How fan fiction went mainstream, from Heated Rivalry to Fifty Shades of Gray
By Danielle Hewitt
Published on April 11, 2026.
Fan fiction has become mainstream, with sites like Archive of Our Own, or AO3, becoming a platform for publishers to find new authors. The popular website allows readers to read and write about their favorite fictional characters, with over 10 million registered users. Fan fiction is often derived from or inspired by preexisting works, such as Percival Everett’s James, or Huckleberry Finn fanfic. Fanfiction.net also brought together fandoms and suggested that if fanfiction.com were created by librarians, it was clear it was created by fanfiction creators. The Kahuna that became the juggernaut was 50 Shades of Grey, which was actually Twilight fan fiction. Despite this, author Christina Lauren and Christina Hobbs, who met writing Twilight fanfiction, said they no longer feel threatened by the stigma of fan fiction as they enter the traditional publishing world.
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