Fan Labor

Fan labor refers to the practices and creative activities of fans, which may take the form of fanworks (e.g., fanfiction, fanart, fanvids, and so on), but also encompasses the labor of organizing conventions, fan translation, beta reading, providing feedback, editing fan wikis, and more.
==Origins==
In a 2011-2012 discussion on the talk page associated with Wikipedia's Fan fiction article, Wikipedia editors discussed the status of "fan labor" as a non-fannish term applied to fannish activities primarily by other Wikipedians (as opposed to fanac, which has its origins in science fiction fandom):
While this may have been true at the time, the term "fan labor" is certainly now in more common use in academic writing on fandom, and it is also used by some fans to describe their own practices. The academic usage appears to be more prevalent than fan usage.For example, searching the fan labor tag on Tumblr pulls up a number of results - but in a February 11, 2019 search, the majority are referencing academic articles on the topic. Google searches for the term present similar results. Some fans are using the term, but often in conversations from from or responding to academic writing on the topic. The term certainly appeared in scholarly writing pre-2011, though often in the context of discussions of user-generated contentFor example, see R.M. Milner's 2009 article Working for the text: Fan labor and the New Organization on Fallout fan labor.; this usage, while related, seems somewhat distinct from more recent writing on fan labor in transformative fandom.
==Academic Commentary==
===Transformative Works and Cultures No. 15: Fandom and/as labor (2014)===
Published on March 15, 2014, Transformative Works and Cultures No. 15: Fandom and/as labor considered different elements of the relationships between fandom and labor. Guest editors Mel Stanfill and Megan Condis wrote in their introduction:
This volume of TWC includes articles on fan labor in a variety of fandoms, including Fifty Shades of Grey, Chuck, Glee, and Tosh.0, as well as articles on fan sites, badges, and video games, and fan work in fandom's gift economy. The volume also includes a conversation about the Veronica Mars Kickstarter and crowdfunding, and several book reviews.
===Examples of Academic Commentary on Fan Labor===
This is a partial list of academic commentary on fan labor.
*Labours Of Love: Affect, Fan Labour, And The Monetization Of Fandom by Jennifer Spence of the University of Western Ontario. (2014, MA thesis)
*Fan film on the final frontier: Axanar Productions and the limits of fair use in the digital age by Sarah Elizabeth Lerner of the University of California, Santa Barbara. (2018)
==Fan Usage==
Fandom Trumps Hate, a multifandom auction first organized in 2016, used the term "fan labor" as one of the five categories of fanworks eligible for the inaugural auction: "fan labor, which includes but is not limited to betaing, brit/japan/america-picking, etc."Which Fanworks Are Included?. Fandom Trumps Hate. Posted on December 19, 2016. Accessed on February 11, 2019. The term has been used similarly by other fandom auctions (likely inspired by Fandom Trumps HateFor example, 1D Fanworks for Charity uses the same language for the categories of eligible fanworks as used by Fandom Trumps Hate, including FTH's language on fan labor. Many fandom auctions were inspired by FTH, using their materials (with encouragement and permission) to organize fandom-specific auctions.), including 1D Fanworks for Charity.1D Fanworks for Charity FAQ. Posted on May 12, 2018. Accessed on February 11, 2019.
In a 2014 fail-fandomanon comment, one nonnie described fan translation using the term:
In a 2012 Tumblr post, one fan used the term while discussing the value of creating fanart as an artistic practice:
==References==