What's truly interesting is that asking people to pay for fanfiction is Not Okay, but asking people to pay for fanart is common and accepted. Excuse me, but it's the same thing, IMO. Fanart is a piece of art using someone else's characters to tell a story and then selling it for money (so very common at cons and on DeviantArt). Yet, writing fanfiction and asking people to pay for it is a sin worthy of being ostracized from fandom, worthy of cruel, harsh things said, and worthy of being told you're a Bad Person.

Either both are wrong or neither are.

Personally, from the standpoint of a professional writer and publisher, I would discourage the sale of fanfiction and fanart and encourage the production of original works that one could write and sell. That's just me. I didn't find it that difficult to shift from fanfiction to original fiction, so maybe that colors my perception.

I still don't think anyone should be run out of fandom, though, over this. I see 'auction' type posts all the time where fanworks -- from fiction to art to icons -- are sold to 'help' people who are deemed truly in trouble and worthy of the effort and money. *shakes head* The hypocrisy in fandom is why I left it years ago.

It hurts my heart too much to be in fandom, honestly. There's so much nastiness, it just makes me tired.