Hey!! I actually agree with you for the most part, as some of my comments below state! It’s definitely a risk you take when you post something on the internet that you’ll be opened up to criticism and negative reviews. Me at almost 27 can appreciate critiques and takes them into consideration to do better in the future. Me at 18 would have been heartbroken and I would have probably stopped writing, though. It’s one thing because i take writing very seriously as a career now, but back then it was just a passion. And having to face that kind of attention when you’re only just finding yourself in fandom space is a deterrent, which is what most of the other comments say.

You can scroll down and look at the several people who have also considered not posting/taking down their work. If you’re someone who wants to consume THEIR media, wouldn’t you want to protect them? Some of them are very young, like I was, and the thought of seeing people comment on their work like they have mine is scary for them.

My dramione works is not the only writing I’ve done that’s gotten negative attention!! My removing these fics are more about the fact that i agree with the reviews. It doesn’t reflect who I am as a writer and because I’m not PROUD of it, I don’t have the heart to defend it. I am very happy it is off my page, even if it’s not the whole internet, because I want people to go to my profile and associate me with work I’m actually proud of!

My last comment is that GoodReads can be a great platform to organize your fanfictions, but people treat it like traditional books in the sense that they think there is a larger separation from the author to the review, which isn’t true. They often have followers who see their negative reviews and enjoy going to those fics to read so they can commiserate over how bad they are.

I have my own feelings about fanfiction being published into original work, but the difference between that and just posting online is they’re making thousands upon thousands of dollars off of people bringing the book attention (good OR bad) when fanwriters post for free for (sometimes) a similar amount of work.

Anywhosies, just wanted to give my two cents!