penguinfaery | (no subject)

I love Sarah. The end.

P.S. Ju too. And Bev for good measure. Oh hell I LOVE EVERYONE. Well, everyone awesome, which I feel you probably are if you're reading this.

...we are all being ridiculous.

I went to the dentist this morning, which is why we are chilling out here...But I have a bunch of appointments to clean up my teeth, and I need my wisdom teeth removed, aaaaand I still randomly have a baby tooth ("Baby tooth" is just a cute phrase) There's an adult tooth under it, but he said at this point, to just not mess with it unless something happens to the baby tooth.

And now a sorta fandom-y rant.

So my friend got in a bit of wank, and it made me start thinking...and it really bugs me fanfic authors can't sell there stuff.

I'm not saying profit from it. WE don't profit from what we do. We make money, but it all goes back into making more art, going to cons, etc. And I think it's sorta BS the authors can't do that too.

Cost wise...is an author printed a book, say 100 pages, perfect bound, it's gonna cost them about $7. If they sell it for $10 (And I seriously doubt they could get away with much more, and sell any. And I doubt they could NOT get it bound and sell any), that would be $3 profit. Now, a table to a con is gonna cost $75. Right there, they'd need to sell 25 copies to break even (And lemme tell you, selling 25 copies of a book at a con isn't easy). And that doesn't cover hotel, gas, etc.

There isn't profit to be made. It's a labor of love.

Creatively...I'm sorry. It's all a slipper gray area, fanart and fanfic. Selling one isn't superior to selling the other, both ways you're making money off someone else's creation. The reason people don't crack down is the fact the profit really ISN'T that much to be made, and if they were going to crack down, they'd have just as much legal right to crack down on fanart.

The ONE valid argument, imo, is supplies. You don't need a lot of supplies to write. You do need a lot to make any sort of hell. After it's MADE (Assuming we're just talking prints of art and not...merchandise) the cost is pretty even, but to make it to start with is gonna be more. But even time isn't a factor you can really judge against. I cam make a sketch just as fast as most people can spit out a drabble. SOME artist take longer...some writers do. Some piece, whether it's writing or art take longer then others. You can't really validly bring time into it.

I think a lot of the issue is quality. A...mediocre or down right bad piece of art is...a lot easier to spot, and a lot more unpleasant then a mediocore or bad piece of writing. Which leads people to go "While, *I* can write fanfic..." a lot more then "While *I* could draw that."

But to me...that's just a process of elimination like anything else in a capitalist society. If the writing isn't good, people won't pay for it. Or, it would work that way if we hadn't drawn this line that fanfic writers should work for free while fanartist shouldn't, so no one would ever pay for any writing ever.

I printed out like...200 pages of fanfic this year (Cause there's an amount we get to print for free at school, and if you don't use it, it's gone). I feel guilty, clearly, as I just explained myself, that I know have all these awesome fanfic, physically HAVE them, and didn't pay a dime. If I went and printed off one of the Supernatural novels without paying, I'd have that same little voice of guilt ~~And I probably got way better quality with the fanfic~~. If any of the authors I printed off were offering me all of their stories, printed out and neatly bound, for $5-$10 bucks...fuck yes I'd buy it.

If it was a matter of making PROFIT off someone elses stuff, it'd be an entirely different matter. But hell, this is how fanfiction use to be circulated. I dunno at what point fan-zines became verboten. And it seems like the short end of the stick that fanfic writers pour just as much effort into writing (Or, some do) and they can't even breath the idea of selling it. But if you draw the same story, with the same lines...suddenly it's 100% ok.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I agree with pretty much all of the above. It makes me sad that writers can't sell their products, because some really deserve to be able to. I don't think that either art or writing is superior, but it feels like fanart has been elevated above fanfiction as far as fandom goes. People say "well, why would you pay for something you can read for free" but you can look at fanart of varying quality for free just as easily. And if you've been to cons, you can see people selling fanart at ridiculous prices in some cases (obviously with intent to profit.)
There are definitely some wonderful fics that I would buy a book copy of in a heartbeat, because I've read them multiple times, and would love a hard copy if that was available. I used to print a lot of fic to share with friends who didn't have steady internet access. Sharing a print copy of something, as well as just reading a print copy is a different experience than sending someone a link, or reading on a screen... similar to the difference in holding a piece of art (whether original or a print) versus looking at that on a screen.

You do make a valid point in regards to quality... bad art is far easier to spot immediately than bad writing, which you need to actually read some of before you can tell. But that's an issue with any print media... often you buy a regular book without knowing what the quality is (and this is even more the case with some of the crap that manages to get published as e-books.) But even so, people should have the choice to buy something or not, and if it's bad quality, then hopefully people won't pay for it.

In regards to time and effort, I do think it varies drastically from person to person. Visual art, to me, seems like a more intense labor, while writing can be more extensive. Not in every case, obviously. But a piece of art is a piece of art. It takes time and inspiration and talent, but is more self-contained than a 500-page epic story, which may have taken years of a writer's life to produce in its entirety. But a piece of art may also have far more effort put into it than a simple oneshot or drabble, so it's obvious that there are different levels of effort and quality as well as differences between individual artists and writers.

And at this point I think I'm rambling and restating most of what you've already said. XP

XD yeah but it was intresting rambling. And I really think the last paragraph is relevant to...the diffrence between like...intensity and stamina, sorta.

"Intensity and stamina." That's a good way of putting it. Because I think that for very involved pieces, art or writing, that's the main difference. Not talking sketches or drabbles. But a really amazing piece of art, which likely took days worth of work, that's perfect and symbolic and looks just how an artist wants (haha, if such a thing ever happens, lol) is incredibly intense. Emotionally as well as in amount of effort. But for days worth of work, a writer often can't produce an entire story, because it takes longer to formulate. So yes, they do need more "stamina" with their idea, and it's unfortunate that even if they spend a year or more working on making something as close to perfect as possible, they can't sell it.

Anyway, you made good points in your post, and I do agree with pretty much all you said.

Actually, LJ had a few communities set up (I've been on this unending HP fanfic rush, and I know that they did one) for earthquake relief in Haiti where authors (and artists, but I think it was mostly fanfiction) would write things and basically auction them off. I mean, they didn't get the money, of course, but I dono. Maybe something like that could work for things not disaster relief?