So you're probably going to hear a LOT of misinformation in the next few days, and as an adult, I consider it my responsibility (sometimes) to sort the crazy from the reality. And that's what I'm gonna do here. Because I love you all, but you are gonna FLIP over this.

It is now becoming known in the Western Hemisphere (I'm writing this at 7:15 PM; most of my Eastern Hemisphere peeps haven't woken up yet) that Wattpad has been bought by another company. Probably your first reaction? OMG, they're gonna take down our fanfics! Which...isn't a guaranteed thing.

Remember what I said about my History of Fanfiction spiel back in my AO3 episode? (P.S. -- if you haven't read that, go read that AFTER you read this.) Wattpad has always been an original fanfiction site, and they focus on that -- BUT around 2011 the Directioners took over and started posting fanfiction here. And since then, as far as I can see the site is maybe 20% original fiction, 80% fanfiction (and probably half of that fanfiction is K-Pop, tbh). When people think of Wattpad, they think of fanfiction, UNLESS they are running in a tight circle of NYC publishing executives or they are a paid Wattpad Star. The rest of us? Fanfiction. I know the numbers -- I have both original and fanfiction up here. (Nobody needs to see that yet.)

So. Is Wattpad going to take down your fanfics? It depends on who is buying them out -- and the company is one we all know REALLY well: Naver. Not only do they own V LIVE and LINE (through their Japanese subsidiary -- I use LINE a *ton*) -- they own WEBTOON. And if you don't know what WEBTOON is at this point, you might want to crawl out from under your rock. Eastern countries know of such hits as True Beauty and Tower of God. Americans mostly know WEBTOON for Lore Olympus. (I have NORMIE friends who read Lore Olympus, okay? NORMIES.)

From the press release: WEBTOON, a subsidiary of NAVER, is the world's leading digital platform for visual storytelling, with more than 72+ million global monthly readers. As the first modern digital publishing and self-publishing platform for digital comics, WEBTOON has revolutionized the way visual stories are created and consumed, allowing anyone to become a creator. WEBTOON is the No.1 app among 16-24 year olds in Korea and also is in the top tier among the same group in other countries, including the United States.

The press release also talks about building WEBTOON and Wattpad together into one cohesive creative unit, where Wattpad focuses on written stories and WEBTOON focuses on stories in comic form. This means all of the really cool stuff Wattpad does for original fiction writers is going to continue. In fact, I would go so far as to say this deal is GREAT for original content creators and IP owners. It will give those of us who create our own stories a better chance for an audience. 2014 Aster, writing their serial on Wattpad, could be found and promoted and maybe even have a shot of being drawn on WEBTOON as well.

That's all awesome. For original content owners. This does NOT include fanfiction.

Fanfiction has been "allowed" to exist as long as it does "not make money." Writers on AO3 are not allowed to post links to ko-fis and Patreons (although they do exist). Print on demand services will pull books that feature someone else's IP. (I should note that some services like Lulu will print a single book for you of whatever you want -- I've printed fanfiction this way -- but this is different than selling fanfic on Amazon, which will get pulled.) Fan conventions are strict with their artist alley requirements, often requesting that portfolios be no more than 50% fanart. Fanworks are made for the hell of it, not for money.

So that 80% of fanfiction that exists on Wattpad does not exist to give Wattpad money. It can't, because that's the NATURE of fanfiction. And if Naver senses that those works cannot make them money -- or be linked in with WEBTOON or be promoted -- they might just decide to jettison the whole damn thing. I'm not saying they will, but what I do know is that Wattpad's HQ in Canada has always fostered both the original content creators with their paid accounts, while simultaneously letting ARMY writers showcase their work in their own circles. Canadian Wattpad HQ is totally cool with us writing fanfic because those teen writers will also probably read Light As A Feather if they get the chance.

