Authorizing authorship: Fan writers and resistance to public reading

Abstract

Fanfiction has been increasingly thrust into the spotlight of mainstream publishing culture. With the rise of the internet; both access to and production of fanfiction have exploded, and what was previously a private activity has been both normalized and even co-opted into six-figure deals with major publishing houses. Communities of fan writers and readers have not depended on outside authorization; they resist such attempts, preferring to authorize themselves. This tradition of self-authorization has often created conflicts between fan writers and outside interests, both in academia and in the broader realm of “official” content creators and disseminators. Further, fan writing is unusual in that it is presented in both the private and public spheres; it is often available to all readers at the click of a search engine, but fan authors operate in communities that are often literally, if not figuratively, locked to outsiders. Recent incidents such as FicGate, in which students in an undergraduate course began to comment on fan writings on several websites as part of their assignments, polarized both fandom and academics in Fan Studies because it blurred the lines of participation on both sides. In another case, Amazon’s Kindle Worlds effort sought to monetize fan authors and fanfiction by licensing certain properties in which fan writers could legally sell their works—provided that they subscribe to stringent limitations on content. Surprising no one (except possibly Amazon) neither corporate franchises nor fan authors were particularly interested in this venture. Using these case studies in tandem with authorship theory, this essay will examine how fandoms effectively “authorize” and empower writers in their community and block out those they deem outsiders, and what this means for those who want to study their writings as a body of literature in their own right.