all for a crime I did commit

[reflectedeve]

Huh. A bit belatedly, I've been reading around through the recent posts people were making about fandom and monetization and "gift economies" etc etc. It's interesting, complicated stuff. I came up in the pre-LJ days of "omg don't forget your disclaimer or you might get sued" and "we never mention fanworks to The Powers That Be" ... and I've grown up to be, among other things, a (currently rather off-and-on) independent self-published cartoonist, in a contemporary (and inescapable) social media landscape. I find the constant pressure to sell and promote everything you do exhausting and hateful, for which I blame this capitalistic hellscape; I'm also happy, when I can, to support other creatives when they follow these more or less required methods of seeking pay for their labor. (I chose to have a day job because I couldn’t bring myself to increase the pressure by basing my livelihood on those things, but I’m behind the ones who made the opposite choice, all the way.) Similarly, I like participating in fandom in part because I don't do it for money, but I also can't afford to do it often or consistently, and for people who pour more of themselves into it, I think asking for tips or commissions is a thoroughly reasonable thing to do. (I loved the comments recessional left on melannen's post, comparing Kofi, some Patreon practices, etc to a busker putting out a hat. Those who enjoy the music are free to drop in a coin, but if you can't afford to do so, there's no barrier to getting to listen, too.)

I'd love to live in a world where we wouldn't all desperately need money in order to have the time and energy to create (not to mention, food to eat and roofs over our heads), but broke creators, fan or otherwise, are not the ones on whom that burden of change can or should rest.

I mentioned taking on a chocolateboxcomm pinch-hit to my partner, and they asked if I was getting paid. I essentially told them no, that I do fandom for joy, not money. Because, now and then, I can. I'm never going to be hugely prolific, especially since I often choose to funnel more energy (and, it happens, some amount of money-making effort) into original work. (That trade-off is a whole other issue. I value fanwork and don't see it as "less" than original work, but original work is still what I would, when the chips are down, like to be known for someday. What I will sacrifice for, and occasionally to a point actually hustle for. Well, this is something I've gone back and forth on as well the last few years, but that's neither here nor there. Regardless ... fandom doesn't get the lion's share of my effort, but it gets to stay pure joy. Your mileage may vary, widely.)

Something tangential started coming up as I read through some of these posts, though, which was this notion that it is completely normal and acceptable for fanart to be monetized, but we have a huge hang-up about treating fanfiction the same way. That in itself is a complex topic, one I'm not going to go into in any great (or researched) depth, but. I can't help but remember the time a few years ago when one of my teachers, an experienced comics artist who had produced very well-known work for a major publisher decades ago and who also happens to be outspoken about creators' rights and best practices for self-protection, posted some urgent warnings about selling artwork of licensed characters (owned specifically by Marvel/Disney and DC, I think).

As he pointed out, this very standard practice largely continues at the ~benevolent whim of large corporations. There are examples of artists who created characters in the first place under problematic "work for hire" contracts who have then faced legal consequences for attempting to sell depictions of their own creations. (While many others haven’t, and do this freely. If there’s actually a predictable logic to this, I haven’t found it.) Mainstream convention Artist's Alleys full of people selling their drawings of Supergirl, Wolverine, The Little Mermaid and goodness knows what else do so based on a sort of communal tradition, but there's no actual legal guarantee that one of these companies won't turn around and start handing out C&Ds. Some obvious parody art might be protected under Fair Use, but a lovingly-rendered portrait of Captain American is not, if you stick a price tag on it.

My mother, until her retirement, worked as a legal assistant for a small IP-centric law firm with a few relatively famous clients, and they would frequently weigh the possibilities of going after quite small infringers in order to preserve copyright for various clients. When I've taken a few commissions, here and there, for art of licensed characters, she's always expressed concern. Just because the practice seems to be accepted and has a long history, doesn't mean it's risk-free.

There are old cultural reasons why things developed this way (some of which probably have to do with commercial fanart being created by the artists who created the official work in the first place - because American comics and animation, in particular, have always been enormously predatory towards their creatives and the "single author" absolute ownership paradigm has historically been a lot rarer than with, say, non-licensed novels). Meanwhile, while there’s a rich historical connection between fanfiction and profic, it has tended to go in the opposite direction (though I’m sure there are exceptions): fanfiction to “original” writer status. Somehow, that resulted in disclaimers and secrecy where the visual side has chosen to brazen out an openly commercialized approach. As an artist who came up through fic-centric fandom, it actually took a lot of soul-searching before I could be comfortable with the idea of monetizing even the occasional bit of fanart (as my public-facing cartoonist self, never in fandom circles), even with an awareness of existing practices. But I'm not sure holding commissioned fanart up as a model to legitimize commissioned fanfic (even as I do support both from an ethical standpoint) would be the best way to go.

