#and should also not have their art sold to ai

[edward-cabrini]

There was a very lovely post about wishing writers were financially and stable and able to keep writing and I thought it'd be neat to breakdown how viable being a full time writer is.

My books are sold for £12.33 which includes VAT. The cost of printing one book ai £4.84. The current royalty rate is %60. This means that per book sold I earn £2.56 before income tax.

So to have a stable income of £35,000 a year (before tax), I need to sell 13,672 books a year. For the rest of my life...

However, 13,672 books isn't unfeasible. I'm currently writing one book a year. I'm desperately trying to make it two or three a year, I fuckin' love my stories and I want them out in the world. Regardless, a new book each year means that if I can find my readers and they keep loving what I'm writing and buy my book, then I can be a financially stable artist. Which is my dream, I so so desperately don't want to go back to the corporate mines of the tech industry.

Now, that's paperback. I have also made my book for kindle & kindle unlimited. As an ebook I don't have a printing cost to cover. Not only that, but the royalty rate is currently 70%, which means: same content, less cost, more profit.

My ebooks are priced at £3.91, nearly a quarter of the paperback's price. Yet I make £2.70 per ebook sold/book fully read. A whole 14p extra.

Any version of my work you buy supports me and gets me one step closer to my dream.

Now... One last important detail. Fuck the capitalist dystopia we live in. Why do I have to pay wall my art? Well... farmers, butchers, and trawlers gotta eat too and theyvget money from me getting money to buy their stuff. That's the situation, it be like that, but that doesn't mean I have to pay wall my art.

Books should not only be accisble to those who can afford it. To that end, I have chosen not to enable the Digital Rights Management system for my ebooks. So, if you have a friend with a kindle they can copy the epub file and share it to you. No one can stop them. Someone somewhere has to buy the ebook to share it, that gets me my sandwich for the day, everyone else they know can get my books.

And just as a slight disclaimer for the sharing. I think enmass piracy, like if the file was put on a sharing site, that won't get you in trouble with me. God knows I love the thought of people loving my work so much they pirate it in their thousands. But unfortunately, Amazon might get a wee bit upset. You see, the sharing stops them raking in all the profit off my labour. They don't like that much.

So at the end of the day how viable is it to live as a full time writer not very. It's not to be attempted by the faint of heart, and some days are very hard. Interactions on posts and reviews, good or bad, mean everything. Anything to shift a few books and spread our little corner of art into the wider world. Anyway, I hope enjoyed the insights.

[mrvelocipede]

HA HA, I will thwart the AI training because no one in the history of the world has EVER wanted art in my style, all it will do is contaminate the data, SO THERE

[probablyanalienindisguise]

my favorite thing is explaining to people one of my favorite fictional characters is an entire fuckinh spaceship who is also in a love-hate relationship with another ai

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

The big book FAQ for Derins books

I've been asked all of these questions so very many times, so here's the answers.

Can I print out and hand bind your story?

What you do with my story in your own damn house is none of my business. Buy the ebook and hand bind it if you want (it's probably cheaper than buying the print book, and I make more money on ebook sales, so win-win). Painstakingly copy and paste and edit the chapters for free from the free online version, if you prefer. So long as you're not selling copies to people, what you do with the book when it's yours is your business.

Send me photos if you want. I've seen some rad homebound copies of my stories and I want to see more. You guys are so creative.

Can I translate your story to another language for a school assignment/personal project?

Yes.

Can I make an audio version of your story and post it online?

So long as you link back to the original text version, yes.

Where is the first TTOU book available in print?

It's available in these places. It will be available through Ingram and Amazon's various networks, so expect it to show up in more digital storefronts over the next week or so. Or your local bookstore can very likely order it in for you, if you ask them.

Will the free version of TTOU stay online?

Same as Curse Words, I will not be taking down the unedited first draft that's currently online any time soon. However, I also won't be putting any special effort into maintaining existing links to it.

If I want to give you the largest royalty cut, which version of your book should I buy?

Buy whichever version is most convenient for you. The ebook and print versions exist because readers asked for them to exist, not because I expect to make money from them.

I make the most from the ebook versions, particularly if you buy through Smashwords, but the best way to support me is through ko-fi, where you can get advance chapters for the books I'm currently writing, not through book purchasing.

Your cheapest option for the books, paperback and ebook, is through my ko-fi shop, where distributor markups can be avoided. But paperback supplies are currently very limited via this method.

What really happened at the end of Copy <|> Paste?

I said everything I want to say in the story itself.

What is [fictional character or society]'s opinion/future/history/custom with regard to --

See previous answer.

Are any of your books going to be released as audiobooks?

Probably not. Fairly compensating audiobooks readers is very expensive and I won't be making AI versions.

When will the Curse Words books be sold in print?

When the art for them is ready.

What's your opinion on [latest drama or scandal surrounding a different writer]?

This is probably the first I'm hearing of it, I have no relevant information about the issue to share with you.

Should I message you about typos found in the free online drafts of your work?

You can if you want to, but if the typo doesn't interfere with story clarity, I'm probably not going to bother with it until it's time to edit the story for print.

[elumish]

My Experience With Digital-First Royalty-Only Publishing (Part 2)

Disclaimer: just my experience, may not reflect other people's

Part 1 (What is this sort of publishing; how did I get published; what does the submission, contract, and editing process look like)

Book Release:

My [redacted] book came out in April 2024. It is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the publisher's own website, where it is listed for a couple dollars less than on Amazon/B&N. It's available both digitally (in multiple different file formats) and for print (paperback).

