penguinfaery | (no subject)

So. A rant.

It really bugs me how oppose to fanfiction being sold fandom is, verses fanart.

It quite hypocritical.

Now, I don't think writers should make profit off fanfiction. But on the same thread I don't think fanartist should make profit.

But making a profit implies not that you walk out of, say, the convention with $100 bucks in your pocket. It means you walk out of the convention with a $100 bucks you did not spend to get there.

So say I am an artist going to a local convention.

I make $300! Hooray!

Now, what did I spent to get there?

$75 for the table
$50 for my badge
$100 for my room
$20 for gas too and from
$100 for stock (that's get me around 100-150 prints)
$50 for misc (let's say a cash box, table cloth and some business cards)

And oh snap I just spent $395 to sell at an artist alley table! I am now $95 in the hole.

And that doesn't even brush on the cost of supplies (To lay it out, in markers alone I have spent $1000 of so in my career/ Clearly that's not ONLY for this, but making the original art isn't cheap. Even if you do digital, you need a nice computer, a tablet and may or may not pay for editing programs). Plus all those numbers can change (I buy business card, for example, so that's $20-$50). Some people cut prices some place, splurge others, but to have a decent layout you're looking around that price.

Now! My friend, we will call her Jill, over here, she writes fanfic. She puts just as much time and energy into it. She sees me sitting at my table, talking to people, fan squeeing over it, and wants to share her art form the same way.

Now keep in mind, no one in their right mind would pay $0.50 for something printed off and staples together from Jill's home printer. So she get a friend (We'll say me for this example) to make a few piece of art, and gets it all printed up in little perfect bound booklets. Now, assuming she can FIND a place that would print fan fiction, she's gonna be paying $5-$10 a booklet.

$75 for the table
$50 for her badge
$100 for her room
$20 for gas too and from
$100 for stock (10-20 books)
$50 for misc (let's say a cash box, table cloth and some business cards)

And she can make, at minimum, $200 (Cause nobody's paying $20 for a 50 page fanfiction they can find online for free)

Granted writers have way less overhead to MAKE fanfiction. And I didn't include time cost, because a) this is something most of us do ANYWAY and b) that varies too much person to person.

But I don't really see why, if Jill wants to shell out the money, so she can interact face to face with readers, she is condemned by fandom, and I get a whole section of the con set away for me.

Clearly there are lines that can be crossed (Just as there are in the art side of things), and there are licensing issues (but also, OBVIOUSLY that is an issue on the artist side of things.)

It just doesn't seem fair.