Fanfiction has been one of the biggest cornerstones in fandom spaces. Popularized in the modern age thanks to Star Trek fan communities, sharing stories about people’s favorite characters has carried on. The rise of the internet only popularized the topic once dedicated websites were created to host various fanworks. That said, fanfiction stayed relatively away from the mainstream until now. Currently, you’d be hard-pressed to find a popular book that wasn’t derived from a fanwork posted online. It’s given life to the careers of a plethora of writers, who see fanfiction as a stepping stone to lucrative careers.
But for many fans, this new explosion of interest in fanfiction has degraded the craft, and for some, ruined it and the book industry at large. Fanfiction isn’t in and of itself bad, but because it’s derived from already existing works, the way it is consumed generally works in the opposite way of the book industry.
For years, fanfiction was an insular activity, being mainly regulated to dedicated websites and far removed from popular social media apps. That said, the quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic introduced a new wave of people into this community. Fanfiction spiked in popularity, but it also led to readers wanting to see more of what they saw in fanfiction in the wider book space. This led to romantic tropes like enemies-to-lovers becoming a mainstay in the Romantasy genre.
This isn’t the first time fanfiction has had this type of spotlight in the mainstream, but the sheer scale of its impact this time around is impossible to ignore. The influence of fanfiction has hampered the popularization of original ideas. New writers find it easier to create books that are derived from trending tropes than try to explore new things.
It leaves the industry in a difficult spot to evolve, when much of its audience is content to keep reading these books. That isn’t to say that every new book release needs to be stellar art that rivals classical fiction. Instead, leaders in the bookspace should take extra care to highlight creators that are putting out good original stories, and encourage new readers to break out of their comfort zone.