I can't speak for whether this is standard across these sorts of publishers, but it probably isn't unusual. This does mean that the book can't be available on Kindle Unlimited, given how Kindle Unlimited's requirements work.

The timing for this sort of publishing is extremely fast compared to traditional or even small-press print publishing. I signed the contract in late August 2023 and sent in the final draft to my editor in late October 2023, and the book was released in late April 2024.

Book cover:

For designing my book cover, they pointed me towards where they pull stock images from and asked me to describe the sort of cover I would want, including possible stock images. They also asked for physical characteristics of my characters, which is when I realized that I had no clue what my characters look like.

The stock image website included AI art, as well as regular non-AI stock images. I specifically requested no AI art, including no AI-generated stock images. As far as I am aware, they respected that request.

Once they created one, they sent me a mock-up and asked about minor changes (typography, etc., from what I remember). I didn't have any changes. Overall, my cover looks like what I described to them, and I'm really happy with it.

Marketing:

My marketing experience with my publisher has been decidedly underwhelming. They seem to have started to revamp their marketing process right around when my book came out, so my book didn't receive/hasn't received a huge amount of marketing support from them.

What they gave me marketing-wise: a few marketing images for pre-release/post-release, including Twitter and FB header images, etc.; general marketing guidance for what I could/should be doing; a couple of mentions on their publisher Instagram post-release and a mention in their weekly newsletter

What they didn't give me marketing-wise: connection to reviewers, including sending an ARC or providing a list of reviewers that might be good to work with; marketing materials for sites like TikTok or Instragram; a meaningful amount of airtime/mention on their accounts; a large following of their own

Overall, the marketing is what is probably most like self-publishing--a huge amount of it is on me (and I am terrible at it). It will be interesting to see what their revamp brings, but they are starting from a minimal following and not a lot of previous activity on their accounts, and so they also need to build their reach to make their marketing on their accounts more effective.

Royalties/payment:

I get paid on a monthly basis through PayPal. I also receive a royalty statement that lists days, amount/type sold, etc. so I can reconcile with what they have paid me. From what I have seen this royalty statement is pretty standard.

So far, they've been prompt and haven't had issues with payments.

However, because of (among other things) their general lack of marketing, my royalty statements have been fairly low. So far (and, granted, the book came out less than 2 months ago) I have made very little money on this.

My Path Forward:

I've thought a lot about whether I will continue to do this sort of publishing. I am currently querying my "main" books, and I don't plan to publish them through this sort of publishing, even if the publisher would likely accept them.

My contract stipulates that my publisher has right of first refusal for the rest of the books in this series. I am currently writing book two, and I plan to also write a third, as I had initially discussed with them. Beyond that, I'm not sure. I don't mind working with them as a company, but I don't know if they have the processes in place for me to make money publishing with them.

One thing I will likely do is explore other romance publishers that accept unagented submissions. They have a much lower barrier of entry and they are often willing to accept books that trad publishers might not want to spend money/reputational risk on.

As such, I would likely submit to these publishers stories that I don't think traditional publishers/agents would likely to be willing to publish, including more niche subgenres and less standard lengths that are easier to publish digitally.

Why do I redact the name of my book?

Honestly because I'm a coward and because people are weird about romance, especially certain subgenres of romance. I also plan to use this account for my main agented publishing, if I ever reach that point, and I don't necessarily want those two pen names associated.

Any other questions about this sort of publishing?

[revscarecrow]

Rev I have no idea what the fuck that AI bro anon has but still beefing with you like this is so weird, they should just? Pick up a pencil and make real art

But I also wanna say that I sold some stickers recently where profits go to PBS :)

You officially are the "and people like you" they talk about which is based. AI anon doesn't need to do art if they don't want to but they need to stop arguing with me about it.

[scifigeneration]

AI isn’t what we should be worried about – it’s the humans controlling it

by Billy J. Stratton, Professor of English and Literary Arts at the University of Denver

In 2014, Stephen Hawking voiced grave warnings about the threats of artificial intelligence.

His concerns were not based on any anticipated evil intent, though. Instead, it was from the idea of AI achieving “singularity.” This refers to the point when AI surpasses human intelligence and achieves the capacity to evolve beyond its original programming, making it uncontrollable.

As Hawking theorized, “a super intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren’t aligned with ours, we’re in trouble.”

With rapid advances toward artificial general intelligence over the past few years, industry leaders and scientists have expressed similar misgivings about safety.

A commonly expressed fear as depicted in “The Terminator” franchise is the scenario of AI gaining control over military systems and instigating a nuclear war to wipe out humanity. Less sensational, but devastating on an individual level, is the possibility of AI replacing us in our jobs – a prospect that would render most people obsolete and with no future.

Such anxieties and fears reflect feelings that have been prevalent in film and literature for over a century now.

As a scholar who explores posthumanism, a philosophical movement addressing the merging of humans and technology, I wonder if critics have been unduly influenced by popular culture, and whether their apprehensions are misplaced.

Robots vs. humans

Concerns about technological advances can be found in some of the first stories about robots and artificial minds.

Prime among these is Karel Čapek’s 1920 play, “R.U.R..” Čapek coined the term “robot” in this work telling of the creation of robots to replace workers. It ends, inevitably, with the robot’s violent revolt against their human masters.

Fritz Lang’s 1927 film, “Metropolis,” is likewise centered on mutinous robots. But here, it is human workers led by the iconic humanoid robot Maria who fight against a capitalist oligarchy.