Mind you, it is more than a bit weird to me to reflect on the pro/anti-fanfic arguments I used to get into with classmates in college, which had no bearing on legality but were all about “stealing the author’s baby.” Those were uniquely leveled at fic, not art, and I have no idea why. (Because of a history of frustration with different kinds of value being attached to different forms of creative labor within fandom, I’m inclined towards a knee-jerk opinion about writing being somehow considered a more legitimate or essential form of creation/authorship than drawing, but that’s almost certainly unfair.)

Comments

[lb_lee]

I used to do some fanfic on commission, but I gradually phased it out. Writing fanfic has always been really hard for me, and the sheer effort of research was a pain. (But then, fandoms I can write for has very little overlap with fandoms I actually LIKE, something that seems to be really alien to folks.) It just wasn't worth it.

That said, I tried to focus on properties that were old, small, from a different country, or otherwise unlikely to get chased after--like that time I wrote King's Quest V fic involving a character who only appears for one screen. But still, it just seemed like playing with fire, and I decided to GTFO.

I also ended up pay-walling a lot of my work for harassment concerns. Sad, I know, but making someone pay to read my comic instantly weeded out pretty much all the trolls, while posting my work for free tended to be... kinda harrowing. Online, anyway. My fiction has generally been okay to post for free reading, though, thank god. I LIKE making my work as freely accessible as possible; it's important to me. But I also like eating and not getting trolled within an inch of my life.

[reflectedeve]

Everything about my early experiences in fandom would have made taking commissions for fic unthinkable (although also, I never would have done it anyway because I thought writing fic was far too hard, and I was far too bad at it, until the last few years or so). But that was long before crowdfunding and donation systems became so prevalent in creative communities in general. There was a series of posts kicked off by a pretty prominent fan-writer discussing the use of things like Patreon and Kofi, as well as a notable rise in commissions as a practice (at least, in certain corners of fandom) in recent years, which is what got me musing here.

Pay-walling your fanfic, or your work in general? Either way, like I said above, charging money for creative labor is not only utterly reasonable but necessary when it's your livelihood (much as I like to dream of a world where things don't work like that). And you've had some of the worst treatment from trolls I've encountered. Protecting yourself from that nonsense? Reasonable doesn't begin to cover that. <3

[lb_lee]

I only paywall (some of) my comics! ...and the cursed book, though that kinda became part of the trolling.

Fanfic-wise, it helped that people tended to ask me for fic that was unlikely to ever be written well on it's own--like the KQ5 fic. Or another time, someone wanted a fic where the whole cast was multi! It was the latter that kind of broke me, haha, there was SO MUCH research and so much planning. Awful!

[reflectedeve]

Yeah, one thing I've learned from doing a handful of art commissions is that you want to be careful about keeping the actual workload proportional to the pay ... and I doubt most people who would pay for fic would want to spend enough to really justify that level of research! (I do that sort of thing for the few fic I ever write, so it's another good argument against taking commissions. I take commissions for things that are relatively easy for me!)

this is my sole fandom icon anymore

[lb_lee]

Yeah, that, exactly! Admittedly, it was my own fault for totally misguessing how much effort the fic would take; it was a standout, most of the others were totally fine. But it can be fun sometimes to write an anon fic, give it to someone to make them happy, and then sneak away knowing they will never ID you, mwahaha!

[lilacsigil]

Yeah, this is one of the reasons why the Disney Marvel thing worries me - Disney is notoriously fierce at protecting copyrights and trademarks and Marvel has been very relaxed because fan art is a big part of recruiting new artists and retaining current ones. I really don’t want to see someone made into a test case as was the fear lo these many years ago!

I’m a fic writer and crafter so monetising my hobby is anathema to me, but I have no legitimate problem with people putting out the tip jar, except that fear ingrained as a young fan that THE CREATORS will see it and sue!

