The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction

The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction is a 2024 essay by Elizabeth Minkel.
"In 2024, everyone wanted a piece of fic, from AI grifters to traditional publishers to ravenous audiences. Where did that leave the people who write it?"
The essay discusses "tech people attempting to strip-mine fic via AI" and the intersections of visibility, volume, boundary-crossing tropes, fandom and profit, and more. 
This essay is very much focused on online fandom, and LiveJournal as a starting point.
It is related to Fansplaining, a long-running podcast that ceased in May 2024.
This essay is very much focused on online fandom, and LiveJournal as a starting point.
From links to related topics and essays, see more context.
==Introduction==
These two "bookends" were SenLinYu, author of the wildly popular Dramione fic Manacled, decision to P2P, and the mining and theft by Cliff Weitzman, a tech bro who pillaged AO3 for personal financial gain. 
These two incidents are part of a bigger movement to monetize fanworks and part of "a broader discussion within transformative fandom. Commentary about the fracturing of online communities and the shortening of fandom life cycles."
 
==Some Topics Discussed==
* "2012 was the year fic was thrust into the mainstream spotlight via Fifty Shades of Grey, 2024 was the year it truly broke containment"
* decontexualization, the disconnect of fanfiction from fandom
* the grasping maws of tech bros searching for free content to steal and sell
* what happens when fanfiction scales? 
* AO3 & AI Generated Content (topic: scraping of AO3 for training AIs) (May 2023)
* Lore.fm (a text-to-speech app that advertised itself as "Audible for AO3" and was designed for use by fans to listen to audio versions of fanfiction) (May 2024) 
* Theft of Fanfiction Perpetrated by Cliff Weitzman, WordStream, Speechify
* creating fanworks has become impersonal and lonely due to lack of feedback and fannish engagement
* readers of fanfiction are voracious consumers
* creating, and reading, fanfiction used to be some to hide and be ashamed of; higher visibility and acceptance and made it ripe for the picking by profit-minded thieves 
* the good old days
* LiveJournal as a tightly-knit community where people could know each other, follow trends, track things
* recently, there is a "relative stability of today’s fic sites compared to fandom’s purge-and-migration cycles on the early web"
* fanfiction and visibility (this essay is available at Amazon (Audible and Spotify) 
* the vast amount of fanfics available
* too many platforms, too many silos makes for a fractured community
* algorithms are, like with everything, are directing your experience
* fanfiction's the increasing crossover with pro romance, similar tropes
* increasingly passive fanfiction readership 
* 50 Shades of Grey and the monsters it unleashed in 2012
* SenLinYu pulling Manacled to P2P in 2024
* fanbinding
* fandom and profit
* fannish entitlement
* a mention of * by Elizabeth Minkel at Wired.com (Feb 28, 2024)
==From the Essay==
 
==Reactions and Reviews==
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===Other===
===Other===
==Context==
Minkel's essay is focused on fandom from the early to mid-2000s and later, which reflects the effect of the internet's rise. It is also focused on LiveJournal, one of many fannish gathering spaces and communities. 
Many of the topics, however, are universal  one of many in a long line of discussions going back much further. These topics include fans concerns about lack of feedback, lack of connections between fan creators and fan consumers, the desire to keep fandom underground and safe from mainstream prying eyes, the desire to elevate fandom and make it more visible, fans making money on their own and others' fanworks, non-fans swooping in and trying to make a buck on fanworks and fandom, the tensions between print fans and early internet fans, privacy and fandom, the balkanization of fandoms, the proliferation of media fandoms which caused wider and more fractured communities and siphoned off interest and attention, 
===Related Topics===
* Archive of Our Own
* Balkanization
* Fandom and the Internet
* Fandom and the Underground
* Fandom and Visibility
* Fandom Content on Mainstream Spaces
* Fandom Migration
* FanLib (more tech bros on the prowl) (2007-08)
* Timeline of Concrit & Feedback Meta (feedback, communication as community)
* Feral (new fans, mentoring, gatekeeping)
* Goodreads -- Goodreads/Links for Further Reading (fanworks, discussion in mainstream places)
* The Impact of Blogging on Fandom
* The Impact of Streaming Services on Fandom
* Letterzines (the often close communities in them, a lot of conversation, one example The K/S Press)
* The K/S Netfan-Printzine Fan Wars (different communities, protection of fannish spaces, pros and cons of visibility) (1997-2001)
*  Social Networking and Embedding Brings New Challenges
* Zines and the Internet
===Related Meta===
* K/S: Freedom of the Press? by Alexis Fegan Black (1986)
* A Dangerous Trend? by Alexis Fegan Black (1988)
* Fandom, tradition, net by [E] (1996)
* Internet Fans Controversy Du Jour (Sandy Herrold) (1997)
* "Crossing the Line: 'Netfans' and 'Printfans'" (1998) 
* How The Internet Can Save Us, And Why It Won't Last by Mie Tsukikoushi (2001)
* Fanfiction.net: The Worst Thing That's Ever Happened to Fanfiction? ("Has our internet driven thirst for instant gratification pushed us to sacrifice quality?") (2002)
* Some very well-meaning and good-hearted people have made a mistake. by lanning (2002)
* Keep it secret, keep it safe by musesfool (September 2006)
* Those were the days by Gwyneth Rhys (greedy, ungrateful net fans vs older fans with manners and appreciation -- new fans' lack of empathy, understanding of history, willingness to help out, understanding of fan community, lack of feedback) (2006)
* How Fanfiction Makes Us Poor by cupidsbow (2007) - How Fanfiction Makes Us Poor: Posted Responses 
* Fandom Does Not Use Technology. Technology Uses Fandom by Morgan Dawn (2014)
* All this leaving tumblr talk is making me hark back to the LJ days of old, man oh man. by stardust_rain. (2014)
* (2015)
* Fansplaining: Happy Anniversary by Flourish Klink and Elizabeth Minkel (2016)
*It’s gonna be ok by cupidsbower (2018)
* State of the Migration: On fannish archival catastrophes, and what happens next by Greywash (2018)
* The Life and Death of Fandom Platforms by Casey Fiesler (2020)
==References==
Category:2024 Meta
Category:Fanfiction Meta
Category:Fandom & Profit Meta