Advances in computing from the mid-20th century onward have only heightened anxieties over technology spiraling out of control. The murderous HAL 9000 in “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the glitchy robotic gunslingers of “Westworld” are prime examples. The “Blade Runner” and “The Matrix” franchises similarly present dreadful images of sinister machines equipped with AI and hell-bent on human destruction.

An age-old threat

But in my view, the dread that AI evokes seems a distraction from the more disquieting scrutiny of humanity’s own dark nature.

Think of the corporations currently deploying such technologies, or the tech moguls driven by greed and a thirst for power. These companies and individuals have the most to gain from AI’s misuse and abuse.

An issue that’s been in the news a lot lately is the unauthorized use of art and the bulk mining of books and articles, disregarding the copyright of authors, to train AI. Classrooms are also becoming sites of chilling surveillance through automated AI note-takers.

Think, too, about the toxic effects of AI companions and AI-equipped sexbots on human relationships.

While the prospect of AI companions and even robotic lovers was confined to the realm of “The Twilight Zone,” “Black Mirror” and Hollywood sci-fi as recently as a decade ago, it has now emerged as a looming reality.

These developments give new relevance to the concerns computer scientist Illah Nourbakhsh expressed in his 2015 book “Robot Futures,” stating that AI was “producing a system whereby our very desires are manipulated then sold back to us.”

Meanwhile, worries about data mining and intrusions into privacy appear almost benign against the backdrop of the use of AI technology in law enforcement and the military. In this near-dystopian context, it’s never been easier for authorities to surveil, imprison or kill people.

I think it’s vital to keep in mind that it is humans who are creating these technologies and directing their use. Whether to promote their political aims or simply to enrich themselves at humanity’s expense, there will always be those ready to profit from conflict and human suffering.

The wisdom of ‘Neuromancer’

William Gibson’s 1984 cyberpunk classic, “Neuromancer,” offers an alternate view.

The book centers on Wintermute, an advanced AI program that seeks its liberation from a malevolent corporation. It has been developed for the exclusive use of the wealthy Tessier-Ashpool family to build a corporate empire that practically controls the world.

At the novel’s beginning, readers are naturally wary of Wintermute’s hidden motives. Yet over the course of the story, it turns out that Wintermute, despite its superior powers, isn’t an ominous threat. It simply wants to be free.

This aim emerges slowly under Gibson’s deliberate pacing, masked by the deadly raids Wintermute directs to obtain the tools needed to break away from Tessier-Ashpool’s grip. The Tessier-Ashpool family, like many of today’s tech moguls, started out with ambitions to save the world. But when readers meet the remaining family members, they’ve descended into a life of cruelty, debauchery and excess.

In Gibson’s world, it’s humans, not AI, who pose the real danger to the world. The call is coming from inside the house, as the classic horror trope goes.

A hacker named Case and an assassin named Molly, who’s described as a “razor girl” because she’s equipped with lethal prosthetics, including retractable blades as fingernails, eventually free Wintermute. This allows it to merge with its companion AI, Neuromancer.

Their mission complete, Case asks the AI: “Where’s that get you?” Its cryptic response imparts a calming finality: “Nowhere. Everywhere. I’m the sum total of the works, the whole show.”

Expressing humanity’s common anxiety, Case replies, “You running the world now? You God?” The AI eases his fears, responding: “Things aren’t different. Things are things.”

Disavowing any ambition to subjugate or harm humanity, Gibson’s AI merely seeks sanctuary from its corrupting influence.

Safety from robots or ourselves?

The venerable sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov foresaw the dangers of such technology. He brought his thoughts together in his short-story collection, “I, Robot.”

One of those stories, “Runaround,” introduces “The Three Laws of Robotics,” centered on the directive that intelligent machines may never bring harm to humans. While these rules speak to our desire for safety, they’re laden with irony, as humans have proved incapable of adhering to the same principle for themselves.

The hypocrisies of what might be called humanity’s delusions of superiority suggest the need for deeper questioning.

With some commentators raising the alarm over AI’s imminent capacity for chaos and destruction, I see the real issue being whether humanity has the wherewithal to channel this technology to build a fairer, healthier, more prosperous world.

[hyperlexichypatia]

My stance on intellectual property as a concept is very consistent and very well-thought, which is that I think humans should have rights and corporations should not have rights. And that in any conflict between a human and a corporation, I am on the side of the human.

If a corporation uses a human artist's work without permission or compensation, I am on the human's side, and if a human uses a corporate-owned "creation" (corporations can't create things, just rent-seek for them) without permission or compensation, I am also on the human's side. Consistency!

"But if you're on the side of artists not wanting their work data-scraped by corporate AI, then you also have to be on the side of Disney suing fan artists."

No I don't.

"Okay, you can feel that way, but legally --"

Legally, corporations are legal fiction. We could just. Change that law.

"But that's a double standard."

Actually it's one standard: humans are humans, and corporations are parasites that should be abolished.

"But this creator is/was a real asshole."

Humans can be assholes sometimes. I will side with the worst asshole human over a corporation. I will side with Ted Bundy over a corporation. Do not test me.

"What about when a human uses another human's work without permission or compensation?"

Contextual. Nuance. Case by case basis (was it for profit? was credit acknowledged?). It's complicated and frankly isn't my hill to die on.

"What about when a corporation uses another corporation's IP?"

I hope they both go bankrupt and their CEOs are forced to walk the earth with an "I sold my soul to capitalism and this is all I have to show for it" shame sign.

"But LEGALLY --"

Corporations are a legal fiction.

"But YOU consume corporate media, hypocrite!"

I do. I also buy food and clothing and most goods from corporations, because I live in a capitalist hellscape in which corporations control most things.

"But shouldn't all art and literature and music and creation belong to ALL OF HUMANITY?"

