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Apparently I'm feeling cranky tonight
Particularly about fandom's aversion to money. Oh noes, someone might want to pay an author for their work. HORRORS! Or a community leader for doing a good job. AGHAST!
Good Christ, imzy needs to make money somehow. They're going to skim off transactions to avoid having ads. Which means... there need to BE transactions.
Maybe it's not the worst thing in the world to hand someone a dollar for a thing you enjoyed and also help pay for the platform you enjoyed it on. Maybe that's not the end of the world, especially since you don't HAVE to and no one is twisting your arm.
But hey, no one bags on fanartists for selling their art all over the place, so I guess it's just writers that are out to ruin the Utopian Economy of Free Stuff that fandom expects to be given.




I just joined your journal to agree with you. Oh no, having to pay for things, jfc.
Not even -have- to. "Seeing the option to pay for things triggers me." I can't even.
I wish people would stop using that word to describe "it makes me uncomfortable". Someone used it to try and justify not wanting to see a pairing crossing their dash yesterday, and it's just like...you can just not want to see the pairing. That is a valid thing to want, and your desires are not less important because they aren't motivated by mental trauma. You don't have to say it's triggering you to justify not wanting to see it.
...also known as the point that I noped out of that discussion and decided I didn't care enough to try and continue it.
And how the hell can a tipping button be triggering except in the most exceptional of circumstances that you absolutely can't expect others to accommodate?
To be completely fair, they did actually say "it makes me uncomfortable" and I read into that the trigger warning culture in which being uncomfortable is a moral infraction that requires reparations.
I have developed just about zero patience for otherwise healthy individuals that have the emotional resilience of mashed potatoes.
It's very disheartening, I'm thinking (vaguely) of going pro, and relying on a thankfully large fanbase to help me make the transition, but while severl kind people have said they'll pay for my work, I do find myself doubting.
It's as if the very suggestion of having to pay for something is somehow against everything fandom is, but only when it comes to writers (or so it seems)
You know... I saw a tumblr post yesterday reblogged by Seanan McGuire about how much fandom rags on Published Authors and how totally self-defeating that is. There are a lot of "fanfiction is so much better" so much edgier, so much more willing to take a chance. And... it's true to an extent... if you compare to the output of the major Manhattan publishers.
But the world of small presses exists. And that world is going to be a lot of people who probably started in fics and are doing the edgier things. And if you don't actually go buy their stuff... how are you making the world you claim you want?
Unless what you really wanted was all that stuff for free. And also for it to be known intellectual properties and screw original work entirely.
Like, I get it. I'm from the time before, when every fic had to have a disclaimer on it stating that you weren't making money and someone else owned the thing and you were just playing in the sandbox, no harm, no foul.
So we developed this anti-money thing because money got you letters from lawyers. But there's a difference between putting out a tip jar next to something people are free to take and charging for admission.
AND, nothing on the Internet is free. If you aren't paying for a service/site, then that service/site is selling you to someone else. So which side of the equation do you want to be on? And if it's not the paying side, then people better not be running Adblocker, cause that's just theft, that's deciding you're not going to pay either way but still use resources.
Tumblr doesn't let you choose to pay, so I feel the culpability of theft is somewhat diminished. But we've got a chance here to build a different paradigm. Only it requires accepting that money isn't icky and you aren't owed anything for free.
I'm considering now subscribing to the Imzy main com for a monthly amount just cause.
I think part of what I keep losing sight of is that fact that, while yes, fanfiction matters, Tumblr matters, there are an awful lot of people who still make up what I see as "mainstream" consumers. The kind of people who are happy to let their entertainment be what it is without making a statement, and to pay for it.
And you're right, for Tumblr peeps, there's a lot of small house publishers producing really cutting edge fiction, but when it comes to actually parting from even small amounts of money, people get up in arms about it.
(And then there are the entitled people who get so demanding about updates of FREE fanfiction. I have had people throw the most epic of strops when I have to ease of on my weekly or fortnightly update schedule, and it's like, dude, you get what you pay for. In the case of fanfiction, more than what you pay for, since you're getting entertainment for nothing.
And yes, I'm quite tempted to subscribe to Imzy too. I can't spare much, but I can spare a little and I hope it helps.
I'm sure my dollar a month won't "help" per se, but I feel like it's a step in the right cultural direction. Be The Change, etc. I already pay a monthly fee for my writing software, because I like it, because it gets updated, because they respond to users, because it's pretty. And for Scribd so I can access books. Why not for this too?
Here's the post from the disillusioned author.
Certainly when it comes to trying to make a living as a writer, you are going to do better appealing to mainstream readers. You might even push boundaries because you straddle worlds.
I'd been very... "Yeah! You tell 'em!" about those pro-fic-only posts when I saw them. But then I read this author's post and I thought she really made a great point.
Brilliant points! And I totally agree with her. I'm lucky enough to be a relatively popular fanfic author, but when I mention original? Well, it's not exactly crickets, there are one or two voices of support (which is wonderful!) but really not much.
"Making a living" is a strong word for what I plan to do. More "contribute in some small way to general household income" is really the best I can hope for, but that's enough.
And I'm totally with you. I'll help you Be The Change too, for what that's worth =D Thank you for pointing me to the author's post. I like Seanan Mcguire's work, and I wonder if the person she reblogged it from would be interested in talking to me more about their experiences.
Given what I know about authors, I bet they totally would. :)
I'll give it a go =D