For reference, this is what she’s talking about :

In conclusion: Fanfic is important, there’s nothing wrong with writing or enjoying it and the cast and crew of Good Omens are a gift.

I bind fanfic and other underground writing into real books.  I am a Guerilla publisher.

In a nutshell, the reasons why:

• A demonstrative statement on the validity of “fic” in general (and fanfic within that specifically) as a newborn genre of literature that has really only come into its own in the last 15-20 years.
• Disrupting preconceptions about what is valuable and worthy of being in print, much less published in a fine edition.
• An act of anti-capitalist resistance. Participation in the traditional gift economy of fandom. Most of my projects are volunteer and gifts.
• Preservation of fandom history and works for future generations. These books cannot blip out of existence by puritanical updates to a socmed terms of service. These books are acid-free, archive ready, made to survive for another century.
• Demonstration against censorship of fiction. Most of the books contain subject matter some people may find objectionable on various grounds.
• In summary, it’s a big Fuck You to power structures that silence people. Also it makes my friends so happy that they cry, so that’s nice too.

My book design is deliberately conservative because I am challenging ideas of what should be inside the book. The more a book looks like something a “real” publishing house would put out, the stronger and more subversive the statement it makes.

I am also doing a lot of research working on replicating the style of books from centuries past, and publishing historical fic set in whatever period, in an embodiment that matches. Colors, typography, even form factor as much as possible. I have done Victorian, Edwardian, Renaissance eras. 

Here are some various process pics. Books pictured:

WAR, CHILDREN by Nonymos (Captain America: Stucky)

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO by NymeriaKing (Star Wars / Kylux)

BLUTRUNST by IncurableNecromantic (Over the Garden Wall)

CHOSEN MAN by Sineala (Eagle of the Ninth)

I think the younger you are the more likely you are to be certain My Immortal was written as a joke, partially because it’s the progenitor of pretty much all modern Bad Fanfiction Tropes, so when you read it now you think “oh they were trying to use as many bad fanfic tropes as possible, it’s clearly a joke” even though those tropes exist to make fun of My Immortal. My Immortal could have been written as a parody of bad fanfiction but it made such an impact on that subculture that it’s entirely possible that it only seems like a satire because it’s the original thing being satired.

My Immortal could’ve been an intentionally bad fanfic but that’s not a given. The uncertainty comes from the fact that My Immortal was written in a pre-My Immortal world, and the only reason it seems like a parody now is because we already know about My Immortal.

The other reason is “nobody talks like this, nobody writes like this, it has to be someone making a joke” but the thing is, I was a moderator on a fanfic site when My Immortal dropped, and yes, they really really did talk like that. There is not a single line in My Immortal that would’ve been out of place in 2006.

• clown names drama
  
• a hitler kin troll blogger crytypes over people not liking their kin
• sixpenceee owns a child slave
• shitpost-senpai goes to a maid cafe and gets ignored
• piss jello
• that dude who wanted to own a human pet
• papatulus gets dragged
• Someone faked having HIV to write a HIV Hamiton fanfic and gets called out by a cannibal mermaid Hamiton fic writer
• a popular blogger gets called out for reblogging angry birds porn
  
• dandymeowth’s 16GB aphobe list

livejournal, fanfiction.net and ao3
which one were you?