Naver may take one look at the fanfiction on Wattpad, understand that those publishings won't make them any money, and say, we're not going to host fanfiction anymore. I should note here that fanart isn't permitted on WEBTOON, or at least as far as I've seen. I do know of ARMY artists who have changed the names of Bangtan to post their comics on WEBTOON. (Save Me doesn't count okay it's legitimate and Big Hit is in charge of it) I've seen one or two filter through, mostly people drawing their own versions of Among Us. So much as WEBTOON doesn't really host fanart or fancomics, I would expect them to not be so thrilled with hosting fanfiction on Wattpad.

What would that mean?

We would be looking at a fanfic purge the likes of which have not been seen since the days of Fanfiction.net. It would be sudden and without warning. Everything would be gone. Fan awards, imagines, oneshots, everything.

Now.

Take a deep breath before you jump off the deep end.

It's important to note that it's not 100% sure that Naver would do this. I just think, with my experience, that they are more likely to do this than our friendos in Canada who currently own Wattpad. You don't need to freak out. You don't need to leave Wattpad. What we have to do is wait and see what Naver will do, while planning for either future -- a world where fanfiction still exists on Wattpad, or a world where Wattpad is solely original fiction. So that brings me to:

What should we do about this?

I'm about to curse a LOT for shock value and also because I'm concerned and a little afraid. And if the adult is afraid, you know you got shit on your hands. So:

1: Do NOT fucking panic.

If my crappy Wattpad account from 2013 is still sitting out there in cyberspace with nothing removed, then in theory all of our stuff should be fine. Continue posting on Wattpad like nothing is going to change, while simultaneously understanding that anything could change at the drop of a hat. Which brings up:

2: BACK YOUR SHIT UP. BACK YOUR MOTHER FUCKING SHIT UP. BACK THAT ASS UP LIKE IT'S 2004 AND GET LOW BY LIL' JON IS PLAYING AT PROM. BACK IT UP LIKE YOUR MOTHER IS LOOKING OVER YOUR SHOULDER READING EVERY DAMN WORD YOU WRITE. I DON'T FREAKING CARE. I'M NOT PLAYING.

Get a Google Drive account and copy-paste everything from your editor. Take pictures. Read the fic out loud to your voice recorder, I don't freaking care, I don't know what the kids do these days to back things up. We always wrote our stuff in Word documents. But back it up. You should be doing this already anyway. Back. Your. Shit. Up. Nobody wants their shit lost to a dumb purge for any reason. (Posting on AO3 is a pretty good way to back your stuff up, but ideally you will want to back it up to something you OWN and have regular ACCESS to. God forbid.)

Anywho. I feel better after having written that. Spread this like wildfire with your friends so they all don't freak the faak out, I need for my TL to not die today. I will keep you all informed depending on how things go. (I'm also an expert on copyright law in the United States and have held panels at conventions about it, so I know my shit.)

TL;DR -- Naver is buying Wattpad, we are probably fine but we are also going into uncharted territory so BACK YOUR SHIT UP.

Also:

BACK YOUR SHIT UP

(VERY QUICK Edit:) So this blew up more than I was expecting it to. Which is a good thing! It's important to be educated about this matter.

I'm not gonna promote my books bc you're not all here for that but I did want to say ONE thing. If something DOES happen to Wattpad, I HIGHLY recommend moving your (backed up) fics to AO3. If you want to learn more about AO3, I have a chapter in THIS VERY BOOK that talks about the differences between Wattpad and AO3, and includes a short history lesson on why you should always back your fics up. If you learned something from this post, I would read that and see if you learn anything. My purpose here is to ensure your creativity continues, whether that's on Wattpad or AO3 or wherever it might be.

Also this is typically my journal/diary/picture/announcement book, so I apologize ahead of time for the mess. The AO3 "episode" is called "Special Episode: So You Wanna Post On AO3," and it's an earlier chapter in this book. Hopefully you don't have to wade through too many birthday posts to find it LOL

Don't forget to back your books up!