The Professionals Circuit

Today's Professionals Circuit Archive is much like other online fan fiction archives. It differs, however, in its longevity, and the fact that it straddled both print and online. 
 
In the mid-1980s, print zines were already common in Star Trek and Blake's 7 fandom. But when stories were first being written for The Professionals in Britain, fanfic was mostly just shared from fan to fan. The "circuit" was thus a way of trading stories around without the formality of publishing them as zines.
The sixth issue of The Hatstand Express in 1985 was the first issue of that zine that that used the phrase "the circuit" -- up until then, fans used the terms, "the network," "the usual sources," and "making copies for people." At that time, fans relied on The Hatstand Index, a collection of 3x5 index cards, each with a known Pros story on it. In 1984, there were 300 cards in the Index. A zine form (The List of 'Professionals' Stories, or The Ultimate 'Hatstand' LIST, or The 'Now-I-Don't-Have-To-Do-This-Myself-Anymore' LIST), based on a database compiled by Sandy Springer, was published in 1992 by Sharon F.
The circuit had a Yahoo!Groups circuit_archive, as well as a LiveJournal profile of the same name. 
To see how "The Circuit" fits into Pros fandom, see: The Professionals/Timeline.
==Members List==
===Vidders List===
List of Pros vids on Circuit Archive: 
PR Zed 	Gwyneth Rhys 	Ancasta
Wicked Ways 	Broken English	Cannonball
Until It Sleeps 	 	Hazy Shade of Winter
Bohemian Like You 	 	Under Pressure
Cosy Prisons 	 	Heartbreak Beat
Forget Regret 	 	Reasons
Believe 	 	The Warrior
Love's Not a Competition 	 	
I Don't Know Why I Love You (w/Justacat)	 	
Bistokidsfan 	Josey 	Enednoviel
Tommy Gun 	The Barrel of a Gun	TNT
Mad World 	Striptease 	Fragile
Keep It Gay 	 	No Room to Rhumba in a Sports Car
Forever Young 	 	Weapon
Superman 	 	If I Were Gay
The Drowning Plains 	 	
Discovered in a Transport Lot	 	
LithiumDoll 	Mary S Van Deusen 	Media Cannibals
Devil in Disguise 	Alone (w/Kandy Fong) 	500 Miles (I'm Gonna Be)
Fields of Marigold	Be Prepared! 	Tender Comrade (w/Sandy Herrold)
Little by Little 	Eye of the Tiger 	A Fire Is Burning (w/Alexfandra, Sandy Herrold, Gwyneth Rhys, Justacat)
I Walk the Line 	The Gambler 	Detachable Penis (w/Alexfandra, Sandy Herrold, Gwyneth Rhys, Blackbird, Rachael Sabotini, Justacat)
Friday I'm in Love	Gravel on the Ground 	Call It Love
 	Gus from Cats 	
 	The Hunting Song 	
 	Mean Old Man 	
 	One Friend 	
 	Only the Strong Survive	
 	On the Front Line 	
 	Send the Marines! 	
 	The Tribe 	
 	Uptown Girl 	
 	Waiting for a Friend 	
 	When He Shines 	
===Authors List===
List of 221 authors published on Circuit Archive: 
*Abstractrx
*Aerye
*Agent Xpndble
*Ailcia
*Akin
*Alexandra
*Alison
*Amy A Morgan
*Ancasta
*Angelfish
*Ankaree
*Ann O'Nimus
*Anna Parrish
*Anne Carr
*Anne Higgins
*Anonymous 1
*Anonymous M
*Arduinna Finn
*Ashlea
*Asymphototropic
*Baravan
*Barbara Thomas
*Barbarienne
*Bistokids
*Bistokidsfan
*Blackbird
*Brenda Antrim
*Brenda K
*C Richards
*Callisto
*Caro Dee
*Cassidy Collins
*Cassie Ingaben
*Castalia
*Catherine
*Chiara Fantoni
*Chris
*Christy
*Claire Dobbin
*Courtney Gray
*Creed Cascade
*Crimson
*D Ramsey
*Dana Austin Marsh
*Dawn Woods
*Debra Hicks
*Debs
*Dee
*Derry
*Diva
*Dog Rose
*Dorcas Gustine
*Dorinda
*Dorothy Marley
*Doylebaby
*Draycevixen
*DVS
*EJ Pellham-Stewart
*Elanor Smith
*Elessar
*Elise Madrid
*Elizabeth Helena
*Elizabeth O'Shea
*Ellis Ward
*Elspeth Leigh
*Elvichar
*Emmy
*Enednoviel
*ET
*Fanny Adams
*Felicity M Parkinson