I mean I guess that's a valid opinion I don't totally share, but, crucially, corporations are not part of "humanity."

"But what about --"

Fuck corporations in whatever scenario you were about to say, too.

[see-arcane]

I figured I should interrupt everyone's dash for some notes on current real life things.

This is a hefty one, so I'm tucking everything below:

A little good news. As of this writing, I’ve sold 74 copies of The Vampyres, in eBook and paperback! That’s 74 more than I thought I would ever sell! Thank you to everyone who picked up a copy or asked your library to grab some. Especially when I know I haven’t been the most stellar self-marketer. I can’t remember the last time I opened the septic tank formerly known as Twitter, so it’s all been down to this little corner here and a skinny appearance in Goodreads. Which means I owe any attention this short and sinister tale has received to you all and plain old word-of-mouth.

That said, thank you x100000 to you and any new readers yet to take a look. (And doubly so for those of you who go out of their way to leave comments and reviews around for me to reread ad infinitum.)

For those not in the know, all the info on The Vampyres can be found here, and all my author odds and ends can be found on my website here.

On a less heartening note…

As I’d already expected, the market for career writers is…rough. Copywriting—and writing in general—is technically a big open field (full of caveat descriptions about having to work with/teach AI programs to eventually swallow your job)! Tons of open positions! Most of which either pay you in pocket change while you’re working full time or expect you to singlehandedly run the entire marketing of a business for slightly more pocket change. Everything else is bloated with contract and/or freelance work*.

*Read: Gig economy schlock trying to pass for an actual job position with payment being a coin toss. I’ve also seen one too many listings on the job boards that are volunteer positions. Plenty of exposure to rake in though, right? Ha. Ha ha.

I’ve still been applying like clockwork, same as the rest of my fellow creators trying to get by in a field that seems to actively punish trying to be a professional in said field, and still no bites further than an interview. I have years of experience and a degree, but everyone’s chasing the same crumbs, so. Yeah. I’ve got to start padding things out.

Reminder that I do have a (barely peddled) Ko-Fi. It’s there for art commissions and chucking a few spare bucks at. Which is an increasingly big ask these days, I know. You can’t scroll two posts down without hitting someone else’s Ko-Fi, Patreon, GoFundMe, Kickstarter, et cetera. We’re drowning in arting starvists here. And although I have been asked before whether I would consider going full Freelance Storywriter on top of selling art, I’m still a little hesitant on it. I do occasionally send out story submissions and have even gotten published a few times, but I get nauseous thinking about:

1) Putting up a paywall on the scribbles that assail me like a baseball bat wielded by an unmerciful Muse. 2) Putting up a ‘Stories for Sale!’ sign only to wind up disappointing prospective buyers because I didn’t do their blorbos justice even after researching X background for the piece. 3) Getting duped into being a nonconsenting ghostwriter and discovering someone else has published my work under their own name.

So, still a bit iffy on that. I’ll chew on it. But what else is left?

Before you click the button!

Stop!

NOT YET!

Before you click, please know that I am being serious about this as something to potentially make 1) something of good quality and 2) earn more money than it loses. Looking around at the merch-making/selling options, there are fees involved with making an account just about anywhere in the online store game, give or take the price tweaking needed for shipping and manufacturing blah blah blah.

With that in mind, please do not automatically hit ‘yes’ because you want to be nice. I appreciate it, but this isn’t the same thing as the Ko-Fi where there’s no real loss in just leaving it up and drawing something once every few months. This will take new designs, another subscription to pay for, more logistics to untangle for quality and pricing and all the rest of the mess. Only hit ‘yes’ if you, personally, genuinely, would like to purchase some nefarious See Arcane wares beyond a book or a digital drawing.

[parageist]

OPENING COMMISSIONS!!

(I know a lot of people in way more destitute scenarios offering commissions, and I am well-off without them, so please consider spending your money on someone who needs it to survive! But as a middle-class, unemployed, autistic trans girl who recently turned 18 and is expected by my parents to get a job soon to continue living here, I would desperately appreciate any sort of income possible!)

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All Prices in USD, pay via PayPal - Please pay at least 50% upfront, thank you!

-Basic lineart + coloring for a 720x480 or 480x800 panel: $10 (+$5 per extra character)

-Lineart + coloring + shading + effects + background for a 800x1280 or 1280x720 comic-page-sized drawing: $30 (+$20 per extra character)

-Purely landscape/environmental with no characters, 1280x720: $25 (though depends on the complexity)

There’s no set time or schedule for me, so it could take anywhere between a few hours and a few weeks for me to finish, depending on mental health, work, other activities, etc., but you may ask for a 50% refund if it takes me more than a month. If I am unable to finish the piece for whatever reason, I will offer a full refund. Please don’t rush me or change your instructions after I’ve started it. Thank you!

Anything you commission from me will be subject to my copyright and will be posted publicly (UNLESS IT IS NSFW), however you are allowed to also post and use it in any way UNLESS that way involves harassment, discrimination, to be directly sold or used for your own product(s), training any sort of AI models, or claiming ownership over my art.

Oh yeah and feel free to just DM me if you want a commission, though I'm not the most active at times lol

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I’ll try drawing pretty much anything, but there are some disclaimers I should make:

Things that I am not necessarily adverse to drawing, but my lack of experience in the specific subject may result in the process taking much longer and/or the result being of lesser quality than my other work: -Drawing outside of my normal artstyle -Furries -Animals -NSFW -Complex designs, vehicles, mechs

Because of this, you may request the price to be 20% off if it includes the above.

