Fic: Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World

by Jamison, Anne

  One constant in all of this, and it doesn’t just apply to fanfiction writers: you may be clear on your rules, on when you feel it’s OK to use the work, ideas, or words of another writer and when it isn’t; but to another writer, that act, the one you thought was totally fine, is beyond the pale.

  A Tale of Angst and Ice

  Some say the world will end in fire,

  Some say in ice.

  From what I’ve tasted of desire

  I hold with those who favor fire.

  But if it had to perish twice,

  I think I know enough of hate

  To say that for destruction ice

  Is also great

  And would suffice.

  —Robert Frost

  You might think the epigraph is a little over the top, but from where I’m sitting, it reflects the sense of elemental differences and high stakes that divided the Twilight fandom into what sometimes felt very much like armed camps poised to do apocalyptic battle—and with no miraculous hybrid vampire child to step in and magically charm them to peace. It got ugly—in private, anonymously, and eventually in public.

  AngstGoddess and Snowqueens Icedragon represent opposite and starkly opposed views of fanfiction and its community. One of these authors has gone on to earn multiple millions from her fanfiction; the other flat-out refuses to earn a penny. Each had enormous influence—both constructive and destructive—on the Twilight fanfic community, by extension on fanfic and fandom overall, and ultimately even on the publishing industry. Many—among them Time magazine—blame or credit Icy with the dramatic change that has led to a drive to commercialize or “monetize” fanfiction. E. L. James tends to support this single-author view of herself and her influence, but had she been a traditional author shopping a manuscript, Fifty Shades would never have happened; Fifty Shades was first published by a small press started from a fanfic website. Its editor there was a fellow writer of BDSM Twilight fanfiction (Tish Beaty, whose essay follows this one). It was cashing in on a popular genre within a hugely popular fandom. Clearly Fifty Shades struck a chord with the much (much) wider reading public, but it was not a one-woman phenomenon. As the long-suffering source (Austen) of James’ source (Meyer) puts it, James deserves “neither such praise nor such censure.”

  While Snowqueens Icedragon/James’ influence on the relationship between fanfiction and the publishing industry has certainly been more direct, AngstGoddess’ influence was also powerful and varied, ranging from the creative to the critical to the very mechanisms and infrastructure of the fic fandom. With regard to the commercialization of fanfiction, Angstgoddess is the poster child for unintended consequences. She didn’t just write the gateway fic—she helped build the gate. And helped open it. And nothing she could do, try as she might (and she certainly tried), could close that gate again.

  AngstGoddess wrote “Wide Awake”—the one Twilight fic that everyone read. She also reviewed, recced, and ranted. She helped administer and judge influential contests, and won them as well. She was on the 2009 fanfic panel at San Diego Comic-Con. She was intensely involved with The Lazy, Yet Discerning Ficster, a highly influential review blog active in the heyday of Twilight fandom. She was interviewed by the mass media, to whom she spoke intelligently and cogently about fic. She helped run the massive charity auction The Fandom Gives Back; she contributed highly skilled web design and expertise (under her web design brand name, AngstyG) to many fandom writers, including Snowqueens Icedragon. The site where Icy hosted “Master of the Universe” after she’d pulled it from FanFiction.Net, but before it sold 70 million copies as Fifty Shades of Grey, was an AngstyG site. In short, AngstGoddess helped bring about the developments in fic she most hates. Then she flounced the fandom in what she referred to as a “gentleblaze,” the implied “glory” absent and self-consciously ironic.

  The conflict between these two figures illustrates diametrically opposed views of fanfiction and also underscores what may be the biggest lesson the Twilight fandom teaches us about authorship: authorial intent has nothing to do with the effect stories may have. AngstGoddess would no more have helped Snowqueens Icedragon introduce massive profit to fanfiction than Stephenie Meyer would have helped her launch an erotica empire. And yet, here we are. The key difference: unlike E. L. James or Stephenie Meyer, not only will AngstGoddess never see any share of the millions her work helped create, she believes it would be ethically repugnant for her to do so.

  At first, the conflict simmered behind the scenes. In the spring of 2010, AngstGoddess agreed to design a blog for Snowqueens Icedragon, who was so well pleased with the work that she paid double for it. In the course of this project, the two chatted online on a range of topics from fandom authorship to publication to community ethics. When news of publication plans for what would become Fifty Shades of Grey hit, AngstGoddess tweeted excerpts from these conversations. Snowqueens Icedragon responded by posting more complete excerpts and “providing context” and some editorial comment. The tone of this comment suggests just how far this relationship had already soured:

  I just want to reassure you that [AngstGoddess] has taken these private conversations, selected quotations, distorted them and tweeted them out of context. I don’t want to editorialise about her motives — I think we can all guess what they are.

  For those of you with the time and inclination I have published these private chats so you can see for yourself just how dishonest and petty AG’s distortions are. I normally ignore this sort of stuff, and didn’t really want to engage with a woman who clearly has issues but I couldn’t sit by and let her slander me again. Neither did I want to get into a slanging match with the Queen of Fan Fiction but I don’t see I have much choice. We all know she’s a bully, but IMHO she’s crossed the line this time.