[reflectedeve]

That was my feeling as well, when the news about Disney & Marvel broke (and with Star Wars as well, honestly, although I'm not sure how litigious Lucasfilm was about this stuff). So far it doesn't seem to have come to much, but there's no guarantee that won't change.

Right?? If nothing else, it's a fascinating demographic shift. (When I was doing research for my Yuletide story this past fall, it was something I got to thinking about a whole lot ... how the infamous "asking your fans to pay for new iPods and lip gloss" sort of thing has transitioned to it being absolutely normal to have tip jars and links to Amazon wishlists in people's profiles. Which is all part of a larger cultural landscape, of course.)

[are_youready]

re fan art being more legitimate than fanfic, my kneejerk reaction is threefold: 1) everyone has doodled harry potter in the corner of their notebook because everyone doodles, but not everyone has written harry potter fanfic bc not everyone writes, 2) the Weird Porn Made For Girls thing probably only applies to fanfic because drawing porn is harder than writing it, and 3) the fact that fanfic is narrative. i feel like people would probably be equally weird about longform fan comics or fan art series if they knew about them. when people think of fan art, it's one piece of fan art. when they think of fanfiction they think of novella length stuff.

i think it's the level of obsession, also. drawing a picture of something doesn't necessarily imply you've spent too much time on that thing. like, using models and imitating styles is a normal part of being an artist. fanfic is something creepy obsessives do, fan art is for normal people

[reflectedeve]

1) chatting with your friends about headcanons and theories are to fanfic as doodling Harry Potter in the corner of your notebook is to fanart. Everyone tells stories, even if they don’t really think of it as writing; writing with practice and deliberation is no less common than drawing with practice and deliberation. Most notebook doodlers wouldn’t claim to be artists, either.

2) Porn is, indeed, the only thing I find easier to write than draw, but I’m not sure the rest follows. I mean, iirc, tentacle dick!Spock art dates back to early fanzines, and thus was part of the original Weird Porn Made For Girls. (Porny fanart was also big in Harry Potter fandom back in the day, let me tell you.) And drawn porn, especially queer drawn porn, gets all the weird cultural reactions (and endless banning from online storefronts and payment processors, as I can personally attest).

3) I don’t really see why being a narrative form would make fic less culturally legitimate, but even if I granted that ... AU fanart (historical settings! coffee shop AUs. Hogwarts AUs), crossover fanart, fanart that depicts a scene instead of just pin-up character art, and even non-canon shippy fanart implies narrative.

And if you think drawing to a skill level required to sell your work ... especially with regard to recognizable likenesses or stylistic mimicry ... doesn’t reflect and require obsession, dude. I don’t know what to tell you. There is a small subset of fanart that might be considered "for normal people." The same applies to published Sherlock Holmes adaptations and sequels. I don’t think the cultural divide you’re talking about is either so cut and dry, or so reasonable.

[are_youready]

Here's the thing: I don't actually think any of those things. I think that fanartists are the fucking backbone of fandom. The issue is that some random person off the street who has never been in a fandom, when hearing that you write fanfic, is gonna think of what I mentioned, and when you say you draw fanart, is gonna think of what I mentioned. Like, as much as we think of fandom existing in a bubble, it really doesn't, and people are going to do stuff that they think is socially acceptable.

Also, that's a really interesting point about headcanon being like fanfics, but I would never have thought of that, and certainly no non-fandom person ever would.

[reflectedeve]

I mean, sure, but that's the thing ... I think non-fandom people would respond similarly to the doodling and the headcanon conversations, even without our terminology. And Sherlock Holmes spin-offs or retellings wouldn't register as "weird" or as fanfic in most cases, any more than selling a posed drawing of a superhero might.

It's that middle ground ... stories written for free exploring potential queer desire or alternate endings. Art of Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy making out (or pff, Garak and Bashir) or Marvel's Thor and Loki on a Napoleonic sailing ship, on the other hand? That's the weird stuff.

(I will say that I don't think the term "fanart" is really out there so much as its own category. People might know what "fanfic" is and know it = weird, but there's just, well, art. Art that is weird, and art that isn't.)

I don't know, it's certainly interesting. Especially since the social acceptability/awareness of fanfiction and fandoms and shipping and the whole nine yards has just increased exponentially since I first started doing this crap back in the late 90s.

[ladyvean]

All I can say is Hear, Hear!