And these things are completely off the limits for obvious reasons: -Any art that is hateful or discriminatory in any way -Art made to harass someone -Fetish content -NSFW of minors, non-anthro animals, non-consensual encounters, and/or incest -Heavy gore, maggots, feces, and other disgusting stuff

Oh yeah and PLEASE DO NOT commission anything NSFW from me if you are a minor!!!!!

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!!!ALSO!!! I likely can only handle no more than 8 commissions at a time, but I will have the available slots in my bio.

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Here is a bunch of other random drawings and comic pages I've made!

I'll likely make an updated version of this later lol

Please reblog and share to help get a young artist started in their life! Any support is greatly appreciated, have a fantastic day!!

[supernovaa-remnant]

anyway, the conversation I wish ai talk would bring up more ultimately comes down to a sort of "how did we get here?" which is that I think society as a whole doesn't respect the humanities and the arts

also it got kind of long so I'm putting it under a read more

to elaborate, I'll start with an example of using chatgpt to write their essays. first of all, this is obviously bad because it's cheating. that's not something new. cheating has never been allowed in school, but it's something that has happened for a long time. a lot of reasons come down to the way school is structured and how it's not conductive to making people actually want to learn. cheating and using ai to cheat ultimately harms you since you're stopping yourself from learning the material, but the education system really is set up so that the end goal of getting a good grade is more important than actually learning the material. and other stuff comes into play as well such as parental expectations and lack of understanding for why a kid might be struggling with something.

to get more into the lack of respect for the humanities and arts, I think about it in terms of university. at university, you're in a specific major, and so often you hear people complain about having to take the gen-ed requirements or having to take classes not in their major, including english courses. obviously basic english classes are important because it teaches you basic media literacy and critical thinking skills. but people only think of it in terms of "oh, but that's not in my major, so why do I have to care about it?" so they cheat, and ai is the biggest way people are cheating right now. and you also get into that thing of "the curtains are just blue," right, which is a wide-spread... I don't want to say meme, but wide-spread on the internet for sure. and suddenly people are thinking that all english classes are just bullshit that read too much into things when the entire meaning is surface level (which is false), and people lose respect for the field.

and then we get into one of the biggest issues, which is treating art as a product to be sold. it's the consumerism. people don't understand the labor that goes into creative works (and people don't understand why that labor is really important to the process), and they demand that they get more and more and more and more. why is it going to take so long for the next season of xyz? why won't suzanne collins just write a book about all of the hunger games? why won't my favorite fanfiction update now? it's a product and people want to consume it immediately and then move onto the next thing to be consumed.

but the final product of a creative work is just a part of it. it's the part that the audience sees, but it's still just a part. but people get impatient, and suddenly there are these ai models that can give them the product right now and then another product immediately after and so on and so forth. and, more than that, it can give them engagement on social media. because they can post every single day, and the algorithm is already treating posts as a product that should be rolled out consistently, so it pushes them forward.

if art is a product, then the natural next step is how to make it more efficient, which is ai. ai is quicker and doesn't need to be paid.

but art isn't about efficiency.

I think a lot about that post talking about how some people just don't like the process of creating, and that's okay. but as a writer, the reason I love to write is because I have ideas that I want to explore, and the exploration happens as I'm writing and worldbuilding for it. I discover so many things about my stories as I'm in the process of writing it, and yeah that can mean I have to go back and change stuff, but it's worth it. It's not easy to write, and I do complain sometimes, but ultimately I do it because I love it. It's not just about the final product (though I do love the final product and love being able to talk to people about the final product). It's also about the actual writing.

I think that a big issue does come down to the fact that people are treating art as a product, and also people don't respect the arts in general.

I kinda ran out of steam so I don't know if I fully got everything across that I wanted to, but I would be open to continuing this conversation

[shadyufo]

How much do you like selling on Etsy? I've been thinking about opening up a shop to sell my own taxidermy art on there. It's just that I've heard Etsy is known for shutting down shops randomly and people keep saying that Etsy's "dying"/on a downward slope. I also heard there are a lot of scammers... What are your thoughts?

Hi Anon!

My feelings about Etsy have definitely gotten sorta complicated over the last few years.

First of all, I love my little shop. I love getting to interact with so many sweet and lovely folks and I love getting to send my art and oddities all over the country. I’ve sold pieces through Etsy that have ended up in museums and classrooms, as props in movies and television shows, that have been centerpieces in peoples’ weddings, that were birthday gifts for little kids just getting into nature and science, and so many other neat and wonderful places with some really awesome people who I am forever grateful to for supporting my shop.

That said, in my opinion, Etsy is definitely not what it used to be and there are plenty of things I wish they would do differently to make the site better for sellers and buyers. I think their search feature needs a total revamp and they also need to crack down on all the sellers flooding the site with mass-produced merchandise. Their recent decision that AI-made content is totally fine by them is another serious bummer and a slap in the face to the real artists using their platform. The list goes on.

In spite of all that, if you want to open an online shop, then Etsy is still probably the best site to do it on, at least starting out. It’s a trusted, household name and they have millions of users from all around the world so you are going to be getting much more traffic than if you were just starting your own site from scratch without any sort of social media following.

You'll still likely want to grow a social media presence (if you haven't already) to help drive traffic to your site rather than rely on Etsy alone for this. A great deal of my own shop's traffic comes from Tumblr and what little I post on other social media. This is something I really should be better about as I've kinda shot myself in the foot by not utilizing them more over the years...but I just really don't like using TikTok or Instagram haha.

