Recently, there was a kerfluffle in a fandom for one of my favorite shows. The short version of it is that a fandom n00b thought it would be a brilliant idea to make an anthology of other people's fanfic and send it off to showrunners as a gift. This was supposed to be a compliment to them -- sort've a, "Look how much we love you!" gesture.

Some of you are probably going, "Sounds like a great way to honor the pros!"

The rest of you, those of you who've been in fandom for awhile, just issued a collective, horrified, "Nooooooooo!"

It was a bad idea. A really bad idea.

Fortunately, she created a community on Livejournal to discuss her plans, and fandom dogpiled on her with all the collective negative energy that a fannish mob can generate. It wasn't quite to the level of wank that Fanlib or Livejournal has managed to inspire, but it was pretty close. After the first ten pages of comments, I began to feel pretty sorry for the n00b. And I do believe she was convinced of the sheer badness of this idea, so disaster was averted.

However, this made me realize that for each us who've been in fandom since Kirk/Spock fanzines were sold "under the table" at conventions there's a couple dozen newbies who haven't a clue. Many of them are not aware of the unspoken rules. So here's a rundown of the potential minefields.

1) The first rule is, Do Not Ask, Do Not Tell.

Seriously. If you're writing fanfic, don't tell any of The Powers That Be.  

And I know there are exceptions to this rule. If you're writing anime or manga fanfic, I imagine the average mangaka would be completely confused by this rule because of cultural and legal differences between the west and Japan. (Watsuki actually solicits doujinshi from fans in the back of one of the Rurouni Kenshin mangas.) And there are certain Western authors who are all, "Yay, fanfic!" and even one fairly well known writer who publishes anthologies of his reader's fanfic and pays them.

But, as a general rule, don't ask if you can do it and don't tell them you did. Fanfic is a copyright violation, and additionally, it can be seen as diluting trademarks. So, if you ask them they have to say 'No' and if you tell them you're doing it they will probably order you to stop. "Stop that!" may involve a legal Cease and Desist. So, unless you're really, really sure the person or show is cool with it, keep your mouth shut.

If you don't say anything, The Powers That Be have plausible deniability. Without a doubt, they know fans are writing fanfic. Most of them have a pretty good idea of the content and may read fanfic for fandoms other than their own. Some of them may even clandestinely write fanfic themselves. And, with few exceptions, most creators do not want to stop the fanfic writers. But if you don't tell them, they can pretend they don't know about your fanfic and so they don't need to do anything.

It would be the rare creator who didn't say, "Stop that!" with legal force if someone dropped a book of fanfic in their lap.

2) The second rule is, be aware of the feelings of the creators you're stealing from.

Some don't care. I could come up with a fairly long list of writers, showrunners, editors, and assorted Powers That Be who've said they're okay with fanfic. Some even joke about the slash and the X-rated fic.

(There's a rather interesting discussion that is 900+ comments deep on Making Light between a large number of industry pros and fans regarding the subject of fanfic, with a number of notables weighing in. For those who aren't aware of this, the Nielsen-Haydens are editors of Tor, but, back in the day, they edited fanzines. Among other fannish things.)

Some creators have specific rules they want fans to follow. Generally, you can find out universe-specific policies by using Google or by talking to other fans. For example, Mercedes Lackey wants fanfic writers to sign a release and restrict themselves to print fanzines and J. Michael Straczynski decreed that there would be no Babylon Five fanfic online until the end of the series. And J.K. Rowling would rather that you not post adult fanfic in places that the kiddies can access, though I'd also observe that fans haven't been heeding this request and she hasn't been enforcing it. (See: Plausible deniability.)

My personal feelings on the matter are that fanfic writers should heed the wishes of the creators. It's simply a matter of being polite, even if the creator isn't inclined to actually pay their lawyers to stop you. I've actually written three Valdemar novellas for a fanzine. The fanzine promptly folded, and so the novellas sit on my hard drive and may never see the light of day. I like Misty an awful lot, both as a writer and as a generally neat person, so I'll respect her wishes. Simple as that. I won't put them online.

I will note that there are a few authors who are very, very anti-fanfic. There are certain books you just don't write fanfic about because the authors strongly, and in some cases, personally, object. With venom and lawyers. Certain authors are out and out irrational when it comes to fanfic, and you just don't want to go there.

