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The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction
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Title: | The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction |
Creator: | Elizabeth Minkel |
Date(s): | December 31, 2024 |
Medium: | online |
Fandom: | multi |
Topic: | |
External Links: | The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction; Wayback ; archive link Tumblr |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction is a 2024 essay by Elizabeth Minkel.
"In 2024, everyone wanted a piece of fic, from AI grifters to traditional publishers to ravenous audiences. Where did that leave the people who write it?"
The essay discusses "tech people attempting to strip-mine fic via AI" and the intersections of visibility, volume, boundary-crossing tropes, fandom and profit, and more.
This essay is very much focused on online fandom, and LiveJournal as a starting point.
It is related to Fansplaining, a long-running podcast that ceased in May 2024.
This essay is very much focused on online fandom, and LiveJournal as a starting point.
From links to related topics and essays, see more context.
Introduction
There were two fanfiction news stories in 2024 that serve as bookends of sorts: both about fic being pulled out of its original context; both about other people profiting off fic writers’ work; and both illustrating the broader trouble when fic is viewed as a large body of mineable “content,” to choose a very intentional word. If 2012 was the year fic was thrust into the mainstream spotlight via Fifty Shades of Grey, 2024 was the year it truly broke containment—everyone seemed to want a piece of the fanfiction pie, leaving fic authors themselves besieged on all sides.
These two "bookends" were SenLinYu, author of the wildly popular Dramione fic Manacled, decision to P2P, and the mining and theft by Cliff Weitzman, a tech bro who pillaged AO3 for personal financial gain.
These two incidents are part of a bigger movement to monetize fanworks and part of "a broader discussion within transformative fandom. Commentary about the fracturing of online communities and the shortening of fandom life cycles."
Some Topics Discussed
- "2012 was the year fic was thrust into the mainstream spotlight via Fifty Shades of Grey, 2024 was the year it truly broke containment"
- decontexualization, the disconnect of fanfiction from fandom
- the grasping maws of tech bros searching for free content to steal and sell
- what happens when fanfiction scales?
- AO3 & AI Generated Content (topic: scraping of AO3 for training AIs) (May 2023)
- Lore.fm (a text-to-speech app that advertised itself as "Audible for AO3" and was designed for use by fans to listen to audio versions of fanfiction) (May 2024)
- Theft of Fanfiction Perpetrated by Cliff Weitzman, WordStream, Speechify
- creating fanworks has become impersonal and lonely due to lack of feedback and fannish engagement
- readers of fanfiction are voracious consumers
- creating, and reading, fanfiction used to be some to hide and be ashamed of; higher visibility and acceptance and made it ripe for the picking by profit-minded thieves
- the good old days
- LiveJournal as a tightly-knit community where people could know each other, follow trends, track things
- recently, there is a "relative stability of today’s fic sites compared to fandom’s purge-and-migration cycles on the early web"
- fanfiction and visibility (this essay is available at Amazon (Audible and Spotify)
- the vast amount of fanfics available
- too many platforms, too many silos makes for a fractured community
- algorithms are, like with everything, are directing your experience
- fanfiction's the increasing crossover with pro romance, similar tropes
- increasingly passive fanfiction readership
- 50 Shades of Grey and the monsters it unleashed in 2012
- SenLinYu pulling Manacled to P2P in 2024
- fanbinding
- fandom and profit
- fannish entitlement
- a mention of *Lots of People Make Money on Fanfic. Just Not the Authors, Archived version by Elizabeth Minkel at Wired.com (Feb 28, 2024)
From the Essay
Scummy fic-stealing websites aren’t new, but there was something about this one that felt more in line with the for-profit binders than the nameless, faceless plagiarism sites of years past. These actors weren’t collecting pennies via banner ads: they were seeing real potential markets and capitalizing on them. WordStream could fill its digital shelves with beloved works about modern pop-culture characters; for-profit fic binders could literally see customer demand, because as quickly as they listed their materials, people would buy them. To both of these groups, fanfiction is merely a vast repository of works people love that somehow magically wound up on the internet, freely available and replete with a handy download button.
These incidents could simply be a broader story about tech advances and capitalism, from WordStream’s ability to generate a relatively credible website via AI (I mean, “credible” is harder to argue if you saw those abysmal covers, but still) to the ease with which Etsy sellers can print and distribute bound fic. They’re also about the unintended knock-on effects of the design of the AO3 in particular: literally a repository of free works about popular subjects that people love, with a handy download button. They’re stories of ostensible “fandom outsiders” swooping in like vultures, taking advantage of a largely pseudonymous body of writers who are perceived to be legally ignorant — and who are in practice often legally powerless, armed only with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (because yes, you do own the copyright to your fic) and often given no real pathways to implement it.
