 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 comes from the modifications that the author needs to make in the original texts to make them fit together as though they were a novel.