Can I Make Fan Art Or Write Fan Fiction?

Introduction – The Basics

NON-COMMERCIAL USE

I love that the stories and art from my books have inspired fan creations. I have no objection to fan art and fan fiction created solely for non-commercial personal use. These include things like posting your fan art to Reddit, Instagram, Tumblr, etc., and applies to all forms of fan art, so long as you are not making any money from them directly or indirectly. (For questions about fan films, please read this.)

COMMERCIAL USE

That said, I have established guidelines in connection with commercial use of fan art related to my work—without these guidelines, the integrity of my works (including my copyrights and trademarks) would be compromised. I’ll first give the guidelines in what I hope is a clear and concise way, followed by a more legalized version of saying the same things, because my lawyer says I have to include it.

Fan Art Policy – Layman’s Terms

***For the sake of clarity, “Commercial” means any artwork or creation sold for monetary compensation, or used to collect monetary compensation in any way. If you have a question about whether something falls under “commercial” uses, ask yourself this: “Am I selling it? Or gaining a monetary profit from it in any way?” if you are, then the below applies to you. If you aren’t selling your work, see the above “NON-COMMERCIAL USE.”***

• ALLOWED COMMERCIAL FAN ART USES:
  • You may sell physical art prints, stickers, and playmats of visual fan art (paintings, digital creations, images printed on paper of sculptures you’ve made physically or digitally) only if the visual fan art is not (and does not include) a copy (or substantial copy, e.g., a manual/hand reproduction of distinctive artistic elements) of any of my copyrighted artwork.
    • In other words, you can sell physical prints, stickers, and playmats of your original visual depictions of characters and scenes based on the text of my books, but you can’t copy visual artwork from my books such as book covers, interior art, symbols, and maps. Symbols and glyphs may be incorporated into fan art only when used as an integral part of a character or scene (i.e., Kaladin’s brands, the Bridge Four patch on a Bridge Four member’s uniform, etc.)—but never out-of-context or standalone.
  • One-off fan art commissions for a private client are allowed.
  • Tattoos are considered one-off commission. For the sake of clarity, you may use any of my art or text for tattoos, regardless of whether the tattoo artist is paid.
• NOT ALLOWED COMMERCIAL FAN ART USES:
  • Anything other than art prints, stickers, and playmats is not allowed. No fan art may be sold commercially on anything other than art prints, stickers, or playmats (so no t-shirts, other apparel, mugs, miniatures, 3D prints or printable files of any of my characters or creatures or symbols or maps or settings, fan made book jackets, art prints that are intended to be book jackets, plushies, pins, jewelry, figures, phone accessories, replicas, NFTs, etc.)
  • Copies of any of the covers, interior art, maps, etc., in any of my books are not allowed (though not strictly considered a copy, this includes maps of places for which we have not yet created maps). Use of symbols and glyphs is allowed only when used as an integral part of a character or scene. Our symbols, maps, settings, etc., are copyrighted, and Dragonsteel reserves the right to sell them in any form.
  • This also means you are not allowed to sell any out-of-context or standalone copies (complete, substantial, or recognizable) of any glyph or symbol from my works or worlds. With the exception of one such symbol being used as part of a character design (i.e., Kaladin’s brands), no fan art that includes any such symbols may be sold commercially without violating copyrights.
  • Any use of distinctive text from any of my books associated with art, fiction, products, or other materials for sale (e.g., “Life Before Death, Strength Before Weakness, Journey Before Destination”) is a violation of my copyrights. We ask fan artists to refrain from including such phrases in commercial fan art endeavors.
  • It’s okay to reference a book title or character in the description of your commercial fanart, but not in the title or header text of your commercial fanart.
  • Use of crowdfunding to finance fan art, fan fiction, fan books, fan art books, fanzines, and any other fan projects is not allowed. This includes using platforms like Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and Patreon to fund fan art and fan projects.
    • The only exception is an occasional one-off commission made through Patreon. But consistent or regular compensation for fan art using these platforms is not allowed.
  • Instrumental music inspired by my books is allowed, so long as it is not labeled with any Dragonsteel, LLC, trademarks and/or implied in any way to be endorsed by Dragonsteel, LLC. Any music using lyrics that directly quote any of my books can’t be used for commercial purposes.
  • Any use of text or art from my books to suggest that a business, blog, social media account, etc. is “official” or endorsed by me is not allowed. For example, the Twitter handles @KaladinOfficial and @TheRealKelsier are not allowed.
    • To avoid this, the context, presentation, title, and/or written description for any fan art must make it clear that that the fan art is unofficial. One way to do this is to mark it as “fan-created, inspired by Brandon Sanderson.”
  • Fan art (visual, text, music, or otherwise) created by or with the aid of AI (Artificial Intelligence) software (e.g., ChatGPT, Midjourney, Dall-E, etc.) is not permissible for any commercial uses.
  • Anything that does not fit the above allowed commercial fan art uses should be assumed to not be allowed for commercial use.
• PROMOTIONAL USE OF FAN ART:
  • We ask that no fan art is given away for free en masse for promotional purposes—for the sake of clarity, please don’t make and/or distribute more than one hundred (100) prints or stickers per work of visual fan art that is intended to be given away for promotional purposes. This is to avoid the mass production of anything related to my IP being used to promote other creators/those who do not hold my copyrights or trademarks.
• NOTES ON FAN FICTION/COMICS
  • Written fan fiction referencing my characters, universes, environments, and/or stories is allowed as long as it is not commercialized in any way. By that, I mean your fan fiction shouldn’t be making any money—no Webtoons, no Tapas, no online writing community that allows you to charge and/or offers compensation for views of your fan fiction, etc. Written fan art (including comics) should not generate revenue of any kind.
  • Please do not send us fan fiction. We will not read it.

