Genres
Doujinshi
The Japanese term for self-published print works such as magazines, manga and novels, often created by amateurs in groups called circles.
Doujinshi (dōjinshi) is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga and novels. Creators are often amateurs, though professionals also publish doujinshi to work outside the industry, in artist groups called circles. Since the 1980s the scene has been dominated by parodic works based on existing series (aniparo), a print cousin of fan fiction with a real sales economy: Comiket, the largest doujinshi convention, has grown since its 1975 founding from roughly 600 attendees to over half a million per event.
For web-serial writers, doujinshi is proof that self-published, community-driven fiction scales: an amateur scene with its own conventions, economics and vocabulary, where popular reinterpretations harden into community canon the way fanon does in text fandoms.