On September 23, 2025, SenLinYu released their debut novel, Alchemised. The book burst out onto social media, gaining massive popularity, especially on BookTok. But this popularity was neither sudden nor unexpected. Anticipation for this book began mounting since it was announced. In fact, this story captured the hearts of readers long before it was ever called Alchemised — in the form of a fanfiction posted to Archive of Our Own. This fanfiction, then called Manacled, paints an alternate-ending, enemies-to-lovers tale between Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger of the Harry Potter series, and comes in at over 370,000 words.

SenLinYu is not the first to take a fanfiction from the corners of the internet and bind it up for the masses. This has been an increasingly common occurrence over the years. Some of the most prominent examples are E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey, which began as a Twilight fanfiction, and Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis, originally a ReyLo fanfiction. These books have all garnered large fanbases. But along with the growing trend comes larger questions about fanfiction and the publishing industry as a whole. Are these book deals opening up a world of possibilities or should the fanfiction world remain a cherished fan space, separate from the publishing world?

The Evolution of Fanfiction

Long before the advent of the internet, fans were inspired by their favorite franchises. If you consider any retelling a fanfiction, which by definition, they should be, then fanfiction has existed since before Shakespeare. Then there were Star Trek zines, popular at fan conventions in the 1960s. And then the big turning point: the internet. Now fans could readily post novel-length fanfictions for people across the world to enjoy.

Fanfiction became so well-loved that whole websites became dedicated to its proliferation. Most fans will be familiar with sites like Wattpad and Fanfiction.net, but arguably the most popular of them all is Archive of Our Own (AO3). With an extensive tagging system and search functions, AO3 allows users to find stories about even the most niche of fandoms. For many people, fanfiction is much more than a spinoff of an original work. It’s a creative outlet that allows both readers and writers of the medium to reimagine their favorite, or even least favorite, characters.

For all the criticism that these works receive as being trashy, explicit, and badly written, there are all kinds of positives to them. For one, many fanfictions contain zero explicit content and even add more nuanced plot lines to the original work. There are also plenty of examples of well-written fanfictions if one cares to find them. But even the badly written ones have their upsides. To think that some young person is out there writing pages upon pages of content and bravely posting it for the world to see. And to think that some day, armed with newly honed writing skills, their writing might be found on shelves in bookstores. The creativity that fanfiction inspires within fandoms isn’t to be underestimated.

The Fanfiction to Published Author Pipeline

So is the fanfiction to published author pipeline a good or bad thing? Like anything, it has its pros and cons. Not every fanfiction is ready to be published, even with reworks to avoid copyright laws and editorial polishing. But then again, I’m sure many readers know completely original works that they feel shouldn’t have been published. Certainly, the issue doesn’t only apply to fanfiction-derived stories. There is valid criticism in that some books that started out as fanfictions are too similar to the original works. This can create an influx of cookie-cutter stories when what we really need is fresh new voices. But others, like SenLinYu’s debut, aim to separate themselves from the fanfiction. Instead, they use it as a foundation for unique worlds and characters. SenLinYu says, “The priority is to try to tell a similarly moving story, but to people that haven’t already experienced it once.”

Retellings are not new in any way. As SenLinYu points out, Greek retellings don’t receive half the flack that fanfiction-derived novels do. At the end of the day, both are new takes on an already told story. The difference is that Greek myths are held in high regard while fanfictions are looked down upon. But both have the capacity to be either drab remakes or inspiring interpretations of the source material.

It doesn’t seem likely that the fanfiction writers to published authors trend will stop any time soon. So long as copyright laws are abided by, these books and their authors deserve a chance to succeed like any others. In a publishing industry that can be cutthroat, this trend helps new authors get their foot in the door. Fan spaces outside the mainstream have and will always exist, regardless of how many fanfictions become published books. So while our little fandom secret might be out, sometimes its good to share the love.