  Icy provided longer excerpts of these chats and gives her version of the events. The complete posts of both have long been archived on my course blog (some of these conversations between authors we were studying even occurred during our course). Icy explains that, in July 2010, AngstGoddess had emailed her about an idea for website that would host original fiction and charge a small fee per chapter, and invited Icy to participate. Icy had previously suggested she’d be interested in investing in something similar, but at the time AngstGoddess had been less than enthusiastic. Apparently this discussion is the context for Snowqueens Icedragon’s comment, as tweeted by AngstGoddess:

  Well don’t tell anyone – I have visions of being interviewed by Time Magazine for revolutionizing publishing . . .

  This strangely prophetic comment dates back to a longer conversation on web-based models for publishing original fiction that, as posted by Icy, seems generative and cordial. When the topic of publishing fanfiction comes up, though, a clear conflict emerges. AngstGoddess is very against the practice. The conversation turns to Omnific, the house started by the fanfic site Twilighted, which first published Sebastien Robichaud’s Gabriel’s Inferno and many other novels with fic origins. The house was still in its early days in 2010, and its creation was extremely controversial.

  (Note: The following excerpts are reproduced as Snowqueens Icedragon posted them, with typos, etc., intact for the sake of accuracy.)

  SAM [AngstGoddess]: i do. look at omnific’s creation. that is a huge black scar.

  ME [Snowqueens Icedragon]: Why?

  SAM: because okay, think about the fandom in terms of SM [Stephenie Meyer] gave us this thing and we’re making fics off her concept however loosely doesnt matter its a community of free give and take we have already given and we have already taken and now we want to milk it further and use the fandom to fill our pockets for something they could have had for free something that admittedly wihtout SM would not have gotten a second blink

  ME: Well . . . it’s not like we’re robbing her. And you’ll have to forgive me – but I’m still relatively new to this fandom

  SAM: no, but we’re robbing the CONCEPT of FF

  yeah i know

  ME: I don’t think so
. . .

  SAM: thats why i like to kinda show you the other side im just not certain you’ve seen this other, more logical side of the fandom

  ME: I just don’t feel as passionately about the fandom as you do.

  Frankly it scares the living daylights out of me

  SAM: i think you’ve seen a lot of your own reviewers, which is great, but they are only one side, and they want to support you. and you have to consider that there’s another side to the coin

  ME: Why?

  SAM: but the fandom made motu popular. you made it good, fandom made it popular

  ME: True

  And they’ve been able to read it in its entirety

  And I even did the FGB thing..

  which isn’t really for me cos I never, ever wanted to do the EPVO [Edward Point of View]

  EPOV even. I was bullied into it . . . though having said that . . . I have enjoyed writing it. So pushed my boundaries.. And it’s earned a few bob for ALS But I think you and I are poles apart on this.

  The two authors really couldn’t be further apart—on publishing fic and on the fanfiction process. AngstGoddess had donated enormous quantities of time and expertise to the Fandom Gives Back campaign, while Snowqueens Icedragon was apparently a very reluctant participant. AngstGoddess saw fanfiction as a collective endeavor; Icy saw herself as an author with readers.

  In an April 2010 conversation, AngstGoddess tried to explain her opposition to publishing fanfic, and her misgivings about her own popular story, which she considers to be her “poorest form of writing”:

  ME: So if harper collins came to you and said we would like to publish WA [“Wide Awake”] would you say no

  SAM: i would say fuck no

  ME: hmmm – I’m not sure if I would have that resolve . . . unlikely to happen though but as a calling card . . . hey . . .

  SAM: well WA is . . . progressively, my poorest form of writing. and its Twilight FF. i don’t want any aspirations to succeed based of something so silly.

  ME: I wasnt silly!!!

  SAM: i mean, i get your mindset. ive been there, honestly. but time in the community will change that

  ME: I paid £60 downloading it on to my phone . . . in spain!!!

  SAM: writing twilight smut is a little silly. . . . at least i consider it silly for myself. but that’s okay, because most hobbies are a little silly

  So, part of what we see in AngstGoddess’ response is the sense—deeply ingrained in many fic writers—that it’s somehow wrong to take fanfiction seriously. It’s fine for a hobby, but to succeed on the basis of a devalued or silly hobbyist form would be of less value. However, despite placing a low value on her own story, AngstGoddess places a very high value on the community.

  Snowqueens Icedragon, in contrast, is uncertain about the value of the community and her part in it: “I’m not sure I feel part of the community . . . I’m nervous of it . . .” In response, AngstGoddess tried to explain its value—a system of egalitarian exchange, an alternative economy:

  SAM: and you have to read and review. nothing frustrates the community more than an author who is only willin to take reviews and never give . . . i think in cases like ours, the community has given us so much, and we just have to remember that the relationship was meant to be symbiotic a lot of newly popular authors forget that i did once

  ME: I don’t know what you mean . . . ??? explain please . . . I am fascinated

  SAM: like . . . a reader means just as much as an author. we’re offering something. readers offer feedback, and authors offer free literature . . . it’s all equal in that sense no one is entitled

  ME: Yes I can see that . . .