*Fiona Clement
*Firlefanzine
*FJBryan
*Foxcat
*Franni
*Garnet
*Georgina Kirrin
*Gloria Lancaster
*greengerbil
*Grey
*Gwendolen
*Gwyneth Rhys
*halotolerant
*Hambel
*Helen Raven
*Heliophile
*HG
*Ice Bear
*IM Adine O'Soar
*Izzie
*Jack Reuben Darcy
*Jackie Thomas
*James Walkswithwind
*Jane
*Jane Carnall
*Jane Mailander
*Janota P Walker
*Jay Trent
*Jennifer Lyon
*Jeroen Richards
*JGL
*JM
*JM Sherwood
*Joana Dey
*JoJo
*Josey
*Justacat
*Kathy Keegan
*Kathy Windrain
*Kazi
*Kazlynh
*Kitty Fisher
*Kris Brown
*Krisser
*KWS
*Lacey McBain
*Lezlie Conch
*LH
*Lily
*LilyK
*Linda
*LithiumDoll
*Livia Collins
*Lizzie
*Lois Welling
*Lorelei
*Lorraine Brevig
*Lozalong
*Luka
*Lynnmonster
*M Fae Glasgow
*Mac
*Madelein Lee
*Magenta Blue
*Maggie Hall
*Mahlia Belonn
*Mandragora
*Marrie
*Mary S Van Deusen
*Mauvemaz
*Media Cannibals
*Melanie Athene
*Meridian
*Merlyn Smith
*Merry
*Michelle Christian
*Mikey
*Minori
*Miriam Heddy
*MJ
*Mogs
*Mona Moore
*Morgan Dawn
*Morgan Stuart
*Mosby Singleton
*Moth2fic
*Nansi
*Natasha Barry
*Never Walk
*NN West
*O Yardley
*Olympian Heights
*OMS
*Pamela Rose
*Pandora Bachs
*PFL
*PJ
*PR Zed
*Python
*Quill
*Rach74
*Rachael Sabotini
*Rebelcat
*Rhianne
*Rimy
*Rob
*Rochvelleth
*Rosemary
*Rowan
*Russ
*S
*Sally Fell
*Sandy K. Herrold
*Schnuffi
*Sebastian
*sensine
*Shay Sheridan
*Shirasade
*Shorts
*Shoshanna
*Sihaya Black
*Slantedlight
*Snarkyllama
*Snow White
*Stew
*Susan Douglass
*Suzan Lovett
*Tallis
*Tarot
*Tauna
*Terence
*Tessa Rae
*The Hag
*The SCE
*Thomas
*Thora Arwin
*Tilla
*Titta
*TooLoose
*towerbridge2006
*uktechgirl
*VampyrAlex
*Verlaine
*Veronica
*Vesta
*Victoria Racklyft
*Wild Horses
*Windy
*Zoe
*Zoe Rayne
== Late 1980s: The Circuit Library ==
By the late 1980s, Professionals fandom had begun to offer zines, but most of the fiction was still on the "circuit," which by now had been gathered together in the Circuit Library. There were short-lived lending libraries in other fandoms: (Prydonians of Prynceton Lending Library for Blake's 7); a FK library; Camille Bacon-Smith's book mentions the lending library for K/S zines. Many cons have/had zine libraries, often including boxes of old circuit stories. Until recently, Ming Wathne tried to manage a fanfic archive, the Fanzine Archives for zines from all fandoms. None of them worked as well, or for as long, as the Pros Circuit Library. in the U.K. run by Sara S/Gryphon Press, and the primary U.S. version run by Nancy Arena and then later by Karen B.Source: Email from Nancy Arena dated July 16, 2012 stating she handed the US paper circuit off to Karen in the 1980s. The US library was initially called "The Hatstand Press Lending Library," but it too came to be known as the "Circuit Library. Southern California Pros fandom created their own satellite circuit to take some of the stress off of Karen. While the US and UK circuits had significant overlap, time, distance and the informal nature of distribution meant there were differences in what was included in the circuit library in each country. In addition, in the early days of the fandom there was some resistance to sharing UK circuit stories with the Americans. According to one UK fan, distribution of stories to the US was slow to start. There were tensions between some British and US fans regarding the quality of the US written fiction, the inclusion of Americanisms in US fiction, and the "right" of those not living in the UK to write about a UK show. To ease tensions, some UK fans increased the number of copies they mailed to the US.Article in Discovered In A Letterbox, Issue 13.
