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

[ponyboy]

this is a harry potter fandom problem and for the most irritating parts of it. it's infuriating.

these fics also get pulled bc.. they're not good fics anyway? most of them are wildly ooc in the first place.

[jontargaryen]

I feel like the OOCness is the inevitable result of a fandom going on this long. People haven't read HP in a long time. They don't remember what the characters are supposed to be like.

That said, it's very funny that the two biggest fics on Tiktok are a Dramione Handmaid's Tale AU where Draco is a psychopathic mass murderer and a "canon compliant" Lupin/Sirius story where the author admits she changed the characters' backstories and personalities (so... not canon compliant).

[kawaiiairbender]

That's what is really nice tbh

I have never read HP in my life and only watched some of the movies once 16 years ago. 🤷‍♀️ So I have some famiiarity with the magical world set up (which is interesting) and the characters. But my view isn't rigid. Same goes for LOTR. Is it ooc idk/c

[kjesta]

honestly this is part of why i love silmarillion fic so fucking much. tolkien left us a smorgasboard of unfinished stories, multiple versions of the stories, and it's so fun how creative people get with it. is gil-galad the son of fingon, son of orodreth, some complete other bonkers theory, like one of elrond's "dead" twin uncles? amazing stuff, ppl go nuts in all the spaces left vague or unresolved.

[theoryofwar]

There are so many times when I'm reading a book and I feel like it had to have been fan fiction before it was published. Then I try to guess which fandom it was. I feel like Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall was fanfic before it got published!

eta: I bought a mostly alright translated ebook, but there are parts that need editing so badly and it's driving me bonkers. Is there a way I can make it into a PDF or something so I can edit it and keep it for myself? I won't publish it, I just need to stop Warren from randomly showing up with the characters name is Rain. I have notes on my kindle whenever fucking Warren shows up and a note that they mean Rain lol. This is when I want a physical copy so I can pull out a red pen!

[squirrels_oh_no]

I'm reading A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon and it felt like BAD fanfic and surprise the author is popular in the Reylo community!

[winter_lace]

Okay , seriously why the fuck is it always reylos getting published???

[eaemilia]

A lot of them seemed to be repped by one agent who just seems to stalk AO3 looking for her new clients lol. And after that...I think other agents and editors saw how successful Ali Hazelwood was because she had a built in audience, and they decided to go after other reylo authors.

It was the same after 50 Shades was a hit. A BUNCH of other Twilight fics were pulled and published, but eventually the trend died down, and I imagine that will happen this time too.

[juanitatequila]

gotta start downloading some of my fave fics from ao3 ASAP!

[purpleyamjam]

people suck esp the booktok idiots that keep on reviewing fics as if they were books. literally so dumb.

i really hope this doesn't bleed into other fandoms outside of dramione. also if i see one more manacled video on my fyp, i'm gonna delete the app lmao

[waffletaco]

speaking of, chatGPT and such are great fanfic writers.

I just put in a simple prompt, and i get instant story.
In one case, the chatgpt assumed 2 characters who aren't canonically gay were made gay (with no prompt by me), so it justified my head canon.

[alwayspolaris]

I would discourage the use of ChatGPT, especially for this purpose - the reason it seems to write fanfiction so well is because it stole a bunch of authors's writing, especially fanfiction which is generally public. This would be fine if no one was making money off of it, but these big companies are and are cutting real jobs for creatives.

[waffletaco]

eh, i dont make a habit of doing it, or really read fanfic in general anymore.

I just wanted a specific scenario dreamed up for a fanfic that doesn't exist.

[alwayspolaris]

It's not a crime or anything I just wouldn't give them the ad revenue if you can avoid it. There are a lot of communities for getting your specific scenarios written up if that was something you were still looking for.