If you've been struck by a great idea for a fanfic, do this: ask around and employ your powers of observation to see if that universe's owners object to fanfic. Don't be like the silly newbie I saw recently who posted an Interview with a Vampire/Buffy crossover to FFnet. Fortunately, this newbie was promptly greeted with wails of, "You fooool!" in reviews and she took the fic down.

(I'm hard pressed to see Joss Whedon having an issue with fanfic writers. However, Anne Rice falls into the category of, "Doesn't allow fanfic ever, has lawyers, uses them.")

If you can't find indication one way or another from an official source, the second best thing to do is to see if anyone's gone before you. Are there ginormous fanfic archives for that fandom with more users than some small countries have citizens that have been in existance for several years? Okay, you're probably safe to write fic for it. Proceed full speed ahead.

However, if you can't find a single archive, Livejournal community, fanfiction.net category, or even a mailing list or newsgroup? Hmmm. Time to ask around a bit. If there's no indication on the creator's personal web site (possible for authors; unlikely for big media) and no evidence that the creators are clearly turning a blind eye to the fic because there's ten million stories out there and not on C&D recorded, your next step is to find some fans who are active in that fandom and see what they know. It could be that the show or author is just so obscure that nobody's been inclined to write fanfic for it, or it could be that the author is so aggressively nasty about defending their trademarks that they will send you a C&D because you borrowed a bar from their novel, stuck said drinking establishment in a crossover fanfic, and then didn't even mention any actual characters from their book.

(For. Real. That happened to a friend.)

So ask around and network with other fans to find out if fanfic is acceptable in your chosen universe and, if so, are there any fandom-specific rules.

3) The next rule is steal from your betters, not from your peers.

N00bs make this mistake on a fairly regular basis. If it's okay to write fanfic derivative of Harry Potter, it's okay to write fanfic derivative of other people's fanfic too, right? Same thing, right?

Not really.

This usually takes the form of, "I love your original character (OC) and I'm going to write stories about them too!"

Some fanfic authors don't care. I'm one of them -- if someone wants to play with one of my OC's, go for it. Just credit me.

Other fans will rather strongly object. And by 'really strongly' I mean they may come after you with fangs and claws out, and a thousand of their friends backing them up. You don't want to be dogpiled by half of a fandom because that fandom's pissed at you because their favorite Big Name Fan is pissed at you because you stole her baby.  It's not a pleasant thing.

This is not always logical or rational, but if you want to write a story in someone else's personal fanfic universe, using their Original Characters, this is a case where you do need to ask. Politely. Privately. And with humility. And if the other fan says no, that's the end of it. Go write something else -- create your own original characters in the same universe.

Don't be that obsessive, annoying stalker fan who doesn't have a clue that they're hurting someone's feelings. Don't scream how evil they are that they don't want to share, and for love of God don't write it anyway, just ... don't.  

Odds are, if you're rude enough to push the point, after another fanwriter says, "No, you may not play in my universe!" You're the one who people will think is a clueless, gormless idiot. Fair warning.

4) Warn your audience of anything really icky.

This is somewhat situation dependent, of course. If you've written a story about Sam, Dean, and their dangly bits, and posted it to the X-Rated Brotherly Love Supernatural Archive ... you probably don't need to warn about the Wincest.  It's self-evident to the readers that their dangly bits will be mentioned in the story. Likely, if your readers are browsing the Brotherly Love Supernatural Archive, they probably want to read about the dangly bits doing what dangly bits do, so a warning would be rather silly.

On the other hand, if you're putting the same story out on Fanfiction.net or your Livejournal, a nice note indicating that it's "Sam/Dean" would be polite, plus a rating as to the actual amount of of Sam/Dean dangly bit exposure in the story.

Some people will argue that warnings amount to spoilers. I have mixed feelings on this. On one hand, it's very true that sometimes -- particularly with horror -- a twist or dramatic plot development can be ruined by a warning. On the other hand, if someone thinks they've found a nice het story with a little het smut about their favorite het TV characters, and halfway through it turns into an orgy of boysecks, chan, incest and abuse of food stuffs what come in spray cans ... well, that can be a bit disturbing to the reader who just wanted to read a nice bit of vanilla porn about their favorite characters. Potentially, it could trigger some very unpleasant reactions in the reader.

Warnings are about respecting the fact that some readers have specific topics that they wish to avoid.

As a compromise between "warnings functioning as spoilers" and "not warning at all" I've occasionally put my warnings on a separate page, with a link in the beginning of the story for viewers to see the warnings if they chose, and a note that the warnings for that story are also spoilers. I trust my readers to make that choice for themselves. Some people are hard to squick. Others would like to know that the intriguing crossover story they're thinking of reading involving also has an underage teenager having sex.

