TextualDeviance

Amazon finds a way to monetize fan-fiction

carrionlaughing:

Amazon Publishing Introduces Kindle Worlds

“Amazon Publishing has secured licenses from Warner Bros. Television Group’s Alloy Entertainment division for its New York Times best-selling book series Gossip Girl, by Cecily von Ziegesar; Pretty Little Liars, by Sara Shepard; and Vampire Diaries, by L.J. Smith; and plans to announce more licenses soon. Through these licenses, Kindle Worlds will allow any writer to publish authorized stories inspired by these popular Worlds and make them available for readers to purchase in the Kindle Store.

Amazon Publishing will pay royalties to both the rights holders of the Worlds and the author. The standard author’s royalty rate (for works of at least 10,000 words) will be 35% of net revenue. As with all titles from Amazon Publishing, Kindle Worlds will base net revenue off of sales price—rather than the lower, industry standard of wholesale price—and royalties will be paid monthly.”

So basically …

TPTB saw a few shady fic writers making money from their venture, and decided that, instead of suing for copyright, they’d find a way to take a cut, at least for certain properties. It’s a win-win for them, and for the dipshits who’d be trying to make money from someone else’s creation.

It’s also a lose for everyone else.

Original creators who want to retain control over who gets money for the worlds and characters they spent long hours making are now going to feel pressured to let other people take a cut without having any say over the end result. 

And the millions of ethical fic writers who wouldn’t dream of asking for money for their hobby are now going to find themselves fighting the onslaught of unethical dicks who think there’s nothing wrong with that. 

Ugh.

Speaking as someone with a foot on both sides (I write both original novels and fanfic), there’s an enormous difference between the two. I would have no problems whatsoever with folks writing fic or doing other fanworks involving the worlds and characters I’ve created from scratch, but I would want a say in any money made from them. Which is why I would never, ever try to monetize the fic I write.

If I wanted to, essentially, write legit tie-in stories for an existing world, I’d pitch the idea to the people who made it to begin with. Hell, I’d love to write a Primeval tie-in novel, or maybe a Leverage one. But until/unless that happens, I’m perfectly happy to just write the occasional fic set in those worlds, solely for my own entertainment and that of other fans. 

The other aspect of this that makes me uncomfortable is that a great deal of fic is stuff that would not, and should not ever make it into official canon. My massive Primeval fic novel is about as pervy as pervy can get. I wouldn’t even want the actors who play the characters involved to read it. Gods, no. The more involved TPTB are with fic, the less free I think fic writers are going to feel to write whatever the hell they feel like. Fic is and should be a fantasyland where everyone can let their Id run free. With networks and publishers looking over our shoulders, will that still be possible? 

No need for 16 paragraphs explaining why I’m on this topic tonight, but …

I think I lit upon the reason I like to hang with other slash fen, when I’m otherwise not great at making friends with muggle women: They’re already more or less fluent in the queer-dude culture/language that’s basically native for me (I’m male-identified genderqueer, and primarily attracted to other folks on the masculine side of the spectrum, though I’m not picky about crotch tackle.) 

I like women, and I can be friends with them. I’m even attracted to plenty of them. And goodness knows I’m a raging feminist. But I don’t really identify with most the way I do with (usually queer or non-alpha) guys. Slash fen are an exception to this, and I’m pretty sure it’s because they’re used to looking at the world through the eyes of men. We might not speak the same dialect (to continue the metaphor), but it’s at least the same language, when I otherwise feel like I have to mentally translate everything I say to other women. (I don’t speak Macho Asshole, either, but still.)

Funny … I always thought I was into slash because of the sexuality aspect. Interesting to realize that the social aspect is a big part of it, too. 

carrionlaughing:

I’m off to the Supernatural con in Birmingham this weekend. My first con out in the thick of it, rather than peering nervously at the fun from behind the scenes.

The Friday night costume party has an ‘Alternative Superhero’ theme, so I’m going as tumblr personified. Because of course tumblr would be a superhero. She kickpunches Facebook twice before breakfast every morning. Or, you know, she sends someone else to do it because she has more important shit to scroll through, okay.

