State of the Author Update - August / Fall Semester · 11:22am Aug 18th, 2014
Good morning, my faithful readers.
So after getting The Placement Agency out of my head (Finally.)(Even if only a dozen people read the darn thing.) You'll notice a bit of a lull in my writing habits. That's because the beginning of the fall semester is looming on the horizon, with all the scheduling and life changes that brings, so I'm taking this opportunity to get some Real Life stuff sorted out. That being said, I know all of you are interested to know what's going on in Lapisland, and so I'm going to give you a quick rundown.
First and foremost - My writing slate. It's change a lot in recent days, but I think I finally have it nailed down. First and foremost, I am in fact finally going to finish Dueling Piano's. It's a task that has waited frankly for too long, but I am finally feeling ready to do it. Once I have finished it, which I hope to have done sometime before the end of this month, I'll be launching into a specific series of stories designed to work me up to a major project again. Amongst these stories will be The Great and Magnificent Seven an Old West themed story starring some of our favorite antagonists, and Inside Another's Eyes, a full-fic expansion of my EFNW contest entry that I tore down after failing to even make the honorable mentions list. It's a story I want to tell in full, and I hope you folks will enjoy it.
I will also be writing, with no defined date, Twilight Exports Herself Repeatedly Which will be another humorous aside in the vein of Twilight Verbs Article Nouns. And Rarity's Day Off, something of a spoof fic designed to scratch a highly specific itch I've wanted to write about for some time.
But the one you've all been waiting for is finally going to be done. After 14 fan-fictions teasing this ship, I'm finally going to tackle my personal favorite fanship, Twilestia, in The Last Lesson. (Working title, but I've been considering using this one for a long time.)
And after that, well....
I have a few major projects sitting on my desk. The Code of Dissonance, The Twilight Shadow, Dr. Negative and The Avatar's Call - All of which I want to work on. Which one I end up hitting will depend greatly on how I feel after the above projects.
Secondly. it has become clear that no one amongst my readers is interested in contributing to a Patreon for me. With this in mind, I have deleted the account and removed the link. I will be maintaining a pay-pal tip jar which you can find on our user-page, but its pretty clear that monetizing my work is going to be a ways off. Though my opinions of why people will sink thousands of dollars into once in a while representations of the visual arts and not a cent into the constant production of the literary arts must remain unsaid for now at the risk of coming across a touch bitter. I'll save that rant for another day.
In the wake of this, I will be attempting to explore other means of monetizing on my work. I don't quite know what I will decide, but I will keep you all appraised.
Finally, I'd like to thank all of you for sticking around and continuing to support my work with comments. Special shout-outs to Scytho, who continues to be the best commentator a guy could ask for.
I'll see you guys in the trenches. Keep an eye out for Dueing Piano's to conclude in the near future
And I remain, ever humbly yours,
Lapis-Lazuli
Good Luck Getting Everything Sorted out! And I can't wait to see your new projects
I know this feel...
Regardless, Dueling Pianos! w00t w00t!
I know it might sound selfish and I'm certainly going to sound like a bit of an arse but I currently get your work for free, why would I pay for something I get already that you're under no obligation to produce. You do it for fun and in a perfect world you'd get payed for it but sadly it doesn't seem to be the case.
2379401
Absolutely no artist, writer, or other creative is under any "Obligation" to produce anything. They do it because they want to create it, and then they monetize it in order to KEEP creating it, because the world doesn't shower free money on artists.
Because with money, I could devote more time and effort into this thing that I do and make a living off of entertaining readers like you. Money would ensure I would CONTINUE to have the time to produce this stuff you supposedly like instead of being forced to do other things. I may have the free time to do this right now, but that will very quickly be coming to an end when I leave college and have get a 'real job' which will more or less put an end to me producing anything literary unless I can find some way of making money off of it.
Since you obviously hold my work to have no value, though, I suppose that really doesn't mean anything to you. You obviously will not give a shit when that happens.
2379419 Now saying I don't hold your work at any level of value would be a lie and I wouldn't be against paying for your work but the format you're using is wrong.
You're trying to get money for something you already do for free, people pay for art because they get something physical, tangible, it something they get to hold in their own hands, it's a status symbol.
Sure there a some generous people out there that might give a little bit of their cash but the majority of people won't give money for something they get for free.
