Into The Printed Medium

Some fanfics are so popular that they completely transcend their status as a fan fiction and become published works. In these cases, names and certain things are changed in order to avoid copyright issues. Below are three famous examples.

50 Shades of Grey - E.L James

Fifty Shades of Gray was originally published as Twilight fanfiction! Published on fanfiction.net, Fifty Shades gained huge popularity and was republished with some alterations in 2011.

The Love Hypothesis - Ali Hazelwood

Written and originally published as "Reylo" (a ship named for it's pairing, Kylo Ren and Rey from the sequel Star Wars trilogy) fanfic on Archive of Our Own as "Head Over Feet", it was removed from the site and republished physically as "The Love Hypothesis. If you look closely at the cover, you may see the resemblance of the characters to their original counterparts.

After - Anna Todd

"After" was originally fanfiction written about Harry Styles from the band One Direction! Initially published on WattPad, it featured an original character being paired with Harry Styles.