Please Note:

Fans sometimes pitch ideas to Brandon at conventions or signings. Having him say, “Yeah, that sounds cool,” is not permission to move forward. In every case, you must go through the proper channels and have signed permission in writing in order to license the use of any Dragonsteel works. (Please see Licensing Inquiries.)

Fan Art Policy – Legal

For legal purposes, below we’ve included the legal jargon for the above policy.

Default Fan Art/Fiction Policy: Dragonsteel and Brandon Sanderson (hereinafter “Dragonsteel”) retain all copyrights in their Creative Works. This means that, except as described below, copies, derivative works, distributions, and public displays are not allowed. A “derivative work” is a work based upon one or more of the Dragonsteel Works. Additionally, and to further clarify, this means that Dragonsteel DOES NOT permit public displays of any text or art from any of the Dragonsteel Works. Any license or permission to use any intellectual property from the Dragonsteel Works, or permission to claim that fan art/fiction/product is “official,” MUST BE IN WRITING and is otherwise invalid. This is the default policy on fan art/fiction. Some exceptions, i.e., permitted fan art, are described below.

Permitted Fan Art/Fiction:

Visual Art:

Some non-commercial and commercial uses of visual fan art are allowed. However, regardless of whether a use is commercial or non-commercial, visual fan art (e.g., images, digital, 3D, sculpture, etc.) is limited to original works depicting characters, scenes, geographies, and/or other elements from Dragonsteel Works, and must not include or incorporate a whole, partial, or substantial copy of any visual art from any Dragonsteel Works. Copying by hand or other non-automated means is still copying. Symbols, glyphs, and/or Aons may not be used out-of-context or in a standalone fashion, but may be used in visual fan art (if generated by hand or other non-automated means) as integral element(s) of a character, scene, or object. Allowed non-commercial uses of visual fan art (no direct or indirect compensation, financial or otherwise) include (i) electronic distribution and (ii) making and/or distributing less than one hundred (100) prints or stickers per work of visual fan art. Allowed commercial uses of visual fan art include (i) making and selling a commissioned physical original or one-off of visual fan art; and (ii) making, distributing, selling, and publicly displaying stickers, playmats, and/or physical prints of visual fan art. Sales or distribution of any other items, e.g., t-shirts, apparel, mugs, plushies, pins, jewelry, figures, phone accessories, replicas, 3-D printable files, NFTs, etc., ARE NOT permitted. Art or text from Dragonsteel Works (including symbols, glyphs, and Aons) may be used for tattoos, regardless of whether the tattoo artist is paid.

Fiction:

Non-commercial creation, copying, and/or distribution of text fan fiction based on the Dragonsteel Works is permitted as long as the fan fiction includes a conspicuous notification that it is unofficial fan fiction. Copying of text from Dragonsteel Works is NOT permitted except for short excerpts that appear with and that are closely and reasonably associated with allowable visual fan art, e.g., short dialog exchanges in fan comics or short excerpts incorporated into a caption. Selling fan fiction or fan comics (including but not limited to receipt of advertising revenue for posting, displaying, or otherwise making available fan fiction) IS NEVER permitted.

Music:

Non-commercial creation, copying, distribution, and/or performance of music that references characters, plots, scenes, and/or objects from Dragonsteel Works is permitted as long as (i) the text/language/words from the Dragonsteel Works that is quoted in or otherwise incorporated into such music constitutes no more than 25% of such music by time, word count, and character count and (ii) such music is not a mere musical reading of some or all of a Dragonsteel Work. Commercial music IS NOT permitted.

The context, presentation, title, and/or written description for any fan art must make it clear that the fan art is unofficial.

Non-allowable Fan Art/Fiction:

For the sake of clarity, the following ARE NEVER permitted:

• copies (complete, substantial, or recognizable) of any glyph or symbol from the Dragonsteel Works—unless used, as described above, in visual fan art as an integral part of a character, scene, or object.
• use of crowdfunding to finance fan art or fiction (with the noted exception of one-off commissions).
• maps reflecting worlds, locations, places, or geographies in Dragonsteel Works.
• Licensing your fan art to another to reproduce, sell, or distribute.
• Fan art (visual, text, music, or otherwise) created by or with the aid of AI (Artificial Intelligence) software (e.g., ChatGPT, Midjourney, Dall-E, etc.) is not permissible for any commercial uses.

If you are unsure about any fan art/fiction, please kindly assume it is not permitted. Please direct any questions about this policy to [email protected]. For licensing inquiries, please see here.

Last updated 7-10-2023