Now that some authors are taking their works down or locking them to archive-only, I'm seeing some conversation here and there about "does it solve anything," "won't it make it worse?" and so on.
But that's not the point.
I mean yes, we as authors are trying to do what we can to minimize access to our works by people who are only there to take it and turn it around for their own profit. The binders and profiteers on Etsy selling fandom-based merch and bindings to make a profit while the people who actually wrote the stories get nothing, and who suddenly have to worry about litigation, because these people are drawing attention to the works we're creating in other people's intellectual paddling pools... those people are the problem.
But we don't have a lot of options as authors, and at the end of the day, we have to protect ourselves, and our hearts, and our minds.
That's really the crux of it. It's not just about flipping a switch and turning on or off your fandom works, that's the "easy" part.
It's about caring. It's about having poured your heart and your time and your love into this thing for free, in your free time, just because you wanted to share in the community of people who love the same things you do. It's about the energy you've spent. It's about the creativity and time you've poured into these works with no expectation of anything but maybe finding some other people who were hoping to read a story exactly like the one you happened to write.
When you come to a place for enjoyment and love and sharing, and it becomes a constant battle against bad actors who chip away at your faith and your love and your enjoyment, you stop wanting to spend your time there. That, at least for me, is what this is about.
It's hard to want to keep writing for a fandom when its worst actors are doing their damnedest to suck every ounce of joy from it. There are other fandoms, there are other outlets. There are things that I could spend my little free time on that won't feel like such a constant battle.
All this to say I don't blame anyone that's washing their hands of the whole affair. Riding off into the sunset with a pair of sunglasses on honestly feels like it would be freeing at this point.
