Fan fiction programs at public libraries

Submission Date:

Friday, April 4, 2025

Question:

I wanted to host a fanfiction writing contest for my teen department, as we have a lot of teens who enjoy writing fanfiction about their favorite characters and fandom. However, I know fanfiction is always a little tricky.

The idea was to set rules and guidelines, such as:

“Respect for Source Material: If using established characters or settings, submissions should honor the original creator’s vision, themes, and tone.

Originality: Plagiarism will result in disqualification. All work must be the author’s own, with clear inspiration rather than direct copying from the source material.”

The prize would be a gift card that was sponsored, not purchased. We wanted to publish these works on a small, local scale—hosted on our blog or website. However, I am starting to think that using public-domain characters and literary works may be the safest option, especially considering they are minors. A secondary question about publishing in general: if they are minors, is parental consent required?

Answer:

The member posing the question is 100% right: the copyright considerations of fanfiction are “tricky.”

A 2018 case in New York,[1] Conan Properties v. Sanchez, involves Ricardo Sanchez, a fan of “Conan the Barbarian,” who for around twenty-five Euro would send other fans a sculpture of a Conan character. Mr. Sanchez promoted his work on Kickstarter and other social media.

The company that owns the rights to the Conan characters sued Mr. Sanchez for copyright and trademark infringement. Mr. Sanchez, perhaps scared that the copyright police[2] were about to descend upon him, did not appear in the case to defend himself, and so the Plaintiff got a “default judgment” (a sort of forfeit win) and asked the court for the type of large commercial damages available for serious and willful commercial infringement.

The judge did her homework about fanfiction (including fan fiction for small commercial gain) and wrote:

[D]efendant is a hobbyist sculptor from Spain and a fan of Robert Howard, and, in creating his figurines as a tribute to the kinds of heroes depicted in Howard’s stories, he requested financial support from the community of Robert Howard fans to help fund and share his hobby. See Compl. Ex. A at 8. Defendant’s apparently meager revenue per figurine, see id. at 5, in a market that reportedly commands much higher prices, see Malmberg Supp. Decl. ¶ 11, suggests that the motivating purpose for defendant’s use was the prospect of fan play—as opposed to commercial gain, see Rebecca Tushnet, Economies of Desire: Fair Use and Marketplace Assumptions, 51 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 513, 527 (2009) (defining “fanworks” as “works created outside the major [*90] content industries by aficionados of a source text” and existing “because creativity arises out of a sense of play”). Such use is a far cry from the kind of purely deadweight infringement present in piracy and related cases. Indeed, as the Supreme Court has observed: “Fan sites prompted by a book or film . . . may benefit the copyright owner.” Petrella v. Metro Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., 572 U.S. 663, 134 S. Ct. 1962, 1976, 188 L. Ed. 2d 979 (2014) (Ginsburg, J.).

This was insightful on the part of the judge, but that didn’t get the Conan fan totally off the hook. Instead, the damages, which could have been in the hundreds of thousands, were limited to $9,000 dollars.[3]

While $9,000 dollars is a lot less than the damages in the typical “big” copyright case, it is not chump change. 

So, is there a way a library can sponsor a fan fiction event without urging participants to run afoul of copyright?

Yes!

As the judge points out in Conan Props., some fan fiction is so harmless as to be negligible infringement, and other fan fiction may even be “fair use” under copyright law.[4]

Although it seems counterintuitive, respect for the source material will make it more likely to be considered a “derivative work” (like a sequel or version in a different medium). On the flip side, personal touches that show the impact of the work on the fan’s life and put a new spin on it are more likely to be “fair use,” especially if the context is one of learning and participating in a creative event.

With that in mind, here is a sample participation letter for a Fan Fiction contest at a public library: 

RE:    ABC Library YA Fan Fiction Contest

Dear Participant:

At the ABC Library, we love it when people enjoy a book so much that they are inspired to create a work based on it.

To honor this creativity by our YA readers, we are sponsoring a “YA Fan Fiction Contest” for readers ages 12 to 16.[5]

As you may know, work that is clearly based on the work of another is a “derivative work” that requires permission from the author to publish or display. At the same time, under copyright law, work that comments on the work of others is allowed under “fair use.” 

This is a tough distinction to work with, but for this contest we simply ask that you follow these rules:

1. Your Source Material

If you are using established characters or settings to generate your Fan Fiction, submissions should transport the reader to a new perspective or location that makes the work your own. 

Examples: “Wings of Fire” set in the Adirondacks, or “Akata Witch” with a totally new character finding their powers.[6]

2. Originality

The work should be your original composition without help from other people (or AI). All work should be your own (you can work with a co-author if you submit it with both authors listed).

3. Non-commercial

You agree you won’t sell the work. We won’t sell it either! 

4. Publication and Display

You agree that the work may be published by and/or displayed at the Library. We will give you author credit.

To sign up, please fill in the form below, sign it, and send it in with your submission. Because this is a legal agreement, your guardian or parent must sign this along with you.

Submissions are due by DATE. Please submit them to INSERT with a signed copy of this form. 

Please make sure you keep a copy of your work, because we can’t promise your submission will be returned!

Winners will be announced [etc. with the logistics]. Because life happens, the library does reserve the right to change these dates, but we hope to stick to them!

Here are the contents for a sample form to include with the letter:

Name
Age
Parent/guardian name
E-mail Phone number Mailing address
What medium is your work (story, comic, picture, poem, video, etc.)[7]
What work inspired your fan fiction?
What different perspective or setting did you use in your fan fiction?
How do your changes affect or influence readers or viewers?
Please tell us anything else you want about your work or how you feel about the work that inspired you.
Do you agree that we can publish or display your work? This is necessary to participate in the contest.	YES/NO
Please sign here to show you agree to the rules in the letter and that the information you have given us is accurate:	Signature of YA participant:
Please sign here to show you agree to allow your child to participate according to the rules and information in the letter and this form. Thank you so much for encouraging their creativity.	Signature of guardian/parent:

You can ask whatever you need to make the contest meaningful; the purpose is to include the benefits of participating together with the creation of the fan fiction, which will strengthen a fair use of the source materials.

This will also educate the participants about the copyright considerations, which will be important as they grow as artists and creators.

Thank you for hanging in there as we reviewed the case law and factors to consider in such a contest. This is a great example of how things can be done when you put the right amount of thought and planning into them. The young readers in your area are lucky. 

Good wishes for a fun event that showcases reader engagement and creativity!

 

Tag:

Intellectual Property, Copyright, Public Libraries, Fan Fiction, Library Programming and Events, Public Domain