My opinions and thoughts aside, the biggest problem you face in getting money for your writing is the age group you end up writing for. Most of the people reading your work are young, they're in that age group where they either can't get a job or even if they can they're struggling to make ends meet and you're annoyed when you can't get money for words on a screen?
I'm sorry, this is probably needlessly antagonistic but it something I needed to say, you probably feel differently and I can understand the need for gratification for the work you do.
I'm sorry it didn't work out in the way you wanted.
I will pay someone for their original work if I think it's worth paying for. I will not, however, participate in setting up a salary for someone for producing a fan work.
Commissions are one thing. They are a one-time transaction for a specific product that you, typically, own yourself when it is complete.
Patreon-for-fan-work is just a terrible idea as far as I'm concerned. And the ones that people have set up already? Eventually Hasbro is gonna notice them, and it's gonna be a problem for someone. Very likely for all of us.
This is why I have bought a picture from MysticAlpha, because I wanted it for something and it was mine, but why I will /never/ contribute to MysticAlpha's Patreon.
2379505
Hasbro isn't going to do shit to the Patreon folks, because the entire point of Patreon is the concept of Patronage. You're not paying an artist to do ANY specific kind of work, you're paying them to continue producing work, period. You're essentially donating to them because you think they're awesome enough to warrant a donation to support them continuing to produce work of their specific kind. The entire point of Patronage was "I find this artist's work to be excellent. In order to make certain he has the time to continue to producing such art instead of worrying about such folderol as Food, Shelter and Self-preservation, I shall provide some small monetary support for him instead of paying him large lump sums for highly specific commissions so that I might continue to appreciate his body of work." This idea is freaking as old as ART ITSELF.
Since proving that those payments were for a specific kind of copyrighted work work (Unless someone outright says it is for that) would be a legal nightmare, they're not going to get touched.
2379455
I could say a lot of things here, but most of them will be angry.
I'm not going to do any more arguing here, Im too fucking tired.
2379505 Gonna risk sticking my neck out into this.
If you commissioned a piece of fan art, then its still a derivative work and still technically illegal, and you paid the artist to break the law. The fact that the derivative work is 100% his own creation is, unfortunately, irrelevant. Its based on an established and copyright protected IP and its creation, even if done for free and not as a commission, is illegal. Hell, every last piece of writing on this site is technically illegal. COSPLAY is technically illegal. Just goes to show how badly copyright law needs to be revised.
Patreon is an interesting grey area that I honestly don't know how it works because its so new. I'd assume that because its donation-based that even if you were making fan art the money itself would be okay (those companies would surely fight it). It doesn't change the fact that the fan content being released is still an illegal derivative work in isolation, though.
Again though, if you commissioned an original piece, you're in the green. Not being acusitory, simply attempting clarification, being as I have a Patreon account as my sole source of income at the moment and have dabbled in commissions in the past.
2379531
I think your "problem", if you can even call it that, with Patreon was simply the size of your audience.
I have 51,400 YouTube subscribers. I have just over 100 patrons on Patreon. That averages out to less than 0.2% of my audience being willing to help support me making videos. With metrics like that, you need a stupid large amount of eyeballs looking at your work to even get the ball rolling. Unfortunate, but true.
And to the fact that, as was already mentioned, most Bronies are in their early to mid teens with no disposable income, as well as fan fiction being the red headed stepchild of fan creations with an overly negative connotation, and you have a massive uphill battle.
2379586
Assuming Patreon is worded the way I think it is, and I took a long hard look at how they apply themselves, you are not being paid to produce any specific kind of content. You are being paid by people who want to support you so you CAN produce content. That you choose to produce derivative work during this time is irrelevant to the money you make from Patreon. Since the site basically functions on the concept of artistic patronage, there's no legal ground for Hasbro to stand on to tell you to C&D since Patreon does not impose any requirements upon you to produce any specific content.
You could be producing videos of you making burbling sounds for fifty minutes and the people paying you to make "Videos" would still technically be on the line for the money you ask. They'd probably hate you afterwords, but that's irrelevant.
2379610
As to this, you're probably right. I suppose the only way I'll ever make money as a writer would be to basically shut this whole operation down and start doing my original work projects.
I'll say it for you, people are idiots. I have never understood why visual art commands such high prices in this day and age when anything can easily be replicated for cheap.