So, here is the cape I made. Capes are grand. I highly recommend getting one just to swoosh, strut and twirl about the house in. I may never take it off.

The cape will be my security blanket at a party full of strangers tomorrow night, which is fitting given that tumblr has become my security blanket for coping with the real world.

Splendid!

The Hawkeye Initiative: Special Guest Edition: The Hawkeye Initiative IRL!

carrionlaughing:

gingerhaze:

thehawkeyeinitiative:

I recently received an email from an anonymous fan sharing how she pulled a Hawkeye Initiative themed prank on her CEO to illustrate a problem with some artwork.
My personal compliments to her and her accomplice on a mission well done; they perfectly took they perfectly took the concept of The…

This is MAGNIFICENT and HILARIOUS.

This is so good and so inspiring that I’ve just had a little cry. I will think about Ruby Underboob and Brosie the Riveter every time bullshit like this in my own industry (TV) has me gnashing my teeth. We can effect change. We can be silly and cheeky and smart and angry all at the same time, and we can effect change.

Brilliant.

Must say, I’ve been very impressed with this season overall. It’s had some missteps—the Loras character assassination chief among them—but there have been no full-on face plants like last year’s Dany in bizarro world thing. Also pleased to see we’ve had a decent amount of male nudity, when there was so little in s2. Parity is still far off, but it’s progress. Been waiting for quite some time to see as much of Richard Madden as we got tonight. Well done on that!

Spoilers ahead! Beware!

There are a couple of things I’m still withholding judgment on. The first is swapping in Gendry for Edric. Much as I’m enjoying the Schadenfreude as the creepy Gendrya shippers pitch fits, I’d been under the impression that GRRM was holding Gendry in reserve for something; this would scotch that. The other is what we’re seeing of Theon’s torture. It’s starting to get a little gratuitous and therefore slightly boring. I preferred the book leaving a lot of that to the imagination rather than spelling it out.

Still, there are things the show does that the books do not that make it such a great complement to the story. The scenes with Littlefinger and Varys, and Tywin’s scenes with Olenna and Joffrey have been especially juicy, and we’d never have seen them otherwise, without a PoV character involved.

And the way it’s handled some of the canon scenes has been great, too. The Jaime/Brienne stuff has been sublime, even with the random dude standing in for Vargo Hoat, and Dany laying waste to Astapor was the highlight of the season so far (High Valyrian is my mother tongue, BITCHEZ.) Also enjoying the development of Margaery, beyond the rather thin picture we get on page. And of course, every time Diana Rigg is onscreen, I get goosebumps. She’s perfect.

Looking forward to seeing more of the Reeds, since there’s been so little of them, unfortunately. Of course, they’re in the story for quite some time, so there’s much still to come.

One last spoilery note: in the book, it wasn’t clear if Robb ended up with an heir. We shall see what happens with this bit of news!

Can’t believe there are only three eps left. Seasons are too short!

Some women like…

I still end-game ship Sansa with Lancel, in the pretty-idiots-belong-together way, but I’ll take this. Damn sight better than most of the horrors she gets shipped with.

gorgbus:

textualdeviance:

I still think Warehouse 13 needs to be considered a bible for all writers/directors/producers on how to make something brilliant that also happens to pass the Bechdel test with flying colors, AND includes canon queer characters, older women, people of color, etc. It’s one of Syfy’s top-rated shows, too, so boom go the “people won’t watch it” excuses for making stuff into nothing but sausage fests. It’s doable. If you can’t/don’t/won’t, it’s because you’re shitty at your job, not because audiences won’t watch stuff without wall-to-wall straight, white dudes.

great point. the show is not above criticism as it sidelines and typecasts poc, as well as ignores positioning Steve as an actively gay character. that being said, the show still kicks some serious ass and this post is a super important point. long live the warehouse!

Points taken, definitely (though I think the latter issue may be improved upon somewhat as the rest of this season goes on.) 