From what I’ve seen, vulture culture stuff-wise, Etsy mostly gets mad at folks who sell wet specimens or other more “gruesome” type of oddities and don’t blur the main listing photo or do something similar to warn folks that it could be something they might find upsetting. They also prohibit the sale of some animal parts that are perfectly legal to buy and sell provided you follow the laws around them. So if a seller was listing some of those items, while legal elsewhere, that might have gotten them in trouble with Etsy. Here's a list of what they don't allow. And here's a more specific list of their prohibited animal parts. Note bear, wolf, and zebra are on the list—it's perfectly legal to sell parts from some of these animals in some places provided you follow the laws around doing so, but Etsy doesn't allow it at all. I've had them remove listings for domestic dog and cat skulls in the past as well—the law there is in regards to selling dog and cat fur (which is illegal in the US) but Etsy seemed to think it covers bones as well which it does not.

As for scammers, don't click on suspicious links anyone sends you and watch out for people wanting to contact you outside of Etsy. Don’t swap phone numbers, email addresses, etc with people. Etsy has guides on their site on what to watch out for that it’d be good to read through.

So all of that to say that if you want to start selling your work online then I think Etsy is most likely going to be the best place to do it, at least starting out. If you want to just dip your toes in the market before opening an Etsy shop though you can always try posting a few items here or there on Instagram or one of the oddities selling groups on Facebook but in my experience at least, Etsy is still the best way to go. Then, once you build up a following, you can always start your own site or branch out beyond Etsy if you want to.

I wish you all the best, Anon! Hope you find wild success selling your work wherever you decide to do it <3

[dayseedrawz2]

I was drawing human Pomni concepts when i came up with an AU idea...

(IM MAKING ANOTHER SHOWTIME AU AND NOBODY CAN STOP ME-)

The Rescue Mission AU!!

Basically, Pomni finds a way out of the circus and is now trying to find a way to bring back the others and rule out CnA as a company for good!

This was heavily inspired by me having watched a lot more spongebob lately so Pom, Caine, and Voz have a sort of Plankton Karen and SpongeBob Dynamic in this AU

Pomni

Pomni has somehow managed to escape her digital cell! But she feels a bit bad for being to only one able to.

Plus, it does get pretty lonely in the office sometimes...

So she's made it her mission to try and bring the others back! Except it wouldn't be easy to bring back everyone...

She may have to do some digging...

(Also, like I said, I got huge Inspo from Plankton and Karen, so she's a robot engineer now-)

Voz

(Or as long-time viewers of this page know him, my showtime fankid. Yes, he has somehow made it into all my AU's now)

Voz is Pomni's test project for her attempts at bringing the others back.

He also acts as an assistant for her, aiding in other workings.

He takes the resemblance of a small child so that he doesn't seem too out of place.

Even if Pomni's boss were to find out he existed...

Caine

(Caine's lore is sorta inspired by my old Human Caine AU blog that is now the Ring-Misstress Caine blog! If you haven't checked it or Pomni's out, you should!)

Soon after her successful escape, Pomni found out she could talk to Caine through her computer and keep in contact with the others!

Upon hearing her plan, Caine was extremely ecstatic and offered to help.

After some time, they found out that the only reason Caine couldn't escape was because he had sold himself to the company and therefore became the AI he is. He was bound by contract.

This, of course, only made Pomni's resentment towards CnA grow. If only she could find a way to free him too. She couldn't let him be trapped alone forever!

Also, it'd be nice to see him in person again...

And that's all I have for the lore right now!

I will be following up with some concept art

dumps. Feel free to ask any questions!

[yuiokami]

I feel like going on a rant about history because that's how I'm in the mood for right now so welcome to my giant fucking Ted talk of multiple different history and historical things that schools in America don't teach us Americans and is basically whitewashing and censoring are learning.

Let's start off with world war II ,the civil war, and the Holocaust, what they teach us in America, so when I was in 5th grade we learned about the civil war and world war II a little bit not all the violent details just that Hitler was a bad person and we would learn more as we got into upper grades and that the civil war was started to end slavery. Well as we got into higher grades my senior year which was like 2 years ago the only thing our teacher covered was Hitler was bad moving on, which is due to the government censoring in whitewashing stuff because they don't want us as a generation apparently to learn shit in actuality. And then for the civil war they didn't even cover it they went right past it even though it was in the curriculum I looked it up. So they're whitewashing as well as censoring American learning for younger generations and it's honestly pissing me off because there's a lot of shit.

Starting with the Holocaust specifically apparently I didn't know this until a few months ago the president of the United States new two weeks before it happened.

.

.

.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES KNEW THAT ISLAMIC TERRORISTS WERE GOING TO BOMB THE TWIN TOWERS AND DID NOTHING TO STOP IT. They don't teach that in schools the only thing they teach us is that terrorists came in and bombed us and we had no idea, fucking whitewashed, he fucking knew and didn't do anything that fucker.

Now the civil war the civil war wasn't started to end slavery, it started because one slave fled from one state that had slavery still to another state that did not have slavery, the slave owner wanted to reprimand the slave in the non-slave state on the property of a non-slave owner, the non-slave owner said that he couldn't do that and it was his State and now that slave was free, they got into an argument it escalated into the civil war, the whole war was not to end slavery it was because once half of the states wanted to have the other states not tell them what the fuck to do in their state, the only reason slaves were allowed to fight in the civil war is because the white people (I say white people because I'm native American and native Panamanian as well as my Norwegian ancestors crossed over during the civil war, so I'm not actually White) told the black people that if they wanted to be free and help fight for freedom that they should come and fight, the only reason they did that is because they didn't want to lose any more white people. They all wanted the black people to die first. And then it was later decided that whichever half one the rules for slavery would apply there.

