Dear researcher: Rethinking engagement with fan authors

Scholars of online fan studies have engaged with fanfiction since at least the publication of Henry Jenkins’ Textual Poachers in 1992, and our access to it has only increased and improved with the explosion of online fan communities and with the development of massive, easily searchable online archives like fanfiction.net and archiveofourown. org. Much of this academic research and analysis, however, has taken place with no involvement or even knowledge on the part of the fan author. This unfortunate lack of engagement ignores the ways in which fan author practice is different from that of published authors due to the nature of fanworks and fan authorship, as well as intrafandom codes of ethics and the inherent power dynamics of researcher and research subject. Using direct input from fan authors and readers, this article proposes a more multifaceted take on best practices for fan studies researchers.