Turn Your Fan Art and Fan Fiction into a Career

A growing number of avid gamers are showcasing their creativity by making fan art and fanfiction to support their favorite game franchises and characters.

Have a scroll through Twitter and Instagram, and you’ll see hundreds of drawings and comic strips from the Among Us community, while fanfic platforms are filled with lots of Kingdom Hearts and Pokemon-inspired novels and short stories.

But while some of the best fanfic authors and fan artists get a lot of love and support from their peers online, they often don’t get the commercial recognition they deserve. Can you really turn fan art or fanfic into a career?

Some content creators have found success doing what they love, and a few have even been hired by top gaming companies, proving that these types of art forms can lead to having a steady job. So if you’re a game fanfic writer or a fan artist, here are some tips for turning your passion into a career.

1. Make time to perfect your craft

If you’re a budding game fan artist or fanfic writer, you have to be willing to put in the time to perfect your craft. Doing so allows you to develop your own style, and it can help you produce artwork or stories in a consistent manner.

One of the requirements of being hired by a top gaming company is being able to deliver content according to their schedule, so this means that you need to hone your skills so you can create new works on demand — which can be a big change if you’re used to creating only when you happen to feel inspired.

For instance, if you’re drawing magical or woodland creatures such as fairies for your fan art based on the Zelda series, Final Fantasy, or Lord of the Rings Online, you’ll need to practice doing different drawing styles and perfecting each one so you can create without using the original as a guide. Remember that there’s a fine line between fan art and licensed work, so creating your own style is a must. 

Meanwhile, for fanfic writers, you can practice and hone your writing style by writing content based on prompts. You can find forums on Reddit or other fanfic platforms like fanfiction.net, where you’ll be given writing challenges to complete. After completing each writing task, you can post your work on social media, or exchange works with fellow writers through email so you can compare and critique each other’s work privately.

2. Get your work out there

Your work won’t get noticed by the right people if you don’t get it out there.

Take, for instance, Claire Hummel, who was hired by Bioshock to do character design after someone in the company saw her original fan art of historical Disney princesses on DeviantArt.

There’s also Asuncion Macian Ruiz, better known as Medusa Dollmaker on Twitter, who was commissioned to do licensed artwork by Minecraft, Marvel, and Henson when they discovered her fanart on the social media site.

Game fan artists can share work on DeviantArt, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, and Artstation, while fanfic writers can post their work on Archive of Our Own, Wattpad, and Fanfiction.net. If you have a lot of art, you can also build your own online art portfolio in addition to posting to community sites.  

3. Use collabs to help you get noticed

Collaborating with another artist or fanfic writer can help you catch the attention of gaming industry experts or gaming media outlets. You’ll also learn how to work well with others, manage your time, give constructive feedback, accept criticism, and develop stronger communication skills — all of which can benefit you once you’re hired by a game studio or publisher.

Moreover, the crossover of styles and fandoms can result in something that is truly one of a kind. 

Take for instance the collaborative fanart by Twitter’s Jigglyking20, YoshiTails13, and four other artists, which was featured on The Gamer back in September 2020. The fan artists cleverly combined the styles and images from Persona 5 All-Out Attack with Mario Bros, and the final video has racked up thousands of views on YouTube. 

Some fanfic writers have also successfully collaborated with others and gained success through their shared efforts.

Lauren Billings and Christina Hobbs aren’t game fanfic writers, but those who are looking to turn their gaming stories into published works can take a leaf out of their book. The two have found success after finding one another in Twilight fanfic forums in 2009, and shortly after, they started working together on several romance novels under the joint pen name Christina Lauren. Since then, they’ve published 22 novels, and some of them have even made it to the New York Times Best Seller list, such as their Wild Seasons series.

4. Get paid for your fan art

It will probably take some time before someone notices your work and reaches out to offer you a job, but in the meantime there are several ways to get paid while working on your craft.

First, you can create a Patreon account so you can get paid for the things that you’re already creating, such as webcomics and videos. You might be surprised how many fans (called “patrons” on the platform) are willing to pay a few dollars each month to support an upcoming artist or writer they like. You can also get an account on Kofi, a platform where your fans and followers can support your work for the price of a cup of coffee.

Also consider accepting commissions, because that’s one of the best ways to earn money while doing fan art or fanfics. Once you’ve gained a decent following on social media, that’s usually when the requests for commissioned work starts rolling in. If you set a fair price from the start (be sure to research the going rates), and make sure to finish and delivery your work on time, then your popularity — and your income — will grow.

For example, fan artist Fellipe Martins found great success from doing commissioned work as his Super Mario fan art was featured on the cover of Kotaku, then he got more requests for fan art until he eventually landed a full-time job as a concept artist.

You can do it, too

Fan art and fanfiction have cultural and artistic value, and are a lot of fun to create. With dedication and practice (and maybe a little luck), you can certainly build a career out of them.

Make the time to hone your craft, get your art and stories out there, collaborate with other creators, and experiment with different ways to earn money from your talent.

But at the end of the day, don’t forget to keep enjoying and finding satisfaction in your creations. That creative fire will keep you motivated and moving toward your goal of earning a living doing what you love.

Thanks to writer and fanfic enthusiast Jane Morris for contributing to this article.

Image: Kyle Van Alstyne/Unsplash