My thesis is brief, and my evidence is simplistic, so this essay will
be short.

In the world of fan fiction, authors forego standard methods of
payment such as money for the ability to pseudo-legally write stories
based on characters they love.  There are exceptions, such as those
who obtain express legal permission to write and be paid for their
stories (popular series such as Star Trek, Buffy The Vampire Slayer,
Robotech, Babylon 5, and Farscape have independent authors writing
stories for money based on another's creation), however the majority
of fanfic authors do their work for free.  Or do they?

Unlike the world of print, where the author is essentially cloistered
from his audience by a series of editors, agents, publishers, and
distributors, the world of fanfic is primarily an online phenomenon,
where the author has direct contact with her audience, and often acts
as her own publisher, editor, and distributor.  This creates a
different method of expressing the essential worth of the author's work.

In the print world, it is expressed in positive reinforcement via
contracts, monetary payments, praise from professional critics and
letters from fans.  Contracts and monetary payments are virtually
impossible for the fanfic author for receive, so more importance is
placed on praise from critics and responses from fans.  When the
critics and fans are often fanfic writers themselves, the weight
carried by even one response is magnified.

There is, however, a growing and disturbing element within the fanfic
community: the unresponsive reader.  This reader assumes others will
express their opinion for them, and think that the fanfic author, much
like print authors they read, are receiving their positive
reinforcement from the system that brings the story to the reader. 
This may be a symptom of a larger apathy, or worse yet, a sense of
entitlement, where the reader feels the author creates to serve them,
and that the act of creation alone should be enough to sustain them.

The worst fear any author has, aside from suddenly losing their
ability to write, is losing their system of positive reinforcement. 
But, as the number of unresponsive readers grows, this fear is
becoming a reality.  The number of responsive readers in any given
fanfic community is small, and growing smaller with each story that's
put out.  Communities with large audiences are ignoring what could be
called a civic duty as fanfic readers: responding to the stories they
read.  Even if a reader responds to one story out of every five he or
she reads, the situation will improve dramatically.

There is more to fanfic than passively reading because responding
takes too much time.  Even short responses of a few honest sentences
are weighty payment to an author.  Read a fanfic, either an original
or lesser-known fanfic, or one based on a series you're intimately
familiar with, and send a response.  This will cultivate a richer and
more diverse fanfic community, filled with writers that produce higher
quality stories, because they are properly motivated by C&C and the
knowledge that their story will find an audience.





Paying The Fanfic Author (c) 2001 Matthew Johnston.
All Rights Reserved.
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