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{{trope}}
{{Examples Need Sorting}}
[[File:Author appeal.jpg|thumb|400px|link=Police Squad!]]
A kind of [[Fan Service]] where the presence of a particular gimmick or kink is so widespread and prominent that it is interpreted as a specific reason the creator actually produced the work. Often, this can overlap with a certain philosophy the author espouses; for instance, an [[Utopia|"enlightened culture"]] in [[The Future]] may have [[Innocent Fanservice Girl|no nudity taboo]], or may have [[Everyone Is Bi|everyone bisexual]], remove all body hair at birth, et cetera. Deliberately satirical or political stories often invoke associated [[Take That]] moments.
'''Author Appeal''' is perhaps the single leading cause of [[Mary Sue]] characters and [[Fan Fic Chopsuey]] settings. Beyond just being written from the ground up to appeal to the author's baser interests, most writers can't help but to then derail the storyline and other characters to facilitate the character; that's the line where Author Appeal gets out of hand. A relatively recent [[Fan Nickname]] in Tabletop RPG is "[https://web.archive.org/web/20230531233519/http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Magical_realm Magical realm]".
Interestingly, with ''careful'' handling Author Appeal can still remain subtext [[Fridge Horror|which may not be detected until much later]]. On the flipside, an audience who enjoys a work specifically ''because'' of Author Appeal can be [[Playing to The Fetishes|easy to produce work for]], if the rarity of such works sufficiently balances out any faults with the work itself. Sometimes Author Appeal nets you not only people with similar interests, but people on the receiving end of those interests who may be flattered to be an object of an author's/fandom's affection.
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** [[Word of God]] is that out of all the girls in Negi's class, the one that he'd most want a Pactio with<ref>Read: make out with</ref> is Kakizaki.
* [[Sherman Alexie]] seems to have a thing for [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=glbt LGBT themes], heterosexual [[Shotacon]], and political [[Take That]].
* Kozue Amano seems to have a thing for cute girl butts; the angle at which she depicts bent-over and crouching girls makes one wonder at times. This was relatively subtle in works such as ''[[Aria]]'' , but becomes quite a bit more blatant in her latest work, ''[[Amanchu!]]'', in which she loves to hoist her female main characters into tight diving suits.
* Brett Anderson of [[Suede]] appears to have a thing for extremely skinny women, especially if you go by "She" ("she is bad, she is bored, she is bony") and "She's In Fashion" ("and she's as similar as you can get/to the shape of a cigarette").
* The mangaka of [[Zodiac P.I.|''Zodiac Private Investigator'']], Natsumi Ando, states in a comment that she loves pretty and long legs on her girls, which is why she likes putting them into mini-skirts a lot.
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** [[Redheaded Hero]] and [[Heroes Want Redheads]]: His wife, Virginia, was a redhead. This hair color is a standout feature of almost all the female love interests in his works and a number of the males. Moreover, ''twin'' redheads are similarly common.
** [[Kindhearted Cat Lover]]: Heinlein was a cat lover and cats show up throughout most of his novels. Anyone who is mean to cats is certain to be a villain.
** [[Polyamory]]: From ''[[Stranger in
** [[Sexy Man, Instant Harem]]: Related to the above, his Gruff Old Man protagonists invariably attract a sizable harem of sexy women.
** [[Incest Is Relative]]: [[Parental Incest]], [[Brother-Sister Incest]], [[Twincest]], lots and lots of incest.
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=== Fan Works ===
* This is the very reason for "Linkin Park Z" (i.e., ''[[Dragon Ball]] (Z)'' music videos set to [[Linkin Park]] songs), despite the fact that most Linkin Park songs are relatively dark and brooding and have little to do with the more cheerful and combat-oriented Dragon Ball sagas.
* There was a fic where [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|Rei Ayanami]] revealed her love of ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''. After that the whole thing dissolved into an [[Author Tract]] about how people can't appreciate modern fantasy.
* ''[[Neon Exodus Evangelion]]'' is a ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' [[Mega Crossover]], whose [[Eyrie Productions, Unlimited|authors]] were also clearly into New England college life, antiauthoritarianism, motorcycles, the Titanic and the UK. But not, however, anything the original creators of Eva had done with the themes and characterization. Then again, it's less an ''Evangelion'' fic than an ''[[In Nomine]]'' fic wearing ''Evangelion''{{'}}s clothes, written in part as a protest against ''Evangelion''{{'}}s nihilism, so maybe its failure to slavishly mimic ''Evangelion'' can be overlooked.