The majority of circuit stories were slash and were passed from fan to fan either in person or through the mail. The stories were written under pseudonyms such as HG, O Yardley, Meg Lewtan and Agent 6.9. Copies were originally printed using typewriter carbon paper but as the number of UK readers grew fans mailed their stories to a UK fan who had access to a photocopier at work.Article in Discovered In A Letterbox, Issue 13. As an interesting side note: UK circuit stories were printed on A4 paper so when the stories were copied in the US onto smaller letter sized paper, the titles and the author names were sometimes cut off. Fans would write what they thought were the titles and names in the margins with the info scratched out and corrected by subsequent readers. Pages grew more and more faded after multiple copying and, on occasion, the top and bottom lines were cut off during US photocopying. Some of these factors led to the creation of the US electronic circuit library (see below).
In the early 1990s, the U.S. library had over 1,000 stories. You could order up to 10 stories at a time once a month. It cost $12 a year to join, plus mailing fees both ways. (At 10 stories a month, it would take about 10 years to read them all.) The library worked best when you worked in unison with a partner or two, so that fans could double, triple, or quadruple the amount of stories they could receive per month. Fans would photocopy the stories and bind them. These bound stories would often be lent locally to other fans in effect becoming their own mini-circuit library. 
Since the composition of the circuit was fluid and ever changing, it was often hard to keep track of what was legitimately included and what might be a photo-copied story from a published zine. In May 1993, Karen B, the US circuit librarian, included the following in her updated circuit Library Master List: 
The U.S. Circuit Library closed down at an unknown date.
The U.K. Circuit Library was still going as of 2008, distributing stories to subscribers by physical post. It was run by Sara S. Sara, however, passed away in 2017.
One note: the library was the formal way of interacting with the circuit -- it was not the circuit, itself.
=== Transition Of The US Circuit Library===
The first US circuit library, started by Nancy Arena was informal and did not advertise. It was only with the transition to Karen B that the collection took on its more 'library' status and begin advertising in adzines. The US circuit library was "formally" announced in June 1985 (although much of the work of organizing and copying and mailing took place in 1984).Karen's letters to The Hatstand Express #2-4 (1985-1985). By April 1986, the subscriber base of the new US circuit library reached 70 people.Karen's report in The Hatstand Express #9. Even though Karen had begun advertising the circuit library in 1986, when she learned that an Australian zine Syndicated Images was running an ad for the US library, she asked that they cease and desist. See The Hatstand Express #12 (1987).
Nancy Arena remembers:
One distribution technique that fans on the West coast adopted was to pool resources to by pass Library loan limits in order to obtain more stories, make copies for one another, and then share. Each fan would borrow their 10 stories to make copies for 6 people. The other 5 friends would borrow 10 different stories and do likewise. Your 10 stories a month limit was instantly raised to 60 stories a month. Some used school or employer photocopiers to keep the costs down.
Morgan Dawn remembers: 
=== "In the Circuit?"===
As soon as stories began circulating beyond a few friends, the question of whether a story was "in the circuit" or not (and therefore could be freely copied and shared) became tricky. Overseas communication in the 1980s was done by mail and many, if not most, stories could not be traced back to an author who could be contacted to clarify the story's status. Even circuit librarians struggled with separating stories as fans pulled them from the circuit to be republished in fanzines and then later released them back to the circuit.
In December 1995, fans began debating on Virgule-L whether the novel Master of the Revels could be considered part of the circuit library and was therefore eligible to be retyped electronically. Confusing matters was that there were two different versions of the novel: one published in fanzine format in the US with color art and another version published in the UK without art and which was part of the UK circuit library. Even after fans confirm that the novel was typed and release chapter by chapter to the UK circuit and then, only later, was it put into a more legible zine format with color art, other fans insisted that the story should not be returned to the circuit. Complicating matters is the fact that the US publisher announced the zine would remain out of print (although she would sell photocopies at full price). The matter was finally resolved in early 1996 when the UK circuit librarian announced that she pulled the story from circulation after it was published in zine format. This exchange once again illustrated that the debate over who defined "circuit stories" could not be easily resolved. Source: Morgan Dawn's personal notes, accessed March 29, 2012.
As fans on both sides of the Atlantic became more adept at using e-mail in the later 1990s, both readers and librarians found they could better keep up with the changing status of circuit stories. The problem of anonymous stories and of stories written by fans who had long since gafiated would mean that the status of a certain portion of the library would always remain unresolved.
