Obligatory disclaimer: I don’t speak for every fanwriter in fandom, but I do know for a fact that I speak for several of them.
Books and fics exist in different contexts. Fandom has its whole other set of tropes, conventions, and expectations. Some tropes and conventions are common across different fandoms, but often individual fandoms have their own conventions and things that are only recognisable to the reader within the frames of that particular fandom.
As a fandom writer, we write for the fans within our little corner of the internet. We write based on their expectations, we interact with tropes and ideas from other fics we’ve read. Fanfic is a conversation between fans of a source, and are often products of each other. Taking fanfic out of its context doesn’t work - people not familiar with those fandom codes won’t get it.
Books are commercial products that are written over long periods of time, and have gone through many rounds of editing. That is not to say that all books are good, or that a lot of fanfic isn’t actually better than some published books because they certainly are. But books are longterm projects, and fics are definitely not always that.
We write comment fics for our friends because they were screaming about that new headcanon they have. We spend a single week writing a pinch hit for a fest because someone dropped out and we want people to have a gift. We write while on a sugar and feelings-induced high at 3 AM because that gif set on tumblr sent us into an emotional crisis.
And that’s the fun of fandom. As a fanwriter, that’s what I love. I don’t publish books, because that’s not what I want, at least not at this point in time. I want to have fun with my fandom friends and contribute to the fandoms I love with both more and less thought-out fics.
Do you know the best way to take away that fun? Take my fics and put them alongside published books on goodreads and rate them from 1 to 5. Because, suddenly, my fics all potentially have to hold up next to published books on a site that isn’t made in the context of fanfic. It doesn’t matter if my fics are rated 1 or 5 - it’s the pressure of it. It’s the knowledge that even the silliest comment fic I might write and put on AO3 will suddenly be put on goodreads and judged along with books that people have spent months or years writing.
If you want to put fics on goodreads - ask. Don’t put fanwriters in that position, because it’s also really difficult to get them removed.
reblog and put in the tags the real reason you joined tumblr no matter how horrible or embarrassing it is