** The first few installments of the same authors' flagship series ''[[Undocumented Features]]''
* ''[[Shinji and Warhammer40K]]'' has one Author Appeal element, but it's right there in the title, and used with style.
* There is one ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]'' fanfic where Tenchi and his crew gave in willingly to Kagato [[Cool and Unusual Punishment|because he threatened them with country music]].
** Another ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]'' example was alien princess Ayeka listening to the 1997 song "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks (real subtle there) despite the fact that she had never been to Earth, and the song wouldn't be written for 700 years.
* ''[[Knight of Lolicon]]'': In addition to the [[Lolicon|premise]], at some point the writer must have just felt like throwing in obscure anime that only fellow otakus were likely to have seen, and made the fic nigh-unreadable to anyone who isn't familiar with [[Magical Girl]] and [[Shoujo]] series targeted towards young girls. There are also a lot of [[Shout-Out
* ''[[Nyoron Churuya San]]'' (a [[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya|Haruhi]] gag manga) is largely based on Churuya's desire for smoked cheese — which exists because the author really likes smoked cheese.
* ''[[Decks Fall,
* ''[[The Darker Knight]]'' is a ''[[Batman]]'' [[Troll Fic]] in which Batman saves random celebrities and rock bands and fights against a zombie apocalypse with characters from other comics, cartoons, and movies. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* One [[Alternate Universe Fic|AU]] ''[[High School Musical]]'' fanfic had Gabriella and Troy share a mutual dislike of eggs. To say nothing of the setting, namely casting Gabriella as a well-off Jew and Troy as one of the Hilterjüngen in Nazi Germany. Luckily, the author canceled the fic after coming back from a long hiatus and realizing that it was kind of terrible.
* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' fans (among others) call these elements "pepperjack cheese", or just "pepperjack", after a ''Harry Potter'' [http://pottersues.livejournal.com/1200.html fanfic] in which Hermione expresses a fondness for pepper jack cheese, a mild cheese with jalapeño peppers that's popular in parts of the United States but basically unknown everywhere else. England, of course, is part of "everywhere else", and it's nigh-impossible to obtain there.<ref>Burger King is probably your best bet.</ref> The author boldly stated in her notes that Hermione liked it now because she (the author) liked it. It was such a blatant example that it soon became shorthand for "the characters must like what I like!"
** Musical choices are a very common element. Fanfic writers will often put Hogwarts students (even pureblood wizards like Draco) in shirts advertising moody American Muggle bands [[Present Day Past|that hadn't even been formed at the corresponding timeline.]]
** Another ''Harry Potter'' fanfic, ''[[The Girl Who Lived]]'', features as its main character a [[Gender Flip]]ped version of Harry - who's also a nudist druidess. As can be imagined, this results in a ton of things being thrown into the plot that have absolutely nothing to do with the series, including a reference to [[The Lord of the Rings|Mallorn trees]]...
** In ''[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12562072/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Daft-Morons Harry Potter and the Daft Morons]'' by "sinyk", Harry is a [[Supreme Chef]] who, when he can wrest control of the kitchen from Dobby, creates utter feasts for his friends and loved ones. Inexplicably, one of the things he's mentioned as preparing for one meal are rissoles, an obscure Australian family "comfort food". It probably comes as no surprise that the author is Australian.
* A Drizzt Do'Urden fanfic that was slightly more nuanced than the standard. Catti-brie wanted to try bondage, and while Drizzt is at first interested, being from a society that is controlled by a frothing boot-on-the-neck abusive matriarchy, he started freaking out. He got used to it in the end, though.
* Fics in which the characters eat the author's favourite meal are quite common, and often not particularly problematic, but see the above mention of Pepper-Jack Cheese - it doesn't work when the food is not accessible or there would be other reasons for the characters not to eat it. For example, there was once a ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' fic which featured the elves making a ''pizza''.