== 1992: The Electronic Library --Alex's Electronic Pros Library -- Proslib ==
 
In 1992, Virgule-L was formed. Almost immediately, the Pros fans on the list started to pimp Pros to the Star Trek and Blake's 7 fans on the list. Alexfandra was one of the first converted, and quickly became Primary Pros Pimp of the list. She and other list members occasionally typed stories in so they could email them to each other to make pimping easier.The first set of stories were offered to the Virgule-L mailing list in July 1993. Many were typed up by the "Houston Crowd" and included: Endgame, Consequences, The Anniversary, Siren, Hyperion to a Satyr, and Wrapped Around Your Finger. The majority of these circuit stories had no identified authors at the time. One list member forsightedly suggested that somebody should put an ad in a letterzine asking for copies/disks of typed stories as a way of leveraging circuit stories that were already sitting on hard drives. 
Alex maintained a list of these stories and coordinated typists, so that no one typed a story twice, and by late '93, it was known as Alex's electronic Pros library.Other names were initially suggested (most in jest): "Project/Slut-enberg" (named after Project Gutenberg which had just started; "PROSE - PROfessionals Slash Endeavour"; and "Project Scottish Cow" (after Cowley).
(People also typed in stories when they noticed the Library copy they had was almost unreadable -- clean copies were made available to Karen B to use in the circuit as she saw fit.) When a typist sent Alex a new story, Alex sent the story out to everyone on the Professionals story list. (This list, now called Proslib after many hosting changes, still exists, and is still used to distribute newly typed-up circuit stories, as well as for posting of new stories.) At this point, there wasn't an organized effort to put all of the Circuit Library online. (A side note is that many fans at that time were still wary of the Internet, and one person called Alex a "danger and a menace to fandom" for making the stories available electronically.)
Alex explained the operation of the electronic library in an email to the Virgule-L mailing list on December 27, 1994:
In May '95, with about 140 stories, novellas, and novels typed in, Alex gave up the Online Circuit Library and D. Ramsey took it over. D. Ramsey was the new broom, motivated to "make something" of the library. A month later, in June '95, D. Ramsey mentioned on Virgule that she was planning to acquire a password-protected FTP site, so that people could download their own Pros stories instead of making her mail them out.
== 1996: The Professionals Online Circuit Archive ==
Later in 1996, Meri began the Sisyphean task of getting permission from Pros authors to put their stories on the web as The Professionals Circuit Archive (wayback archive links here). Pros fandom was still somewhat suspicious of the Internet, and it was her tireless efforts to contact authors personally (often through snail mail) and persuade them of the benefits of permitting their stories to be archived online that made the archive possible. It was slow going, not just to find authors to agree, but to get the stories themselves typed up. The online archive went live on April 19, 1998 on Geocities. By December 31, 2003, there were approximately 700 stories in the archive.About the Professionals Circuit Archive, accessed October 31, 2008. By 2009, that number had grown to 1900.
In 2004, the archive was turned over to Justacat. She completely redid it as an automated archive, with a search engine to make stories easier to find. Unlike most other automated archives, though, Justacat didn't open uploading to anyone else; she still uploads every story herself. This is to prevent fans, in an attempt to be helpful, from adding circuit or zine stories to the archive that their authors haven't given permission for. Stories from the circuit are still being added as well, with permission. Currently, from drabbles to novels, the archive has 1,963 fanworks archived -- not just fanfic, but also fanart and vids, making the Circuit Archive one of the most complete fandom archives on the web.
And yet, even in 2008, the electronic library (available by joining the email group, or ordering a CD of its contents) has many stories that are not (yet?) available on the online Archive.
The Circuit Archive may have fallen into limbo as the last story that Justacat uploaded was in September 2010. In the meantime, The Hatstand Automated archive (which allowed authors to upload their fiction directly) opened in 2008 but was offline by August 2017 (with the last fic being uploaded 2 years previously);The Hatstand Automated archive]
See: 
== Controversies ==
===1985: The Circuit vs Fanzines===
Perhaps because Pros fandom started off by exchanging fanfiction through the circuit, the introduction of fanzines was not greeted with open arms. There was extensive discussion of this issue in the issues of The Hatstand Express. Below are only a few selections from that discussion, covering a wide range of topics.