5) Don't put other people's fanfic on your personal web page.

This should be self-evident, and yet, twice this year I've had to go yell at a newbie because they made a web page of their favorite fanfic and one of my stories was on their site without my permission.

Please don't do this. It's not nearly as flattering as you think, and attributions and links to the source do not make it okay.

6) Recs are cool, until they're not

If you have a Livejournal with a few dozen friends, it's perfectly okay to link to someone's story and go, "This is the coolest story EVAH. I heart it so much. It's so full of win. Go read!"

However.

If you're a big name fan who also has a very high-profile blog, or you're a professional journalist for a major magazine who thinks that mentioning the titles of some neat fanfic would be a cool thing to do, or if the subject of fanfic comes up on a major web site with tons of traffic and you're talking about fic you like in the comments of an article ... ask. And think twice, and three times, about recommending a specific story. You do not want to give too much publicity to a fanfic, particularly one that's not yours.

I'm surprised by the number of people who should know better and yet still point their spotlight at a fan without asking. If in question, ask the fanfic author if they're comfortable with mention of their story in that setting.

See rule number one: Don't ask, don't tell.

The Powers That Be can plead ignorance and plausible deniability about the presence of fanfic if it's being discussed in little bitty blogs here and there. However, if a Major Magazine mentions a notorious fanfic by name and author, at best, that fan author's going to have some sleepless nights wondering if they'll get a visit from a lawyer. Because TPTB can't deny they know about the existence of that fanfic anymore.

And yep, this happens. A fan who was also a magazine reporter thought it would be a great idea to mention a very well written, very funny, fanfic that a friend wrote, in the context of an article about fans of that TV show. The article was in a well known magazine with a circulation in the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of issues. She didn't bother to tell my friend about the rec, much less ask permission!  My friend found out when other people started asking her if she'd seen the article.

Needless to say, my friend was a bit worried about that rec. (She bought lots copies of the magazine, but she still worried!) Nothing ever came of it, but it would have been nice if the author of the article had asked. That was way more high profile of a mention than many fanfic authors would have been comfortable with.

7) Don't "out" the fanfic writers.

Fanfic writing is a bit hinky, at best, in mainstream circles. If you have a friend who writes fanfic, please don't tell their coworkers, family, and real life friends how much you love their adult fanfics, at great length, with details. You may think that gushing about the fanfic writer's work is flattering, but to the fanwriter, it can cause moments of acute awkwardness and humiliation.

(This actually happened to me -- I was working for a rather conservative boss. We had a temp who recognized my name from fandom circles on AOL, back in the days when people routinely used their real names online. The temp proceeded to tell everyone I worked with, including the boss, that I wrote stories about Disney's Gargoyles.  He was particularly enthusiastic about the fact that they were Elisa/Goliath romances -- Goliath being a gargoyle, Elisa human, and you can see how conservative coworkers and bosses might raise their eyebrows at this. But rather than being discrete, he had to tell everyone just how good I was, and provided links so they could see for themselves after I said "No!" because he thought I was just being modest, and he even told them that my "vacation to New York" was to go to a Gargoyles convention. And my relations with my coworkers got very weird for a bit.)

Along the same lines, if you know a fanfic writer is posting stories under two different names, don't post on a bulletin board that, "Oh, you liked the G-rated story that Jane Plainsmith wrote? Well, she also writes as Susie Smutfiend!"

Because, umm, there's Google. And it doesn't matter how obscure the board is that you post the comment to, someone searching for "Jane Plainsmith" may then see that "Jane Plainsmith" is "Susie Smutfiend." And if "Jane Plainsmith's" identity is closely linked to her real life identity, and Susie Smutfiend is the identity she created so her friends, family, and coworkers couldn't find her X-rated stories involving Man O' War, He-Man, Orko and creative uses of cookie ingredients, she just might be pissed at you.

The bottom line is: use common sense. Remember fanfic is not exactly a legitimate activity, and can potentially get the writers in trouble. The pros don't want to know about it. We exist as fanwriters by the grace of their mercy. And adult fanfic is great, but can also be scandalous if the wrong people in a writer's life found out about it.

And please never, never, never mail fanfic -- yours or anyone else's -- to the a showrunners. Because the reaction you get will not be the reaction you want.