~~ Join Us! The starving elite!
Mar. 11th, 2004 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaI'm having an interesting moral dilemma recently that I can't seem to crack by myself.
I found a site, Juxtaposefantasy.net, which is basically decent original slash fiction in several different fantasy-type universes-- as a paid, subscription service. $9.99 a month, no less. The writer updates one of the story universes once a week, etc etc.
My first reaction to this was horror-- paying for slash?? Please! Who does she think she is?! ...That was also my second and third reaction.
And then I read some of the teaser chapters, and was hooked. I'm a sucker for suspense things-- which is why I try to avoid suspense fiction and don't mind spoilers. I don't -seek out- spoilers, but I'm one of those people who hates that awful itch of having to know that seems to please most people. It just... bothers me. I know most people get off on it... and I do like the small adrenaline rush, I guess. But I'm too prone to compulsive, addictive behaviors already, I think, and suspense fics just make it too much for me to take and I overload. I realize most well-written fic is in the suspense category if it's a WIP, come to think of it, so I've been reading almost exclusively that for awhile now. Hmm. Maybe it's worse if the actual content is a thriller also. Er... but that's a complete tangent.
Anyway, I paid the money, but now I feel horribly dirty and uncomfortable with myself. It raises all sorts of awkward questions, this discomfort.
So why is my instinctive response that this self-publishing is somehow "bad"? How is self-publishing on the net "bad"? Why am I so instinctively drawn to mainstream publishing, considering that it rips off artists and doesn't exactly reward quality? Isn't what this writer is doing what most of us would want to do, that is, writing what she loves and getting both an interactive, vocal readership and a means to support herself meanwhile?
Well, first of all, I think the price is a complete rip-off. Second of all, she's just... not -that- good. And I realize that sounds kind of elitist or whatever, but I do have this old-fashioned feeling (completely out of touch with reality as it is) that you should be brilliant to get to be published. You should be -better- than the rest of us somehow. And this person doesn't even seem to have a beta who'd catch some basic grammar errors. So there's that.
This elitist thing is why people say "I'm a published author" while puffing out their chest and looking down their noses, right? Even though... well... most "published authors" suck in a bad way, and "best-sellers" are usually so far from "literature" as to be from another literary planet altogether. A part of me also thinks that as difficult as it would be to write oodles of fic while having a full-time non-writing job, that's just one of the trials of being a writer.
You're -supposed- to starve, stay up all night writing while you slave away at the McFast-Food-Joint all day and/or try to finish grad school or whatever, have no social life, and shut yourself into a small room with only coffee and/or Mountain Dew for company. That's how it works, isn't it? That's the glory of it, isn't it? Then, at the end, the truly great (and high-stamina) among us will cross the finish-line as True Writers, and all the famous publishing houses will take one look at the final manuscript and swoon. Just-- swoon away; either that, or thus begins the equally arduous process of sending in the damn thing to everyone and their brother until -someone-, someday, takes pity on you. That being another Test Of Your Glory And Dedication To The Cause. And/or you get your big break having your most throw-away, casually written fic published in Amazing Stories (okay, now I'm stuck in the 40s, but whatever).
That's how I want it to be, even if it's clearly just a pipe-dream.
So. Do you guys think it's a rip-off? Would you do this if you could? Would you then charge by the year instead of by the month? Would you just not charge as much? I'm really stumped, and also curious.
...I suppose all this goes a ways to explain why I still haven't even attempted to be published, huh :> Besides the whole "my original fic is (generally unfinished) crap" thing -.-
I found a site, Juxtaposefantasy.net, which is basically decent original slash fiction in several different fantasy-type universes-- as a paid, subscription service. $9.99 a month, no less. The writer updates one of the story universes once a week, etc etc.
My first reaction to this was horror-- paying for slash?? Please! Who does she think she is?! ...That was also my second and third reaction.
And then I read some of the teaser chapters, and was hooked. I'm a sucker for suspense things-- which is why I try to avoid suspense fiction and don't mind spoilers. I don't -seek out- spoilers, but I'm one of those people who hates that awful itch of having to know that seems to please most people. It just... bothers me. I know most people get off on it... and I do like the small adrenaline rush, I guess. But I'm too prone to compulsive, addictive behaviors already, I think, and suspense fics just make it too much for me to take and I overload. I realize most well-written fic is in the suspense category if it's a WIP, come to think of it, so I've been reading almost exclusively that for awhile now. Hmm. Maybe it's worse if the actual content is a thriller also. Er... but that's a complete tangent.
Anyway, I paid the money, but now I feel horribly dirty and uncomfortable with myself. It raises all sorts of awkward questions, this discomfort.
So why is my instinctive response that this self-publishing is somehow "bad"? How is self-publishing on the net "bad"? Why am I so instinctively drawn to mainstream publishing, considering that it rips off artists and doesn't exactly reward quality? Isn't what this writer is doing what most of us would want to do, that is, writing what she loves and getting both an interactive, vocal readership and a means to support herself meanwhile?
