Several popular shops, which clearly violated Etsy's terms of use and IP laws, were deleted after 404 Media reached out for comment.

Etsy sellers are turning free fanfiction into printed and bound physical books, and listing them for sale on online marketplaces for more than $100 per book. It’s a problem that’s rattling the authors of those fanfics, as well as their fans and readers.

Several sellers, easily found on Etsy and very popular, each with hundreds of five-star reviews, are selling copies of fanfiction taken from sites like Archive of Our Own (Ao3) and reselling them as bound books. The average price of these bound copies is around $149. Some sellers claim that they’re simply covering the cost of materials, while others just sell the books, usually with the fanfiction writers’ Ao3 username on the cover.

  • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    4 months ago

    Not that I know of, at least not on the large scale. I just left a longer reply on this same thread about it, but the only alternative I can think of for individual sellers is eBay. But eBay is not for makers, they take a pretty big cut, the whole Paypal thing is problematic as well, and the only thing I use eBay for anymore is the odd discontinued appliance part. Sorry. I wish there were another maker’s seller space like Etsy used to be, that’d be fantastic.

    • BirdEnjoyer@kbin.social
      2·
      4 months ago

      I don’t know enough about the fediverse, but maybe a Magazine for legit online artist shops would be a good idea.

      Maybe I’ll try making one once I’ve spent enough time to understand what I’m doing on here.