Binding fan fiction and reexamining book production models

Abstract

Binding fan fiction into books is an increasingly popular phenomenon that follows in the footsteps of twentieth-century fanzines and challenges the current perception of fic as an exclusively digital form. Fan binders complicate book historical notions of bookmaking as a commercially driven enterprise by infusing it with affective connotations that rearrange the book production model of Robert Darnton's communication circuit. The notion of a fan fiction communication circuit extends Darnton's model to account for the noncommercial, reciprocal practices of fan fiction production. Members of Renegade Bindery, a community of fan binders on Discord, provide testimony regarding their philosophy, technique, and motivation that paints a complex picture of contemporary private bookbinding practices that construes value for printed works through affective labor rather than commercial return.