2379784 It's more accessible. With the short attention span that culture precludes us to having, it's much easier to appreciate and gauge quality in a purely visual medium than it is in an abstract one like writing. I can place the Mona Lisa next to a kindergarten scribble and you can instantly tell the difference. If I placed something like Dueling Pianos next to say, I dunno, My Immortal or Twilight, it'd be harder to gauge the quality difference because from a base visual impression; good and bad writing look identical. The only way to determine if something is good or bad is to read it, and most people today don't have the patience for that.
Oh shush. It has 112 upvotes. So a lot more than a dozen.
You're obviously going to finish off Twilight War to set us up for the fourth story. I mean, what else could you possible do?
Hmmmm, The Avatar's Call? is this the long anticipated, and much requested, cross over between MLP and the live action version of Avatar The Last Airbender(clearly the superior version)? I can't see how it could be anything but that!
I'm going to be completely and totally honest here...
I totally forgot that thing existed.
I remember you putting up a blog talking about it and I think you even mentioned it was live in some other blog. Then, poof, forgot. Thing is I almost never go to an author's main page and thus never saw the link to remind myself that this was a thing.
I've seen some authors put their "tip jar" link at the bottom of each chapter they write. I kinda think that's the way to go to remind readers that such a thing exists.
I've always assumed that this was the endgame for fanfic authors with actual talent(ie. you). You use your fanfic readers as the testing ground for ideas and techniques, fine tune what works, and then apply that to your original writing projects.
We are the crucible for your future writing career.
With the rise of Kindle and other ereaders self publishing has never been easier. Which is both good and bad. It's easy to get lost in a sea of garbage with everyone and their uncle publishing horribly edited romance novels!
But hey! You're on Fimfic so you're already used to navigating through a sea of crap to gain attention! Oh ho! It's funny because the feature box is terrible!
*squeeeeeeeee*
2379586
2379531
*shrug* I'm not really gonna get into the legality of it. Just saying where I consider the line to be drawn in my head. Ultimately the commission model has decades of tacit acceptance, whereas I think the Patreon thing is gonna cause an issue.
Woo! Duelling Pianos!
With that out of the way, it's a shame you took down the Patreon, you barely gave it any time at all.
Disregarding the fact that a lot of people have enough trouble just getting by on a day-to-day basis, these things take a long time to get going. Producing any content online is not a gateway to instant wealth and riches, it takes an inordinate amount of time to "get noticed" and for people to start contributing. Even big YouTubers like Nerd Cubed, TotalBiscuit and (shudders) PewDiePie (
) had to start somewhere, and it was a long, slow road to get to where they are today.
That, and you're in the same window that a lot of good writers on this site are; 1-2k watchers. That makes you the everyman, and, with the best will in the world, while you've definitely got skill and creativity, you haven't really done anything to set yourself apart from the crowd. Hell, even some of those who (in my opinion) have, don't get the attention you think they would because of it.
Also, as Tommy pointed out (Hi Tommy! /fanboy), this is fanfiction we're talking about. While I will leap to its defence on any day of the week after being a member, lurking and otherwise, of this site, the fact remains that there is a huge bias towards our chosen medium because there are a lot of people utterly incapable of writing that have flooded the "market" with poorly constructed, badly written, generally crap fiction. The reasons for this are many, and there's not much point going into them here. My point, however, is that, as mentioned above by Mr Oliver, you picked possibly the worst medium available to try and kick off your cash flow.
A better idea might be to try and Patreon your own works. Make a tumblr or other blog site account, write your works and post them up there (taking appropriate copyright measures, obviously), link your Patreon there and cross-link this original work account with your account here. It would be slow going (if it worked at all), but you might find that people would be more willing to support original writing that isn't tied to an established IP. Maybe.
That's just my two cents anyway, feel free to ignore me.
Off-topic: Have you and Inky discussed my suggestion any further? I only ask because it's been awhile since I heard anything and I've held off of reading BTM any further until you guys reach a decision.
2379948
PM for you incoming.
2379877
The Avatar's Call is more... inspired by The Last Airbender than it is a direct crossover. You'll see when I post the teaser, but I think I've got something great on my hooves.
For what its worth, I think the Tipjar will be fine for now, and hopefully someone will decide they really want cover-art for their favorite fic or soon-to-be-fic.
2379866
The fact that you just compared Dueling Pianos to My Immortal makes me blush.
I also love how all of this can be summed up as "Good writing? Aint nobody got time fo' dat!"