Well, first of all, I think the price is a complete rip-off. Second of all, she's just... not -that- good. And I realize that sounds kind of elitist or whatever, but I do have this old-fashioned feeling (completely out of touch with reality as it is) that you should be brilliant to get to be published. You should be -better- than the rest of us somehow. And this person doesn't even seem to have a beta who'd catch some basic grammar errors. So there's that.
This elitist thing is why people say "I'm a published author" while puffing out their chest and looking down their noses, right? Even though... well... most "published authors" suck in a bad way, and "best-sellers" are usually so far from "literature" as to be from another literary planet altogether. A part of me also thinks that as difficult as it would be to write oodles of fic while having a full-time non-writing job, that's just one of the trials of being a writer.
You're -supposed- to starve, stay up all night writing while you slave away at the McFast-Food-Joint all day and/or try to finish grad school or whatever, have no social life, and shut yourself into a small room with only coffee and/or Mountain Dew for company. That's how it works, isn't it? That's the glory of it, isn't it? Then, at the end, the truly great (and high-stamina) among us will cross the finish-line as True Writers, and all the famous publishing houses will take one look at the final manuscript and swoon. Just-- swoon away; either that, or thus begins the equally arduous process of sending in the damn thing to everyone and their brother until -someone-, someday, takes pity on you. That being another Test Of Your Glory And Dedication To The Cause. And/or you get your big break having your most throw-away, casually written fic published in Amazing Stories (okay, now I'm stuck in the 40s, but whatever).
That's how I want it to be, even if it's clearly just a pipe-dream.
So. Do you guys think it's a rip-off? Would you do this if you could? Would you then charge by the year instead of by the month? Would you just not charge as much? I'm really stumped, and also curious.
...I suppose all this goes a ways to explain why I still haven't even attempted to be published, huh :> Besides the whole "my original fic is (generally unfinished) crap" thing -.-
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-11 07:09 pm (UTC)Pretty much everything I do in life involves writing, some of which I get paid very well for, and some of which I don't get paid for at all. My only complaint is that I don't get paid for ALL OF IT. Would I cry if all of a sudden academic journals started paying their contributors? Are you kidding?
Writers don't need to suffer in order to be writers. No more than dentists do.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-11 07:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-11 07:14 pm (UTC)But you know, other fanfic writers do this as well. Like there's some zine ... MAS, or something like that? It's on CD. I don't know if contributors get paid, but Juxian Tang has written original fiction for that. (And I **love** her original fiction, btw.) And I think somebody was suggesting that Aja put together a chapbook of original stories with other writers, which I found a really intriguing idea.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-11 07:31 pm (UTC)But it's different. This is different, 'cause it's web-only and because it's (overly high) subscription and because it's rather bad~:) And mostly, I just feel stupid, I think -.-
no subject
Date: 2004-03-11 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-11 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-11 08:39 pm (UTC)But lj was a reasonable price ($5 and I never paid again), streamload is a reasonable price at $5, considering it's a bandwith and storage service-- and those are the only web things I've even considered paying for in like, what... 8 years now.
And I have this whole -thing- about money & fiction & how much I'm willing to give & so on.
And my point was the amount, I was never saying that I had an issue with the charging at all. My actual question was would you guys charge, and if so how much, etc.
So what I -was- wondering about was amount, actually, since I really wouldn't feel bad if it was, oh, $2.50 for half a year or even $10 a year or something.
And generally, I'd avoid any for-pay sites like the plague. So I feel pretty stupid about this. But yeah, the charging thing-- I'm not -that- communist. I accept that charging for products (online or not) is okay-- just... whether I feel -I'd- ever pay is a different story. :>
no subject
Date: 2004-03-11 07:25 pm (UTC)I think the whole bit with the suffering was more tongue-in-cheek than probably came across, and detracted from my point (if indeed I had one) which wasn't dependent on that. I don't think writers need to suffer-- that anyone needs to suffer, really. Okay, well, some bad writers, they should suffer in the sort of way that'd make 'em better, if such a way exists. Anyway, I think fresh, green writers need to get their butts kicked by -somebody-, and this writer isn't getting her butt kicked at all, and is in fact being encouraged.
I realize this happens across the board with plenty of writers who're of "eh" quality getting plenty of money, but usually I don't -buy- their books, see, I read 'em at the library or skim them wholesale at the bookstore, 'cause yeah, I'm one of those people who'd sit at the bookstore for hours, reading whole huge chunks out of a book and skimming like mad.
Now, this is definitely skim-or-borrow material and I feel wrong and dirty 'cause I don't like buying that sort of thing. In fact, I just hate it, I guess. I do want to support writers but I have no money so I can't be the one to support 'em and I want to read anyway, 'cause I'm a compulsive reader and libraries are my best friend~:)
no subject
Date: 2004-03-11 07:55 pm (UTC)Yeah, I wonder if that changes the way you look at things. I'm the same way in that pretty much all my money comes from writing in different ways. So for me it's not a difference of having a job during the day and then coming back to write, it's more like, "What am I writing now?" And yes, there's still a big difference between writing the story for the mag during the day and sitting down at my computer at night to try to write something original, but maybe it's a different kind of a leap than for someone whose day job involves something else?
no subject
Date: 2004-03-11 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-11 09:33 pm (UTC)