* A curious ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''/[[Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)|Classic ''Battlestar Galactica'']] (original) crossover fanfic had this as the climax, with a Mary Sue ''Enterprise'' crewman precipitating the rapture with a piano recital. It took a good chunk of both series' humans (save for a beffudled Picard, musing on whether he could find faith), and even some Cylons, which were revealed to be lizards in silver armor. (This last is a reference to the little-known novelization of the original pilot movie, which was adapted from an early script
* An author has produced a few short ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Meta Fic]]s in which Ninth and Tenth join the Eleventh [[Hatedom]], and lambast him whenever he enters ''[[This Time Round]]''.
** There's also a ''Doctor Who''/''[[The Prisoner]]'' crossover fic. The "new Number Two" convention from The Prisoner is compared to Time Lord regeneration, which provides the sole hook for combining the two series. It's very weird.
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* An otherwise well-written ''[[Babylon 5]]''/[[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|2004 ''Battlestar Galactica'']] crossover seemed to indicate that NCAA basketball was a major obsession of the Earth Alliance.
* ''[[With Strings Attached]]'' is what happened when the then 15-year-old writer got into [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]] and [[Dungeons & Dragons]] simultaneously, though the final product (which she finished when she was 44) went far, far beyond anything as simple as D&D.
* The author of the ''[[Command & Conquer]]'' story ''[[Tiberium Wars]]'' (no, not the official novelization) is clearly a big fan of ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'', especially ''[[Gaunt's Ghosts]]'', and this shows up in his portrayal of Nod which definitely has elements of the Imperial Guard and Space Marines. Not to mention all the other subtler [[Shout-Out
* The fanfic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6932565/1/Return_to_Atlantica_b_1_out_of_3_A_New_Beginning Return to Atlantica]'', besides being a terrifying behemoth (one chapter, one hundred and sixty-six thousand, two hundred and eighteen words), contains everything from ''Pokémon'' to ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'' to ''[[Spyro the Dragon]]'' to ''[[Super Mario Bros.]].''
* A fan of the ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'' series starts pulling the characters out of the video games. Since they are in the "Real World," they can watch movies and play video games, including their own. Due to the nature of the magic involved, the characters will occasionally run into characters like Dante from ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' and Cloud from ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''. ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1863484/1/Razzy_Plush Razzy Plush], [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2007793/1/Sequel_to_Razzy_Plush Sequel to Razzy Plush]'', and ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3242997/1/Plush_Kain_The_Convention_Adventure Plus Kain: The Convention Adventure
* A ''[[Daria]]'' fic, in which shy, insecure Stacy Rowe, who is obsessed with being popular and liked by others was also secretly a fan of the Dead Milkmen. More inexplicable references to and even cameos by bands that it was clear the author loved followed.
* Swing123, author of ''[[Calvin and Hobbes: The Series]]'', seems to ''really'' love ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' and ''[[Doctor Who]]'', as elements and [[Shout-Out
* There's a very well written fic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6673293/1/A_Cure_for_Love A Cure For Love]'' that is a ''[[Death Note]]'' [[Slash Fic]] + [[Britcom|British humor]] + political drama + [[The Smiths]] + pop culture references. It works.
* Another ''[[Daria]]'' fic shows Daria's parents as loving and completely indulgent to the disgustingly spoiled Quinn, while Daria is neglected to the point of emotional abuse. When Daria asks for an upgrade to her creaky aging Apple computer, her parents respond by buying ''Quinn'' the very latest and best ''IBM-clone'' computer. The writer's preference could not have been more obvious if she'd added "Written on an Apple" to every paragraph.
=== Multiple Media ===
* In the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]], veteran ''[[Doctor Who]]'' writer [[Terrance Dicks]]' contributions began to display a rather alarming tendency to have the Doctor's female companions threatened with being raped upon being captured by the villains. Nothing ever happened, of course, but
** Lloyd Rose, who has written various stories in the ''Doctor Who'' Expanded Universe, likes to portray the Doctor as [[The Woobie]]. A lot. He gets injured (or otherwise suffers), in various nasty ways in at least three of [[Tomboyish Name|her]] stories: ''City of the Dead'', ''Camera Obscura'', and ''Caerdroia''. Really [[Normally I Would Be Dead Now|nasty]]. Also, there's often quite a bit of [[Foe Yay]], almost always between the Doctor and characters who pose an immediate, physical threat to him. Looks like there's a bit of a sadomasochism kink there.
** Jim Mortimore and [[Body Horror]], specifically dealing with full-body infections leading to transformation. At one point he does it to ''
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