) by Andreas Eschbach
Accelerando (2005) by Charles Stross
From the Files of the Time Rangers (2005) by Richard Bowes
Central Station (2016) by Lavie Tidhar
Driftwood (2020) by Marie Brennan
Other genres
Scenes of Bohemian Life (1851) by Henri Murger
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912) by Stephen Leacock
The Inimitable Jeeves (1923) by P. G. Wodehouse
The Big Four (1927) by Agatha Christie
The Red Pony (1937) by John Steinbeck
The Unvanquished (1938) by William Faulkner
The Big Sleep (1939), Farewell My Lovely (1940) and The Lady in the Lake (1943) by Raymond Chandler
Report on England, November 1940 by Ralph Ingersoll
Go Down, Moses (1942) by William Faulkner
Dandelion Wine (1957) by Ray Bradbury
Three for the Chair (1957) by Rex Stout
Lives of Girls and Women (1971) by Alice Munro
Who Do You Think You Are? (1978) by Alice Munro
The Things They Carried (1990) by Tim O'Brien
Green Shadows, White Whale (1992) by Ray Bradbury
Trainspotting (1993) by Irvine Welsh
Haunted (2005) by Chuck Palahniuk
A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010) by Jennifer Egan
The Seven Wonders (2012) by Steven Saylor
See also
Clip show
Retroactive continuity
References
Writing
Novel forms
Short stories
Science fiction terminology