Fanfic authors are pulling their works and here's why

[afeelingunacted]

And it's live! For @WIRED, I wrote about the illegal fanbindings have led to some writers to delete their works recently-and how that connects to the current pull-to-publish wave and the ever-broadening, increasingly contextless sphere of fic readers: https://t.co/qEFk1jspFo
- Elizabeth Minkel (@elizabethminkel) February 28, 2024

• Several fanfic big

Comments

[mammary_glands]

There was a fic I really liked from a very small fandom (Raven/Clarke's mom from The 100 lmfao) that disappeared some years back and I was really sad about it. Fast forward to last year and my friends and I wanna do a book club. We pick a lesbian book kind of at random. I get it in hand, open up to the first page, and immediately realize it's that fucking fic but with the names swapped. Shit had me howling. Fic writers gotta do what fic writers gotta do. I'm not mad at any of it.

That said, the one thing I hate is fic writers who get pissy in the author's note about people not leaving comments. Have some decorum.

[astrofisica]

lmaoo what was the book?

[mammary_glands]

mistakes were made by meryl wilsner! it's honestly a very fun read if you're a milf fucker enthusiast

[artsyfartsy01]

now that is an endorsement

[cuteej4]

Also, I will mourn the loss of the website Checkmated until the end of my days.

Sure I can use the wayback machine to read some of them but all the smutty fics are forever lost because it was restricted.

[magicpebble]

Ugh, yes, I read so much stuff on Checkmated back in the day.

[cuteej4]

There was a series of the sexiest Ron/Hermione fics where they didn't get together until they were adults and it went from their teasing to getting together all the way to having a kid. I looooved that series and someone on here actually saved them all and sent them to me. It was truly a wonderful day that day. lol

[magicpebble]

I think I read that; it sounds really familiar!

[kawaiiairbender]

Also i was trying to report stuff on Etsy last weekend. And they do not make it easy. And only the copyright holder/lawyer can report for intellectual property theft

Everytime one listing gets taken down another pops up. So it's not like fic authors can handle all that themselves

[mizzyoung]

People selling (stolen) fanfic on Etsy is WIIILD!

[jontargaryen]

If a fic is particularly popular, they don't just sell bound copies. They sell ebooks. Trying to trick people who saw a Tiktok about the fic, but don't know fanfiction is free and can be downloaded to your kindle from AO3. It's gross.

[anagramofbrat]

you can download from AO3 to kindle????

[jontargaryen]

This problem only exists in the Harry Potter fandom, specifically the parts that are prominent on Tiktok (Draco/Hermione and Harry's bully dad & friends). Yes, there are some examples of people in other fandoms selling fic on Etsy, but it is by and large an HP problem. This doesn't happen to every popular fic on AO3, but it happens to Dramione fics that aren't even that popular.

[purpleyamjam]

crossing my fingers that my fave ships and fandoms stay niche so this doesn't happen to them

[anachan87]

i'm lucky enough that the few times this happened to fics i enjoyed, the authors gave a heads up and told the readers to download the fic since it would be deleted.