The day that you understand that fanfiction has no literary/value difference to published literature and writing is the day you will understand exactly why readers and authors need a symbiotic relationship in fanfiction media just as much as the published author and their reader.
Right now, you have unlimited access to free literature.
I don't think a lot of you fully grasp the actual, true meaning of that. You are accessing literally as much content as you want, that you have had to do absolutely nothing for, for free. And often on a single website that you are also accessing for free, and don't need a hundred and one different kinds of log-ins or passwords or paid subscriptions to access.
If I want to read a specific type of story, I don't have to spend gas money to go to the bookstore that might not have the story I want, or funnel money into a blood corporation like Amazon to access it. I don't even have to pay someone for the time and effort and skill it took for them to write it.
I can go to my search bar. I can type in 'AO3' and I can access 141 variants of the same story for free and all in less time than it takes for my morning coffee to brew.
I am accessing content that cost these authors literal hours of their lives. Their time, their skills, their research, all for free, and I have to do absolutely nothing in return for it.
We take this kind of freedom and resource for granted, and even more so the people who actually enable us to have it in the first place.
Writers who talk about wanting engagement aren't being greedy, needy or selfish. They're not writing just for the 'clout' or whatever kind of half-cocked accusation you want to make. They're asking because engagement is what fuels more content. More community fulfilment. More productivity.
A lot of writers write for themselves, but they also write because its something they want to share with other people. Its a contribution to a shared interest. Its longevity to the enjoyment you experience within that space. Its a continuity of a limited source.
So many people sneer at fanfiction authors who offer commissions and it genuinely makes me want to rattle them all like a marble in a bean can.
Because you pay for books. Because someone took the time to write it. You don't sneer at the rows and rows of books in stores. You don't demean the authors who spent literal hours, sometimes even decades of their lives writing them.
People who write fanfiction are still authors.
Fanfiction is still literature.
Fanfiction's existence depends entirely on the authors.
Appreciate what you have. Understand the value in what you are being given.
Basic gratitude and respect is by far the absolutely minimum you should be giving in exchange for quite literally all the free literature you could ever want, on demand.
turnnoffyourmind
vaporwave
dailybridgerton
origamiaround
romaincrisis
gummygunk
