The Promise and Potential of Fan Fiction | The New Yorker

However it started, however you define it, and whether or not you read it, at this point you've probably heard of fan fiction (abbreviated as "fanfic" by its enthusiasts). The advent of the Internet, where anyone can distribute text for free, and the arrival of such all-ages pop-culture juggernauts as Harry Potter, have together meant that the amount and the availability of fan fiction-narrowly defined by Francesca Coppa, in her new book, "The Fanfiction Reader," as "creative material featuring characters [from] works whose copyright is held by others"-has grown spectacularly in the course of this century. So has its reputation, both because all things geeky, science-fictional, and fantastic now carry less stigma (or more cachet) and because authors with fanfic backgrounds have hit the big time. E. L. James famously converted her online "Twilight" novel, "Master of the Universe," into the 2011 blockbuster "Fifty Shades of Grey" by removing names, vampires, and anything else that might infringe a "Twilight" copyright, a move known in fanfic circles as "filing off the serial numbers."