If you’re familiar with Fifty Shades of Grey or The Idea of You, you may also be aware of the “fanfiction-to-bestseller” pipeline: the phenomenon by which a writer who previously specialized in fanfiction comes into mainstream success. For E.L. James (who wrote Fifty Shades of Grey), Robinne Lee (who wrote The Idea of You), and similar authors, their experience has perhaps not been unlike that of their characters: swept off their feet into exciting new lives of riches and recognition. But instead of Prince Charming — or Christian Grey, as it were — the party responsible is none other than their fans… or rather, the people in their fandom of choice.

Indeed, in many ways, the journey of the “fanfiction-to-bestseller” author is fascinatingly unique. Not only is this path totally different from the publishing routes most people would take, but each author’s experience also depends on the fandom they’re writing in, their specific approach to the narrative, and whether they intend to create more works in the same vein.

With that in mind, there are a few clear commonalities among the fanfiction success stories of the last few years. Let’s have a look at the key elements of success among these famous (and infamous) fanfic-writers-turned-bestselling-authors.

Huge Fandoms and Popular Pairings

This first one is a given: authors who have turned their fanfiction hobby into a publishing career, have typically been writing for a massive fandom — one with enough people (and contemporary relevance) to give their work momentum. Furthermore, they were writing about characters — typically romantic pairings — that the fans like and feel invested in (that is, not random tertiary characters or pairings to which they’re largely opposed).

That said, these elements have more variation than you might think. The major fandoms which have spawned publishing success run the gamut of books, TV, film, and more … and their most popular “ships” are not always those you’d anticipate.

Take Ali Hazelwood, whose debut novel The Love Hypothesis famously originated as Star Wars fanfiction — pairing Rey, the protagonist of the new Star Wars trilogy, with Kylo Ren, Darth Vader’s grandson and the main antagonist. Not the most intuitive couple, you might say… but as anyone involved in today’s Star Wars fandom can tell you, “Reylo” is far and away its most popular ship. Something about the enemies-to-lovers dynamic combined with the high stakes of their universe (plus, in all likelihood, the fact that they’re played by attractive actors) has made Reylo one of the most celebrated fictional pairings of the 21st century — and Hazelwood is far from the only Reylo writer to have made the savvy switch over to publishing.

Then again, in other fandoms, the most popular pairings are unusual not because they involve adversarial archetypes (as with Reylo), but because they involve characters who may not even appear in the original story: “OCs” (original characters) who are invented by the authors. Using OCs allows readers to better project themselves onto these characters, imagining that they are the one romantically entangled with the hero — a scenario which has obvious appeal.

OCs are especially popular in fandoms with strong male leads and no clear female counterparts, like some DC/Marvel comics, or in the One Direction fandom (which we’ll unpack more in a bit). And while these characters are often criticized for being “blank slates” with little discernible personality, there’s no denying their commercial viability. Both my initial examples, Fifty Shades of Grey and The Idea of You, arguably owe much of their success to their neutral female characters — characters in whom just about any reader might see themselves.

Regardless, no matter what the fandom or main pairing is, the initial qualifiers remain true: the fandom must be big, and the pairing must be popular within it, for the author to find publishing success. But the fandom may be of any genre, from classic romance to sci-fi to horror, and the pairing definitely doesn’t need to be canon … or even stick to the source’s original cast.

Copyright Loopholes: AUs, OCs, and RPF

Speaking of sticking to the source (or not), it’s no surprise that another common element of success here is fanfiction that departs significantly from the original work — i.e., fan stories that are so different that they’re unlikely to face copyright issues when published.

This is why so many fanfiction-based bestsellers have their roots in either “AU” (alternate universe) fanfiction or “OC” fanfiction, as mentioned. Fifty Shades of Grey may have started as Twilight fanfiction, but it never bore much resemblance to Twilight other than the Pacific Northwest setting and the characters’ names. Even in E.L. James’ earlier work (then titled “Master of the Universe”), the supernatural elements were removed, and Edward Cullen’s role as a BDSM-loving billionaire didn’t exactly match his canon personality. Likewise, Ali Hazelwood’s decision to set her Star Wars fic in the world of STEM research was a huge deviation from other “in-universe” Reylo fics, enabling it to be published practically as-is.

To be sure, one reliable method for writing fanfiction that can someday be legally published is to remove the original author’s worldbuilding. It then becomes nearly impossible to draw a line between the two stories, especially in fantasy and science fiction — and even in non-speculative genres, placing the characters in a different setting (whether it’s academia, the corporate world, or a classic coffee shop AU) inherently fosters a different kind of narrative.

Another way to avoid copyright infringement is to write fanfiction that’s not based on IP at all, but rather on real life. This controversial form of fanfiction, known as “RPF” (real person fiction), was the lifeblood of early-aughts fan communities on LiveJournal and similar sites, but has since mostly dried up. RPF did persist, however, on LiveJournal, Tumblr, and ultimately Wattpad throughout the 2010s… with Wattpad giving rise to the greatest of all modern RPF communities, made up of particularly committed (and amorous) One Direction fans.

