In late January, as the world watched the real-life love story between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce play out, authors Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka published The Breakup Tour, a romance novel “inspired by” Swift’s life.
The book, filled with Easter eggs for Swifties, is the latest in a slew of romance novels, both traditionally published and self-published, that are openly—and occasionally proudly—based on real celebrities. Readers have called them “real-person fan fiction.”
“People have always had fantasies about these amazing celebrities, but it seems like Taylor Swift has accelerated [the amount of real-person romance] in a way that is noticeable,” Jen Prokop, romance critic and co-host of the genre podcast Fated Mates, says.
The books range from those based on loose ideas or characterizations of A-listers to those that take a more ripped-from-the-headlines approach to storytelling. Examples of the former include Tracey Livesay’s American Royalty duology, featuring a UK prince and a Megan Thee Stallion–type rapper, and Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman, which drew inspiration from GQ’s infamous profile of Chris Evans.
On the other side of the spectrum is Sariah Wilson’s The Seat Filler, a novel about a dog groomer and an Adam Driver doppelganger. The similarities to Driver are so stark that the top Goodreads comment for The Seat Filler jokes that Driver should take out a restraining order against the author. Similarly, Quiana Glide’s Pregnancy, Wrestling & Dating draws on the life of an actual wrestler, using his same intro music, hair, and even relationship history in the book.
Returning to Swift: Last September, only a week after Swift attended her first Chiefs game, indie bestseller Ivy Smoak published Roughing the Princess, about a pop star with the initials T.S. and a pro football player with a popular podcast, T.K.
University of Utah professor of English Anne Jamison, who studies fan fiction, argues books like The Seat Filler and Roughing the Princess are the latest evolution of real-person fic. While she notes authors writing porn about public figures dates to at least the 18th century, the modern version of the practice started with Star Trek fanzines in the late 1960s.
In the intervening years, the TV show Supernatural and bands Backstreet Boys, BTS, and *NSYNC have been popular topics for real-person fic. Today, it’s one of the most popular subgenres on the popular fan fiction library Archive of Our Own. Now, though, those stories are going from fan fiction sites into publishing houses. As Jamison says, “It feels strange to have a named celebrity engaging in fictional sex acts.”
The reaction to Roughing the Princess underscores Jamison’s point. Romance readers took to X/Twitter to document passages Smoak had lifted from Kelce’s podcast and denounce it as an “invasive money grab.” Swifties, too, described feeling “gross” after finishing the book. The book was ultimately taken down from Amazon and mentions of it on Smoak’s social media profiles were deleted. (Smoak did not respond to a request for comment.)
For Prokop, novels like Smoak’s cross a line from drawing inspiration or alluding to song lyrics to copying someone’s life without their consent. She draws a distinction between Roughing the Princess and American Royalty or Red, White and Royal Blue, which both use real people as starting points but establish their characters as distinct figures.
“Do any of us deserve to make money off of Taylor Swift? I find it very troubling that there’s no pretext that it’s anything but that,” she says. “Speculating about the most personal parts of someone’s life—their sex life, their feelings about their parents or siblings—that has the potential to be hurtful. If you’re a real fan, I don’t know how you justify doing that.”
Other readers, such as critic Kayleigh Donaldson, who urged authors writing Swift/Kelce stories to “keep it on Wattpad,” seem to have similar squeamishness. Directing her comments to Smoak, Donaldson writes, “This error in judgment (or massive display of arrogance, plagiarism, and pure creepiness) is forever a stain on your career.”
Bottom line: Judith Fatahallah, a fan studies scholar at Lancaster and Coventry universities, expects to see more real-person novels in the coming years, noting the practice isn’t nearly as controversial or “pathologized” as it was 15 years ago. But Prokop offers a warning to authors and publishing houses looking to publish real-person romance. When she picked up a book and realized midway through it was about a lightly fictionalized Harry Styles, she says, “I had to stop reading it. It didn’t feel right.” She adds, “I do think the marketing of a book should make it clear [if it’s real-person fic] so people can decide for themselves if they want to read.”
Elizabeth Held is a writer living in Washington, DC. She writes the weekly book recommendation newsletter What To Read If and co-moderates East City Bookshop’s Really Reading Romance book club.
Elizabeth Held is a writer and romance reader in Washington, D.C. She writes a weekly book recommendation newsletter and runs East City Bookshop’s romance book club.