On the surface, this feels like it should be a good thing: More fic readers means more people in fandom, right? Instead, I read post after post talking about how distant writers felt from these newer readers — how impersonal and lonely the act of fannish creation has become. Anecdotes where readers gush about a fic on Discord, but make zero attempts to connect with the author. Screenshots of fic titles or passages with no URLs — and captions like, “I wish I could tell the person who wrote this how incredible it is.” TikToks highlighting fics garnering hundreds of effusive comments, while the authors of the stories themselves never hear a peep.
The modern web doesn’t often allow for this kind of closeness: there are too many platforms, some so unmanageably large that users cede control to algorithms, some so closed that only a limited number of fans would ever see a given conversation. Fans talk in some places, and fic is hosted in wholly separate places: today’s fic sites are generally built as searchable repositories, with only light social components like commenting. (It’s worth noting that before the LJ era, fans also tended to talk in one place — forums, mailing lists — and post fic on archives [1], but the mechanics of the early internet are so different from today’s ultra-scaled social web that there’s little sense comparing them.)
Viewed through one lens, the broader de-stigmatization of fic is positive: I personally do not miss the days when it was a punchline on celebrity chat shows, or the days before that, when no one knew what it was, if I felt comfortable mentioning it at all. But the price of this de-stigmatization seems to be utter context collapse — and as fic breaks containment, you can see the markers of what makes a fic “successful” or “valuable” shifting in real time, to align more with the pro-media world.
That same sense of powerlessness echoes today, but scaled up to 2024’s reality. The cartoon-dollar-sign pool has expanded to include AI venture capitalists and BookTok influencers, not to mention dogged Etsy sellers who won’t be deterred by mere copyright takedowns. These bad actors feel different than the collective enemies of my fandom youth: the network, the corporation, the billionaire author in a castle, all wrapped up in the abstract untouchableness of “The Powers That Be.” As frustrated as we often were with them, I was lucky to come of age in an era where, save for few famous examples, TPTB didn’t much care about fic; that left it for us, as a way to take back a little something for ourselves. Now, it feels like so many people want to take a bite out of fic itself — and so often, it’s just to make a buck
But as infuriating as these tech ventures are, as a fic writer, I get more hung up on the swelling readership component of all of this — the way fic feels increasingly like traditionally published genres, with a binary, one-to-many relationship between authors and audience. I balk at the transactional language of commenting as compensation; when I watch earnest TikTokers try to onboard new fic readers with instructions to politely comment, I think about how all the polite comments in the world won’t solve the decontexualization problem, the disconnect of fanfiction from fandom. I think about my erstwhile Fifty Shades worries and all the times in recent years I’ve told someone I cover fandom, especially fanfiction — and they try to badly fansplain fic to me before I can elaborate. At what point do all these external definitions stick?
I’ve watched these swirling controversies and marveled at the passion of fans’ arguments, the helpfulness of their practical advice, and their quick attempts to shut down irrational panic and fear-mongering speculation. Amidst all of this instability and change, I’ve watched people keep creating — uploading yet another work to the body of fanfiction, as their fellow fandom members rec, or beta, or prompt, or simply cheerlead, keeping those community ties strong. (And I can’t see you, lurkers, but if you’re watching all of this, then you’re in there, too.
Reactions and Reviews
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super fun article! thanks for sharing [2]
Thank you. This is absolutely superb. [3]
hi i read your article on fanfiction culture changing and it reminded me of a comment i got on a fic in 2023. (i was going to say this year/recently but then i checked and wow time moves fast) it was phrased like i wasn't ever going to see it. which is weird bc there were only 2 other comments both of which i'd responded to. it was written almost to an audience that did not include me. idk what that says about the "culture" but i enjoyed your article!
- [Elizabeth Minkel]: Aw <3 thank you so much! (If anyone hasn’t read it yet, this is in reference to “The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction.”)
- That’s super interesting, and definitely relates to this broader ~thing~ imo. My first thought is about the (significant?) rise in people putting fic reviews on Goodreads. That’s definitely part of the overall context collapse—and deeply annoys me!!—but it does make me think about the concrit conversation, and how fandom post-LJ has largely shut down critical discussion of fic, which was not a rarity back in the day. (I’m not opening that can of worms now lol.) Like, I have sympathy for the Discord fic book clubs, because you should be allowed to say whatever you want about a fic in private! But I feel like that needs to be just one component, especially if you have a lot of positive things to say about a work.
- Funnily, I got a comment somewhat recently that felt, at least in one bit, like it was addressed more to the world than to me. It was a really nice comment! But I showed it to a friend in my confusion (and then just replied like it hadn’t struck me as odd). I’ve also received comments in the last few years on older stories in which the commenter acts like I’ve long departed from my fandom—when I’ve published new works as relatively as a few weeks prior, and post on my (linked from my AO3 profile) tumblr daily. Which seems related, too—like, me, the fan, is still right there, very easy to see?
