The Changing Market for Fanfiction

amazon.com

Institutions are the “rules of the game” that influence choices.
     How is the market for fanfiction changing?
           The articles I used are Comicverse.com(Is there a market for fanfiction) by Amanda Michalak and Wired.com(Publishers are warming to fanfiction) by Rachel Edidin. They both talk about the shift that publishers have taken, from disregarding fanfiction as strange and unprofessional, to seeing the potential in the writers and the profits. 

           Publishers have taken a notice of fanfiction and the amount of potential writers and ideas that come from it. Edidin says that “Literary publishing's uneasy relationship with fan fiction has been complicated by the realization that fandom is a huge potential market—one stocked with both prolific authors and enthusiastic readers.” With this new door of opportunity, we get books like “50 shades of grey” by E.L. James and “After” by Anna Todd. The only problem… copyright. With publishers publishing fanfiction the problem resides in renaming everyone, taking out parts of the story because it’s too much like the original or talks too much about its plot. The effort, and the social stigma that I mentioned before, may be too much of a con for some publishers. But others, like “Big Bang successfully raised over $50,000 on Kickstarter in November to fund its first wave of books.” (Edidin) This could be an indicator that the flood gates are opening and the only wall separating writers from fanfiction writers is coming down.

          “Fanfiction is mostly published pseudonymously, and the stigma surrounding it often causes writers to keep their professional and fan identities carefully compartmentalized.”(Edidin) With the slow moving waves to getting rid of that stigma, writers from everywhere will be taken more seriously and more books will be published. Instead of fanfiction being free online, writers will actually get a chance to put their name out there. Readers will get a chance to see themselves on the mainstream, not just under scrutiny and unrecognized. Fanfiction will get its roots in the ground and become another from of professional writing that people can enjoy and support those writers. Fandoms give writers a chance at being appreciated for their work.

         Amazon has also made way for fanfiction to be out there without the problem of copyright. It has created a way for fandoms to write fanfiction for money and not sacrifice any details. How? Amazon and certain authors are working together by giving fans permission to write about their characters and settings. This gives way to whole new level of fanfiction writing. No one is punished for making it, but actually encouraged to.

 “With websites that allow readers to view their works for free, there is no dispute over copyright because the authors are not making a profit from somebody else’s characters, worlds, or lives. Kindle Worlds is the only resource for fanfiction authors to publish their works in “print” form without sacrificing certain details of their work.” (Michalak) 

With this the creation of fanfiction will be less stigmatized. Writers will get their name out there, and readers will get their alternate endings and interactions and expansions of the universes they love.