2019 Resolution #4

[rynling]

I want to express appreciation to more writers through Kofi!

I understand why AO3 doesn't allow mentions of commissions or links to donation websites...

( Elizabeth Minkel, who is an interesting person and a boss writer, has a great piece about this on The Verge, by the way.)

...but I also think the double standard regarding money and fandom labor is stupid. This Tumblr post puts it nicely:

That’s why I write. That’s why, even if I got paid, I would still write with the same inspiration and dedication. Because a) it’s me paying it forward in the universe to bring someone else a second of joy and b) I can’t function without writing.

But I also can’t live on giving away my work for free. A lot of writers are forced to give up fandom entirely if they want to publish anything they’ve written, or they just stop entirely because they become too busy working a real job (or jobs, given the economy) and there’s no time left for the things they enjoy doing.

Erasing the stigma of fanwriters being paid is more important than some notion of “hm, did the writer really enjoy writing this or are they just trying to make some quick cash.”

At the moment I have complicated feelings regarding reading and writing fanfic, and I've always had reservations about giving money to people I'm friends with or share a fandom with. Still, if someone is posting writing that I enjoy, and they seem to be doing it professionally, and I don't know them personally, and I've read, like, their entire blog, then it doesn't feel weird to send some appreciation their way. A good example of what I'm talking about is Livvy Plays Final Fantasy on Tumblr, whose FFXII Zodiac Age playthrough has been making me very happy for the past month or so. I also enjoy POMEmag, and I don't mind occasionally sending love their way either.

I fucking hate Patreon, and that hatred is deep and multifaceted, so a part of this resolution is to try to figure out a chill and easy way of supporting people that doesn't make me uncomfortable. This resolution is partially about supporting fandom writers, but it's also about wading through my own stupid bullshit to figure out why certain types of interactions within fandom feel so weird to me.

Comments

[runicmagitek]

I've been on the fence about creating a Ko-Fi account for myself. On one hand, it would be really nice to have people who enjoy my writing support me in some way, if they choose to. On the other hand, I have flashbacks to the olden days of fanfiction.net and legal issues and what not. I'd hate to go through something like that because I was "making money" off of something that's not technically mine. But I also feel like something like Ko-Fi is more along the lines of supporting that person as a writer and not necessarily as "I give you money and you give me fics." Also, the few of my writer friends who do have Ko-Fi accounts have maybe received one or two donations in the past year (most likely from me) or have received nothing at all. And sometimes I'm just like... why even bother?