I wonder how fan fiction got published.
The story I read was it grew megapopular online and an agent/publisher decided to novelize it.
Can’t vouch for the accuracy, but sounds likely.
Long story short, Stephanie Meyer told the writer of the fan fic “Uh... That’s not appropriate for my characters or my forum.”
[A laugh considering.}
So butthurt fanfic writer takes the manuscript, changes the names, adds a few extra paragraphs maybe, and submits it to a publisher.
Publisher bought it.
And here we are today.