- I do think there’s something to be said about depersonalization across social media, and the way people collapse “content creators” with their “content” (to be clear, I’m not calling fic writers or fic either of these things, but part of this whole situation is that a lot of readers are thinking of them that way). Like, the creator economy is structured to encourage people do that, even. And of course there’s great commentary here on tumblr dot com and elsewhere about how people talk to strangers in ways they’d never dare to in real life. I mean, the digital disconnect led to plenty of…issues…back in the day, even when fandom and fanfic weren’t as bifurcated as right now.
- Anyway, I think this is all swirling together…and like, it’s not great! (Haha this is like how I ended the article. “This sucks! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯”) But thanks again for your message—this topic has so many interesting, if depressing, facets!! [4]
Other
If you care about fandom, fanfiction, bad actors, and the pull-to-publish pipeline, this is a great read. [5]
Other
If you care about fandom, fanfiction, bad actors, and the pull-to-publish pipeline, this is a great read. [6]
Context
Minkel's essay is focused on fandom from the early to mid-2000s and later, which reflects the effect of the internet's rise. It is also focused on LiveJournal, one of many fannish gathering spaces and communities.
Many of the topics, however, are universal one of many in a long line of discussions going back much further. These topics include fans concerns about lack of feedback, lack of connections between fan creators and fan consumers, the desire to keep fandom underground and safe from mainstream prying eyes, the desire to elevate fandom and make it more visible, fans making money on their own and others' fanworks, non-fans swooping in and trying to make a buck on fanworks and fandom, the tensions between print fans and early internet fans, privacy and fandom, the balkanization of fandoms, the proliferation of media fandoms which caused wider and more fractured communities and siphoned off interest and attention,
Related Topics
- Archive of Our Own
- Balkanization
- Fandom and the Internet
- Fandom and the Underground
- Fandom and Visibility
- Fandom Content on Mainstream Spaces
- Fandom Migration
- FanLib (more tech bros on the prowl) (2007-08)
- Timeline of Concrit & Feedback Meta (feedback, communication as community)
- Feral (new fans, mentoring, gatekeeping)
- Goodreads -- Goodreads/Links for Further Reading (fanworks, discussion in mainstream places)
- The Impact of Blogging on Fandom
- The Impact of Streaming Services on Fandom
- Letterzines (the often close communities in them, a lot of conversation, one example The K/S Press)
- The K/S Netfan-Printzine Fan Wars (different communities, protection of fannish spaces, pros and cons of visibility) (1997-2001)
- Social Networking and Embedding Brings New Challenges
- Zines and the Internet
Related Meta
- K/S: Freedom of the Press? by Alexis Fegan Black (1986)
- A Dangerous Trend? by Alexis Fegan Black (1988)
- Fandom, tradition, net by [E] (1996)
- Internet Fans Controversy Du Jour (Sandy Herrold) (1997)
- "Crossing the Line: 'Netfans' and 'Printfans'" (1998)
- How The Internet Can Save Us, And Why It Won't Last by Mie Tsukikoushi (2001)
- Fanfiction.net: The Worst Thing That's Ever Happened to Fanfiction? ("Has our internet driven thirst for instant gratification pushed us to sacrifice quality?") (2002)
- Some very well-meaning and good-hearted people have made a mistake. by lanning (2002)
- Keep it secret, keep it safe by musesfool (September 2006)
- Those were the days by Gwyneth Rhys (greedy, ungrateful net fans vs older fans with manners and appreciation -- new fans' lack of empathy, understanding of history, willingness to help out, understanding of fan community, lack of feedback) (2006)
- How Fanfiction Makes Us Poor by cupidsbow (2007) - How Fanfiction Makes Us Poor: Posted Responses
- Fandom Does Not Use Technology. Technology Uses Fandom by Morgan Dawn (2014)
- All this leaving tumblr talk is making me hark back to the LJ days of old, man oh man. by stardust_rain. (2014)
- A Matter of Space: The big thing I miss about writing fanfic., Archived version (2015)
- Fansplaining: Happy Anniversary by Flourish Klink and Elizabeth Minkel (2016)
- It’s gonna be ok by cupidsbower (2018)
- State of the Migration: On fannish archival catastrophes, and what happens next by Greywash (2018)
- The Life and Death of Fandom Platforms by Casey Fiesler (2020)
References
- ^ This history is richer than that, and goes back even further to in-person conventions, print zines, letterzines...
- ^ from kittalee at tumblr fansplaining
- ^ from obelia321 at tumblr ellipsus-writes
- ^ from spell-cleaver at tumblr spell-cleaver
- ^ from Read The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction by Elizabeth Minkel (Fansplaining). (December 31, 2024)
- ^ from Read The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction by Elizabeth Minkel (Fansplaining). (December 31, 2024)