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I notice quite a few people here have avatars that contain images that might be copyrighted... has everyone gotten permission from the creators to use those images?
I am not, in general a fanfic fan. There is too much good original stuff out there for me to spend time reading it (For the same reason, I generally avoid media fiction). I do however often use myths, stories and other sources as the inspiration for Bed Time Stories I tell my three year old.
That being said, I think fanfic serves a number of useful purposes. The most valuable might be that it serves as a training ground for authors. People learn by imitating what they have seen others do. I suspect most authors started to train their imagination by imagining new stories in universes they already had encountered... even if they never wrote a single word down. Using fan fic, they can hone other writing skills in a fairly comfortable world where they can avoid the heaviest lifting of creating a unique world with unique characters. Later they can transition to doing all the work themselves.
Should they publish? Who knows. That being said, I have yet to see a study that shows a correlation between a universe existing on fanfiction.net and a drop in sales for books set in that universe.
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Bill
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