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The article The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction by by Elizabeth Minkel on fansplaining.com covered one of the topics I plan to moderate at Escapade this year. The lack of reader engagement with the authors. She did a great job expressing my growing disquiet as I see more authors bring this up as an issue. T
I consider reader engagement with the author one of the fundamental differences between "published" for profit fiction and fan fiction. No one expects if they write to Stephen King that they might make a life long friend, but I've made so many friends writing to authors, artists, vidders, and other fellow readers in fandom. Basically, if the author hasn't disabled comments on their Ao3 posted story I assume they want to know if people read and liked their fic, or at least a thank you for sharing what they wrote.
She also brought up other information that I didn't know was happening in a broader fandom sense.
I consider reader engagement with the author one of the fundamental differences between "published" for profit fiction and fan fiction. No one expects if they write to Stephen King that they might make a life long friend, but I've made so many friends writing to authors, artists, vidders, and other fellow readers in fandom. Basically, if the author hasn't disabled comments on their Ao3 posted story I assume they want to know if people read and liked their fic, or at least a thank you for sharing what they wrote.
She also brought up other information that I didn't know was happening in a broader fandom sense.