  SAM: so they give and we take, and we give and they take but only being an author who takes makes it seem very imbalanced even though you give updates, you could also be contibuting to the fandom’s form of currency in recs and reviews which cultivates it

  ME: I see . . . I just don’t have time to read more.. If I do read—I review.. but only if I like—if I dont like I stop reading . . . Since I have started writing—if I do read I’ll review . . . but I just dont have the time . . .

  SAM: yeah i know how that is, totally

  This conversation is best understood as representative of divides in fandom that are much more widespread and see many gradations. In fact, investments in the community side of fanfic vary as much as opinions on any other topic regarding fic—that is to say, a great deal. However, for people who are invested in community, an individualistic attitude toward fandom writing can be hurtful and frustrating:

  SAM: i just get the feeling that you dont really . . . care about the fandom as a community whole. which is your choice, totally. and if that’s the case, and you arent really concerned with the foundation of this place we’ve all been able to visit and grow and learn, then yeah. publishing motu is totally what you wanna do. the only reason not to, aside from the fact that it has major legal issues, is that you have a respect for the community that made motu into what it is, you know? but if you dont really feel that then no one can make you feel it

  ME: Like I said . . . it freaks me out more than anything. I do respect and love my readers What I don’t like is the negativity . . . So I find my horizons getting smaller and smaller so I can avoid it

  SAM: well negativity exists everywhere. even when you publish it on amazon, theres still gonna be negativity

  ME: true . . . but I’m sure it’s easier to take with a big fat paycheck LOL.

  SAM: and negativity has its place. it’s what stops us all from monopolizing on ideas that arent totally ours

  The notion that “negativity has its place” as a check on ego, individualism, or bad behavior is a very fandom notion. It’s what drives wank and anti-fandom sites. It even, as we’ve seen, drives fic, as in, “I hate the way they did that. I can do it better.”

  These exchanges also underscore the extent to which misconceptions about copyright law are repeated with authority within fandom and in fact provide the foundation for the kinds of implied contracts fanfic fandoms run on, such as, “I’m OK donating my labor to your work because none of us can profit.” These misconceptions—that a work such as Fifty Shades of Grey could not be published because it once had character names and a few plot structures in common with a copyrighted work, or because it was written and posted in a fandom context—were taken as gospel by many. I have seen a number of highly respected fandom authors who had always been quite reverent about Stephenie Meyer announce they’d lost all respect for her because she failed to sue Omnific or E. L. James. In fact, as we’ve seen, the traditional gift ethos of fandom originated in part from fear of persecution and even prosecution by rightsholders, but the understanding of these traditions has changed over time. People have been quietly “filing off the serial numbers” of much less popular fic since—well, we saw the practice encouraged by Arthur Conan Doyle. But many writers never considered publishing their fanfic because they believed that trying to do so would harm the community, that introducing profit would break working fandom systems based on trust and free exchange. On the one hand, these implicit fandom contracts, derived from beliefs about copyright, constitute a classic “chilling effect”—one that kept all the profits out of the hands of fans. On the other hand, these beliefs fed creative, collaborative solutions as fans built their own community structures and economies.

  All these structures, traditions, and implied contracts, however, were based on voluntary participation and spontaneous community understanding. When it comes to writing and posting fanfiction, there are no posted rules that say only community-minded people need apply—and if there were, how would such rules be enforced? In the early days of both zine and internet fandom, as we saw, everyone had a hand in aspects of production and distribution, but these days, those mechanisms are already in place—in some cases (such as Wattpad, a “social reading” site that hosts both fanfiction and original work) they have been put in place by an explicitly commercial enterprise. All you need
to do is take a minute to get an account and you can post fic to your heart’s content. Paths to fic differ: having already tried her hand at writing novels, and enamored of a book that inspired her, James found other stories like the ones she wanted to write online. So she wrote one, and then another. Nothing demanded or required that she join an organization or donate labor in addition to her writing. And just as in the Harry Potter fandom when Cassandra Claire used unattributed quotations, different expectations and presuppositions in the Twilight fandom created enormous controversy:

  ME: Look I am not saying I will publish it . . . or pull it or anything.. I have to say I do not feel as passionately as you do about the fandom . . .

  SAM: that saddens me i think fandom has been a really great place for you a lot of your supporters are here

  ME: My readers have been a great place for me . . . I have some wonderful, wonderful readers and they are fabulous and I am beyond honoured

  SAM: but your readers are the fandom

  ME: but I see them like that . . . part of the fandom it’s like the old groucho marx joke which I cant remember about not wanting to belong to a club that you’re a member of . . . and I don’t think I’m being arrogant . . . I am just this one middle aged woman.. who wrote a reasonably interesting fic That turned out to be very popular . . . why I don’t know . . . and I can react to the readers on that level . . . as readers . . .

  SAM: you just have to get in there. read what people are saying and reacting. make yourself more reltable [relatable]. show them theres a person behind the penname and not just some lady sitting on a perch

  ME: I like my perch . . .

  SAM: the hate will be less

  ME: its safe

  SAM: yeah, but you dont wanna seem as though you think you’re above the community, you know?