The Voices Are Telling Me to Hug You - Now Available for Print Orders! · 7:35pm Sep 21st, 2019
So hey, remember the BronyCon Bookstore?
(Seriously, does anyone actually remember it? I blacked out for all of BronyCon weekend. I think we broke the merch hall or something?)
Well, anyway, I reportedly was not only the proprietor of said bookstore, but also sold a book there too! Specifically, an anthology with all my best short stories, novelettes, and screenplays (well, technically just the one) remastered for print. And now, after a period of time best left not reflected upon, that anthology is available for direct order through Lulu!
Magnificent cover art and design done by Dawnfire (Twitter / DeviantArt), who is most assuredly best pony
As shown in that image and in the book's Lulu description, this 376-page softcover volume includes:
- Plural Possessive - Former #1 rated story on FIMFiction
- A Failure to Plan
- Glow Up - Winner of Everfree Northwest's 2019 Scriptfest contest
- Far From the Tree
- Snowblind
- Better Dig Two
- The Sum of Our Parts
- Sky Pirates of Equestria: Phoenix Flight
- I Am Demon - Winner of Equestria Daily's 2014 Outside Insight contest; featured in the Royal Canterlot Library
- Monsters of Our Own
Now, to address the most important aspect of this listing: currently, the book is priced at $35.00 USD prior to shipping, which I know is pretty high compared to the prices of other printed fics. However, there are a few reasons I chose this price, which I'll briefly touch on here. First, because of the use (and narrative significance) of colored text in "I Am Demon," the base printing cost of this book is significantly higher (about three times more) than it usually would be since it needs to be printed in color rather than black and white, so that in and of itself prices me out of the usual fanfic printing price range.
Beyond that, though, I know people are leery about selling fanfic for any kind of profit, and for historically good reason, but (as I told many people in the buildup to the Bookstore) I believe that the kind of fanart we produce here is not fundamentally different from that of visual artists and animators, and they've historically had no trouble monetizing the work they do. So with that in mind, I'm interested in testing the waters and seeing whether selling prints of fanfics (all of which, at least in my case, are available for free online and will always remain that way if I can help it) can exist within that same kind of space.
Sort of continuing from the previous point, I've never had a Patreon or any similar thing set up for my fan writing, primarily because that form of artist support just never quite sat right with me personally. That's not to say at all that having a Patreon is a scummy thing to do (see point #2 for how I feel about making money off of fanart!), but it just wasn't ever something that seemed like it would work for my particular "ruminate over stories for a long time and only produce maybe 3-4 published works a year" style.
So with that in mind, I figured this would be a good way for anyone--if they were so kind as to be inclined--to send me a one-time no-long-term-obligation "hey, I like your stuff" stipend. You're by no means obligated to pay me anything--I write these stories because I really enjoy writing them, and I'll continue to do so as long as it's enjoyable--but if you are interested in supporting me financially for the stories I've put up here, this is the way that seems to me like it would work best for everyone involved.
Regardless of whether you order the book or not, I owe every person reading this blog my immense gratitude for your readership and support over the years, as well as (once again) your support for the Bookstore and our fellow FIMFic authors. On that note, Ponyfeather Publishing has several horsefic offerings available of their own, as well as a list of various other non-PFP publications that individual authors have put up, so please go check those out as well!
Cool. Adding to my ordering info page.
It happened, man. I’m still trying to figure out how to work the experience into my own BronyCon recap series, which is currently progressing at a glacial pace. But it very, very, very definitely happened!
Awesome! I'll add it to the Friends of PFP page when I get home tomorrow.
I feel like we should keep such efforts minimal; the intent behind copyright laws is to keep company's from losing money and while current fanfiction output in general isn't hurting anyone's bottom linr, I don't want to rock the boat.
I ordered my copy.