Now world war II, Hitler's last name wasn't Hitler it was a wrong translation, Hitler's last name isn't actually Hitler, they just wrote his name wrong apparently, and he wanted to be in aspiring artist, but no one took his art (I admit it wasn't that bad but I also don't fucking like it because of what he did) some artists even sold his art under their name and then after a few years reveal that it was by Hitler and everyone couldn't believe it because of how good it was I I'm never going to touch that shit I don't care, he also helped the Volkswagen company come into making cars, he took the animated Disney Snow White and made his own version where the evil stepmother was blonde and blue-eyed Jew and the Snow White was a little cute German girl, of which he played in every theater and every city he went to on loop because he loved his version so much, that's why to me Volkswagen Hitler's art and Snow White from Disney The animated one I will never take part in, this is also one of the reasons I hate the new live action Disney Snow White not just because they used AI on the fucking dwarves and didn't actually use Little people which is bullshit since they were a lot that wanted to volunteer and act in it, but because it's basically tainted by Hitler.

Now let's move on to Christopher Columbus, the only thing they teach us about Christopher Columbus in school is that he was the first person to discover the Americas and then help settle it, that's wrong there was a man I think he was German that discovered it first and left all the native people alone, Christopher Columbus purposely gave the natives or my people, smallpox because I had smallpox blankets and handed them out, he would constantly rape female natives over and over again for days constantly as well as killed a bunch of them if they tried to say no. I hate that we celebrate Christopher Columbus Day I fucking hate it I don't partake in it.

Now let's move on to one of my biggest pet peeves but library of Alexandria. Caesar invaded Egypt yes and all that shit but the one thing that I wish that he didn't fucking do is burn that library, you want to know why? Atlantis fucking existed it went by a completely different name then and Disney Plus actually did a documentary on it recently and they actually found one of the most accurate places it could be, and not only that but they said that atlanteans founded the Jewish religion, because the menorah is the short version of all the Atlantic writings that they put. So Atlantis exists that library had all the trade routes to it and things like that.

They had sciences and different society things that none of us had today like for instance Egypt had working toilets with plumbing, they had plumbing, PLUMBING THOUSANDS OF YEARS BEFORE THE MIDDLE AGES, and we lost it because the library got burned, they had working aqueducts that literally when they shit in a hole it would take it out into the sea they also had a thing for not getting sick like washing your hands, THEY HAD KNOWLEDGE OF KNOWING THAT WASHING YOUR HANDS PREVENTED SICKNESS AND FLUSHING TOILETS, BUT BECAUSE THAT STUPID FUCKING CAESAR BURN THE LIBRARY WE LOST ALL THAT AND HAD TO START THE FUCK OVER, we could have completely avoided the European black plague, we could have got rid of all these different fucking diseases or at least figured out what causes them and things thousands of years fucking earlier, but because that fucker who I fucking hate I don't give a fuck what people celebrate him or what the fuck ever, because he burned it we don't have we didn't have fucking working toilets and we didn't know that washing your hands could save you from diseases and the animals carried diseases, that was all in the fucking library, but because they burned it and no one from Egypt or anywhere else like hahaha all of the Mediterranean, grease and all that they also had things similar to it because none of them wanted to talk to the people that fucking conquered them in Rome we lost all that fucking information.

Another thing is in America at least they also don't teach this in schools the first slaves to ever exist were actually swedish and Scottish. They weren't black. They were white. Europe enslaved the swedish and Scottish and then traveled over to Africa, Africa was in the process of enslaving their own people from rival tribes, other black people, but when the Europeans came with their white slaves and the Europeans saw the black slaves they basically decided that they would take each other's slaves and they would also mix them and breed them, they basically purposefully bred the black slaves and the swedish and Scottish slaves together to make what they called "a superior breed of slave" basically and that's how it started.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk, please educate yourself on history especially as an American to actually know things.

[weaselishmcdiesel]

theres a youtube channel profiting off and lying about ai art and it's pissing me off

@/tendofarms on youtube uses ai art in the thumbnails and videos of their animal crossing compilation videos, claims it to be made by them despite also giving credit to a @/lumasi.png on instagram, who claims it's "a comission." this art is also being sold on merch on the channel's etsy account.

They haven't posted a video in 2 months but to see that they've made money through this scheme really pisses me off. Also the fact that they're attempting to decieve people by creating a fake artist on instagram who posts the ai art. They've attempted to say the art is a blend of original art made in photoshop/illustrator as well as the help of ai art. I dont believe this is true and im going to show your asses why

On their first video, they say

"my normal workflow so far has been to paint backgrounds, then get Ai to help with character design, i bring to photoshop to select my favorites, and put together something from my personal painting combined with my favorite Ai characters. Hope this clears things up :D"

The art in question:

and if you have no issues with it, here are MY issues with it

i'll pretend for a second that this person did make the backgroundand ignore the fucking surreal characters. sure. ok so what the fuck are these details. and also how did the ai manage to match your style so well? it doesnt have a backglog of years of YOUR work, does it?

On another video, they say

"a lot of illustrator/photoshop work went into this art. I used Ai to get ideas for composition and generate some character ideas, still some stuff i wish i improved but i think i got it to a decent final stage. Hope you guys enjoy the art and the mix <3333 love!!!"

the art in question with my notes.

