Fan Art & Fan Fic Policy for My Works

Might as well get this out the way.

Fan Art Policy

I don’t mind fan art but please have your skin tones correct. I don’t want to accept any colorist (also known as “shadeism”) fan art, it will be returned. I’m a Black writer, I regularly depict my characters with medium and darker skin tones and the main characters are on the cover usually so there’s a visual guide there. If you struggle with accurate tones for darker skinned people, it’s ok to just not give me the art or only do so after you work on it. (If you can tone lighter skinned people but struggle with darker skinned people, that’s a concern.) I write characters that have seen sun, basically.

I don’t want to reject any fan art because I know a lot goes into making it, speaking as someone who has made loads of fan art myself (not drawings but other things), so I think it’s best to simply say this all here where people can see it. If I spot characters that are shaded way too light, I’m most likely going to say so as quick con-crit and hand it back. There’s plenty of free guides on how to shade skin tone correctly so look for those.

Fan Fic Policy

Rule One: Always remember my art belongs to me, the fan’s interpretation of the art belongs to them. I don’t mind fan fic depictions of my works but I don’t look for them. HOWEVER, I am not a fan of my characters used to exhibit racist, sexist, misogynoiric or queerphobic beliefs. Obviously no adult-youth romantic relationships. Do not drag real people into any fan-fic relationships either, adult or otherwise. I do think that fan-fics are like the training wheels of writing, they’re great for those who are trying to learn how to be a better writer or simply tell a story creatively, but for my works, I do have some lines that are definitely Not Okay.

I don’t want to squash anyone’s creative fun as they play in the sandbox of my ideas – but it is still my Intellectual Property at the end of the day, I’m happy if someone loves my characters but I’ll always be more than happy to send a lawyer if something deeply concerning comes across my digital desk. Remember, just because I’m not looking for it doesn’t mean it can’t ever cross my path. I’ve written fan fic before, so I’m fine with most versions of it (including lemons/raunchy material – never wrote but I have totally read it) but I do want those basic guidelines followed, especially since I don’t think they’re very difficult at all.

In conclusion, I appreciate anyone appreciating my work but I have seen in my personal experiences of spending time with artists of different professions, from musicians to writers, accept fan gifts that they would reveal privately they didn’t want. Some for nit-picky reasons, some for legit reasons. They all wanted to be nice and appreciate the fan work, and so do I – thus, I think this is a pretty ok thing to point out. I don’t want to risk embarrassing some fan simply because they didn’t know something since that’s not ok for them and I also don’t want to take on art that I know I’ll never let see the light of day again since that’s also not ok for me or them.

Mind you, anyone who abuses this policy is most likely not a fan, just a rabble-rouser, so I’ll most likely be very scathing since I’m not lancing apart a fan. And if it’s infuriating enough, that’s what copyright lawyers and IP lawyers are for. I rather focus on making books, not people purposely trying to catch a potentially devastating lawsuit for their personal enjoyment.