I also have to give credit to Joanne and Jaime, for pushing ahead with the Bering/Wells thing even if it wasn’t originally intended to be canon (and still isn’t, technically.) Kind of funny, really, how the show’s biggest fan-supported ship turned out to be f/f, and traditional m/f-leads het shippers are finding themselves in the position slashers usually are. 

Overall, I think most SFF shows these days are doing diversity much better than their mainstream counterparts. There are still fails now and then, both in the stuff I mentioned in the previous post (SPN, DW, Merlin) and in other stuff (why, if Grimm has a gay showrunner, has it had no gay characters? Weird.) But there’s also been some great progress. Honestly, I think that’s why it’s so jarring when stuff like SPN does fail to be inclusive. It’s just not that common anymore for a genre show to be all white dudes, all the time. We’ve definitely made some great steps forward. 

And speaking of steps forward, I do have to put in a plug for a couple of shows about to have their U.S. debuts on Syfy next month: Sinbad and Primeval: New World. The former has a black lead and other prominent PoC characters, and for once is a fantasy set outside of Europe. And the latter has both PoC characters and a canon bisexual (not to mention one of the most realistic women characters I’ve seen in years in Dylan Weir.) Many of Syfy’s other recent shows have been good, too—Defiance, Continuum, etc. (My issues with Lost Girl are a different post, sadly.) 

I think the conventional marketing wisdom is still a factor. Cable shows do still make only a fraction of the ratings of their network counterparts, and goodness knows the biggest ratings of all are still going to trashy reality dreck, instead of quality scripted stuff. Sadly, many women, queer folk and people of color are still blithely watching stuff that marginalizes or even denigrates them, and straight, white dudes are still considered a target demo, even if they don’t make up the majority of viewers and haven’t for a generation. But we are making progress, and I think there are fewer and fewer excuses to be had now for not being inclusive. The target 18-35 demo takes diversity as a given, not a controversy, so there’s no point in trying to pussyfoot around their delicate sensibilities anymore. The people who did care about such things are aging out of marketing sweet spots, so catering to prejudice just isn’t important anymore. 

Now if only the folks with the purse strings would realize that. ;)

I still think Warehouse 13 needs to be considered a bible for all writers/directors/producers on how to make something brilliant that also happens to pass the Bechdel test with flying colors, AND includes canon queer characters, older women, people of color, etc. It’s one of Syfy’s top-rated shows, too, so boom go the “people won’t watch it” excuses for making stuff into nothing but sausage fests. It’s doable. If you can’t/don’t/won’t, it’s because you’re shitty at your job, not because audiences won’t watch stuff without wall-to-wall straight, white dudes.

itisnotofimport:

Misha lays down the motherfucking law. [x]

In which Misha explains—perfectly—why I stopped watching the show. I just can’t get into anything that doesn’t have three-dimensional women, even if it’s a slashfest. This is also why I’m not terribly into Sherlock or Merlin, though I watch them. Every woman in them is a cardboard stand in, not a real person.

He’s also right that many SPN fans would find female characters threatening to their pairings, which is ridiculous. I don’t think a show/movie/book has to be devoid of realistic women in order for slashable pairings to happen. Arrow, for instance, has plenty of slash potential, but also has some great women. And of course my favorites—Primeval, Game of Thrones, Vikings—are swimming in slashbait, yet also manage to pass the Bechdel test at least now and then. When’s the last time SPN, Sherlock or Merlin did that? Hell, DW also doesn’t do it often, which is why I don’t watch that, either. Honestly, if a dudebro bait/slash tsunami like Hawaii Five-0 can manage to include great women, there’s no excuse for a fan-savvy SFF show not to.

I just don’t get why women would be so heavily into stories that basically erase them from existence or treat them like unicorns or scenery. We’re half the damned population. Why are we only 25% of TV characters?

pottsfanatic:

gelanthus:

SO UM. FINALLY I GOT TO MEET THEM. Mahoosive geek alert. BUT. They were awesome and all for the funny faces!

This. Is. Fantastic.

Love them. <3