Anne Rice is one of those authors who first made her views clear on fanfiction, and did so in such a way that she alienated entire communities. Disdain for her approach to her fans has spread even to people who have never–and now will never–read her works. Starting in the mid-nineties, she claimed fanfiction was an act of personal violence against her, a violation of her property rights, and, essentially, morally inferior to original writing.
It was not so much her views, versions of which are not uncommon, which are objectionable, as her callous (clueless?) disregard for her fans’s attempts to engage in the world she provided them. This dismissive attitude is probably what makes her name a by-word for bad personal branding in a fan community rather than her dislike of fanfiction.
Inspirational Quote:
“If the family were a fruit, it would be an orange, a circle of sections, held together but separable – each segment distinct.”–Letty Cottin Pogrebin