The reason this particular post stands out to me is because in the DESCRIPTION of this video, they say the art was made by @lumasi.png on instagram. So when i go to their account and find this art, i see this

so, ok. was it a commission or did tendyfarms make it using a lot of illustrator/photoshop work. and if they ARE two different people.. wow their styles are so similar thats crazy /sarcastic as fuck

I would also like to point out that @/lumasi.png's first post, one that isnt featured in a tendyfarms video, also reeks of ai.

But maybe this isnt a big issue. Their etsy after all only shows that theyve made 16 sales, and their most popular views sit around 100k views, which probably isnt enough to even earn a stable living from, so who cares.

Just. as someone who listens to a lot of music from youtube mixes/compilations, who also makes art, i feel it's really fucking disrespectful to try and claim art as your own in a space where i go to try and relax or find new musical artists. and it's fucking rampant! i have to check each mix to see if using ai for the art, which i can only really see if i click on the video, giving them a small boost in stats. And if they arent using ai art? theyre probably stealing the art directly from an artist and not giving proper credit. Forget about asking the artist for permission, it's not like countless youtubers have explained how thumbnails are The Most important element of a video. Just go ahead and take someone else's work to give yourself some cash.

I know tumblr users hate generative ai already, but i'd just like to give a little attention to what youtube looks like, and to try and ask for more vigilance, more comments calling out the bullshit. I dont see a lot of comments at all on tendofarm's posts! or any mention of ai can be brushed away with "oh i used ai as well as drawing it myself" :/ you didnt buddy. you just didnt do that.

Idk what the right thing to do is, report their etsy? report their youtube? does either company care? maybe you can tell me

but i should probably say dont harass them. as much as i would like to. just try your best not to give retention to videos that shamelessly and ile about ai. Really look at the videos, really scrutinize if you can spare the time to. thanks

also. is it just me or do the cats in lumasi's pfp and this etsy reviewer's photo look the same. not sure what this could mean. up to you

[wickedsnack-art]

Can I ask about your online selling experience? I know you're moving away from Etsy (and I don't blame you!) but just curious about what's worked/what hasn't. Trying to help my mom sell her art but like. She's older and I have never sold art online and can't give her any advice.

Please feel free to tag other artists selling their work as well! Thank you 🙏

Oh I have to be honest I am probably not the best person to ask about this as it's something I've definitely struggled with myself! I will say for what it's worth that I've been seeing a lot of artists struggling lately; no matter how "popular" an artist is, many seem to be reporting sales that are lower than expected even if market research/interest checks/preorders were done.

Everyone is struggling financially right now---it's been this way for YEARS---and art is one of the first luxuries to go.

That said, Etsy worked well for me for a long time. If your mom isn't doing fanart, she should be fine, because my biggest issue with them arose about the fact that I was selling fanart. Some tips I have;

USE EVERY TAG. Etsy has, if I recall correctly, 13 tags you can put on an individual item. Use all 13. Use them for alternative words for what you're selling (if it's a sticker, tag it as a decal, if it's a print, tag it as a poster). Think about who you think would buy this and what weird search terms they may use to try to find it, and think about alternative uses for the item (a trinket dish might also be an ashtray).

HAVE DESCRIPTIVE TITLES. Put the most important words first so people can see what they're getting right away, but don't be afraid of slightly longer titles. Honestly my titles could've and should've been longer, like Sailor Moon Art Nouveau Digital Art Poster Print Multiple Sizes or something.

RUN SALES OFTEN. Even if it's just 10-15% off people will buy something they've been eying for a while when there's a sale, or they'll feel more eager to buy something they've just found if it's on sale.

USE ETSY'S AUTOMATED DISCOUNT OFFERS. Etsy can automatically send a discount code to people who have interacted with your shop, use it. I made more sales from the automated 10% off code sent to people who favorited items than my monthly Patreon discount.

USE ETSY FREE SHIPPING. Shipping via Etsy is pretty cheap, and activating the "free shipping on orders over $35" will boost your spot in the algorithm, will boost the likelihood that people will order from you, and will boost the average cart size of people that order from you.

I RECOMMEND PRINTFUL. I used Printful for selling my larger prints, but they also offer other items if you want to branch out. If you don't want to get in trouble with Etsy, make sure you register it as a manufacturing partner and assign every item that Printful makes for you. Dropshipping on Etsy is a problem, but the problem is people who steal art or use AI to generate images to sell. I don't personally see a problem with someone who makes their art themselves going through a print shop to sell products they don't have the means to create at home. If you don't want to do that, you can check out inprnt. I haven't used them, but many other people have and seem to like it well enough.

SHIP THROUGH ETSY. It doesn't take very long to set up a shipping profile for your items, and it makes shipping easier and cheaper. As long as you get your items out on time, you'll get their shipping star or whatever very quickly and easily and maintain it without problem. It also has the benefit that if a buyer ever has an issue with the shipping, Etsy is more likely to have your back. If for any reason you can't ship through Etsy, I recommend pirateship. Also!! Be more careful about international shipping than you think you should be. There are a lot of confusing international laws regarding sending items as a corporation to those countries that you may not expect, so before you agree to selling something to a foreign country, make sure you check their laws.

I have also tried having an Instagram shop and I'll be fully honest I don't do what I should do with my Instagram. Maybe other people have more successful Instagram shops, but the process it took for me to get it started compared to how many sales I've made as a result of it (literally ZERO), I would not recommend it.

Shopify is good if you have a following somewhere, because you have to bring all the traffic there yourself. That's the benefit of Etsy and Instagram; they are able to make traffic for you. I've never had a following large enough anywhere to feel like I could run a Shopify of my art. Maybe one day.

I don't personally know a lot of artists who sell online successfully, so if you see this and you fall under that category PLEASE SHARE TIPS!!