Some were conflicted about the idea of Pros zines:
More concerns about zines, and with a focus on cost:
A fan writes of the democratic nature of the circuit:
About zines and exclusivity"
Regarding zines and the threat of change to some fans' influence:
A BNF writes:
Another fan writes:
And when other fandoms would periodically debate the problem of zine piracy, the Pros circuit was held up as both an example of how to combat piracy as well as a warning of how such an informal distribution method could "destroy" a fandom. 
The truth fell somewhere in between - while fanzines did cut into the availability of circuit stories, the Internet had a bigger impact on both the paper circuit and printed fanzines. In the end, the direct reader-writer connection via electronic means won the hearts and minds of fandom.
=== 1993 Zine Piracy Discussions===
A Pros fan commented on the 1993 zine piracy controversy:
===1995 Discussions Regarding Archiving and Permissions===
A firestorm erupted over placing the works of writers into cyberspace without permission. (The level of hysteria was high: "All it would take would be an English-speaking hacker to get in, recognize the characters and splash it all over the news.") There were complaints that these fen generously offered their creations to Karen B's library, to be PRIVATELY circulated among Pros fans; to which other fans responded that circuit does NOT equal "Karen B's library." 
Fan comments touched the fact that many stories couldn't be verified as having permission (something virtually impossible to do what with pseudonyms, the huge number of stories labeled as being by Anonymous) shouldn't go into any electronic storage/distribution site, the incompleteness of fics due to The Saga of the Missing Pages, visibility regarding slash both to wider distribution due to the Internet, the underground nature of fandom, and much more. 
==== A Case Study: "Waiting to Fall" As Discussed in "Late for Breakfast"====
One example of discussion was the story Waiting to Fall. In 1995, a fan in Late for Breakfast #26 alerted other fans that this enormous novel was being retyped with the goal of accuracy and of increased distribution: 
Many fans in Late for Breakfast #27 responded to "STOP PRESS." 
Some sample comments:
Some of the typists deserve fan awards -- it took Jan Levine three years to type the 615 pages of Waiting to Fall, and in the end, she did have permission from the original author. At the time, this was probably fandom's largest novel, and still more than twice as large as any other Pros story in the Professionals Circuit Archive.
The argument finally broke into two sides -- did we have the right to move other people's intellectual property to a new format? And was putting stories on the 'net, even on a protected site, taking the chance of "outing slash" in some horrible way?
In the face of this, the FTP plan was abandoned, and old Pros writers started making their wishes known about electronic copies. In January 1996, authors O Yardley, HG, E.T. and several other British authors asked not to have their stories emailed, but they were okay with them being snail mailed on diskette. They may have been confused over how the electronic circuit worked, not understanding that stories were only being shared by email or mailed via floppy diskettes. The fact that few of the UK writers had access to email or the Internet made communication difficult and rife for misunderstandings. D. Ramsey promptly removed the stories from the electronic circuit and with the help of a long-time fan who knew the UK authors, sent them a paper letter introducing herself, outlining the now three year old project and answering any questions and concerns. All four authors eventually allowed their work to be be both emailed and later posted online, but it took years before they were comfortable enough to allow it. Source: Morgan Dawn's personal notes; D. Ramsey's message to fandom re the status of the online circuit dated January 26, 1996, accessed April 12, 2012.
====Distribution on Disks====
In October 1995 Morgan Dawn brought the Pros Online Library on her laptop to Zebracon for people to copy for themselves. In February of '96, she did the same at Escapade. There were roughly 200 stories, and they fit on 11 formatted IBM diskettes. 
The diskettes remained a key way to distribute the Online Library for years; after signing up for the email story list, you could send D. Ramsey either a set number of blank disks (which grew as the Online Library grew) or enough money to cover the costs of disks, and she would send you the entire library back, catching you up to the point where you'd joined the email list and started saving them yourself. (This provided a very handy way to locate stories -- each disk was numbered, and the same stories were always added to the same disks, so you could tell someone to check Disk 17 for the story they were looking for.) Later, when home-burned CDs became available, the Online Library switched to CD for distribution -- but still in "disk #" folders, to keep things consistent. A story on diskette 17 would be in folder "Disk 17" on the CD. As of September 2013, the Pros CD was up to Disk 125. Link will take you to the current version of the Proslib CD Index; reference link; reference link (September 21, 2013).
In Mar 2000, Deb R. created the Yahoo email group Proslib to distribute the stories online. As of March 2012, it was still active and under moderation by The Hag, who continued to send out the Pros Circuit stories on CD disks. At that time, the Proslib mailing list remained the main method of distributing both old and new circuit stories. Still, with the explosion on websites, Livejournals and online archives, most new stories were posted online and never made it into the "circuit."
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