Indeed, we can’t talk about the fanfiction-to-author pipeline without mentioning the multiple fan works about Harry Styles that were turned into bestselling novels and, later, films. The Idea of You is only the most recent of these, with the After series by Anna Todd being the behemoth that brought Harry Styles/OC fanfiction into the mainstream — though of course, in After, he’s renamed Hardin Scott (compare to Hayes Campbell in The Idea of You).

Again, you can see how this kind of fanfiction would have such mass appeal … and earning potential. From the enormous One Direction fandom to the (once again) relatively neutral, easily projected-upon female characters — Tessa in After, Solène in TIoY— these works masterfully combine the ingredients we’ve discussed and, conveniently, revolve around a real person whose identity (for better or worse) cannot be copyrighted.

On that note, probably the most interesting thing about these works is how differently they characterize the Styles figure. In After, he’s brooding, volatile and haunted by past trauma (borrowing from the Christian Grey playbook, if you will); in The Idea of You, he’s sweet and sensitive, if a bit of a playboy. These characterizations then feed into the stories’ key conflicts — Tessa and Hardin struggle to overcome his dark past and emotional antagonism, while Solène and Hayes struggle with their age difference and staying out of the spotlight.

In other words: within the same fandom, even with the same pairing, there can be myriad approaches to the characterization, plot, and the resulting genre. (After is sort of a dark YA romance, while The Idea of You is a romantic dramedy targeted at adults.) I don’t read RPF myself — reading stories about real, living people feels just a little too fraught — but I do have to admit that the potential for adaptation is intriguing. Maybe the Harry Styles trend has run its course, but I wouldn’t even be opposed to just one more adaptation in this vein … if only to see what characterization we’d get this time around.

Landing on the Right “USP”

The final crucial element of fanfiction-to-novel success — and undoubtedly the one that’s the hardest to pull off — is being “ahead of the curve” in some way. Book marketing professionals might refer to this element as the “USP”, or unique selling point, of a story … and in fanfiction (even more so than in original fiction), it must be present from the very beginning in order to give the work a competitive edge.

Looking at the examples I’ve named so far, it’s not too hard to identify the “USP” of each fanfiction-turned-bestseller success story, particularly in the context of its initial release. BDSM and corporate romances are a dime a dozen these days, but when Fifty Shades of Grey was first published over a decade ago, the industry had never seen anything quite like it. The same would prove true for The Love Hypothesis in 2021, with its STEM-based setting — enhanced by Ali Hazelwood’s firsthand knowledge of the field — which was successful enough to subsequently become her entire niche.

Also, as touched on above, even the bestselling “Harry Styles RPF novels” are surprisingly different from one another. After was bemoaned by some critics as clichéd, but I can’t think of another teen romance pre-2014 (when it was first published) that follows a college relationship in such intense — if often painful — detail. And the recent cinematic success of The Idea of You speaks for itself; clearly, there’s high demand for age-gap relationships involving a sophisticated older woman and sensitive younger boy band member.

But just because it’s easy to pinpoint these USPs in retrospect, doesn’t mean it’s easy to catch that lightning in a bottle yourself. I don’t say this to discourage ambitious fanfic writers who want to go pro; on the contrary, I mainly hope it makes the non-fanfiction-readers — who might have previously turned their noses up at this sort of thing — appreciate the work and innovation that goes into these books.

No Such Thing as a New Idea

True, a novel based on a piece of fanfiction is, by definition, not very original. But then again, is any fiction “original” these days? Or, to take it a step further… has anything in the literary canon ever been particularly original, since the dawn of storytelling?

Mark Twain — who lived over a century ago — declared in his autobiography that “there is no such thing as a new idea.” Shakespeare, who lived and wrote mainly in the 1500s, based nearly all his plays on historical events and pre-existing narratives. Even the ancient Greeks primarily wrote down stories that had previously been told orally … and even with those, who’s to say where they came from?

Of course, every reader will retain their own preferences, and some will steer clear of “fanfiction novels” for other reasons; maybe they avoid romance as a whole, or maybe they just don’t get into tropes (which these novels admittedly capitalize on) the way some of us do. But if your concern as a reader is the lack of originality, I can only assure you that — in the grand scheme of literature (and media as a whole) — these novels are far from the worst offenders.

Whether writers go the classic Fifty Shades route of adapting an existing fanfic, or take more of a direct-to-publishing Robinne Lee-style approach (she was never publicly affiliated with fandom before publishing The Idea of You), there are countless worlds to explore and opportunities for them to grasp… if they’re willing to put themselves out there.

No, these novels might not be everyone’s cup of tea — but their detractors are mightily outweighed by their undeniable cultural power (and profit). If there are fanfiction authors out there already incorporating these elements into their writing, they might just be next on the bestseller list.