#fanartists are not paid! they contribute so much to fandom in general FOR FREE

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screaming and crying and sobbing HOW HARD is it to credit artists

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Hello! I have a question for you about requests/Patreon. I have seen a couple of accounts have commissions via Patreon, but I thought making money off of copyrighted material was illegal. Even if it is the author's writing, the characters and world (Show, book, movie) are copywritten. Just curious because I remember back in the days when authors like Anne Rice went after people who wrote fanfiction about her characters.

Hi there!

If I can answer them I certainly will.

So technically the act of writing fanfiction itself is copyright infringement so none of us should be doing it. For me personally if artists can make fanart and get paid for it, why can’t writers? That’s where there has always seemed to be a bit of elitism. People have and have had no problem with fanartists building Patreons but there’s upheaval when writers do. It’s an interesting double standard.

That’s how I reconciled it in my head. I did not and do not make a lot of money from my fanfiction work, I think the most I’ve made in a month is £30, I think it’s down to around £20 now. Sometimes people donate to my kofi and I think that’s pretty damn nice of them.

For a long time I was on the fence about starting a Patreon, here’s a little bit about my decision to start a Patreon:

After I had my mental health breakdown I was really struggling financially as my work were stingy with sick pay. I was in the position of if I quit my job, I wasn’t entitled to any benefits from the government because I didn’t class as being ill enough to be supported by them. (This was bullshit because my PTSD/anxiety/depression was insane, I became agoraphobic for a while – I lost 2 & half stone, I isolated myself I couldn’t sleep – there was no way I could look for a job/attend interviews and all the jazz that came with that)

What I was doing was creating content because it was the only thing that kept me sane – this is why my queue is always booked up a month in advance because I was generating so much back then I was scheduling 4 months in advance and beyond. Literally it was the only thing I was doing.

I did and do a hell of a lot of content for free (asks, my own storylines for characters) it seemed fair at the time when I was really struggling to ask for a financial contribution where people could help me out if they could afford it. And people did and I honestly am forever grateful to those people because they will never know how much they helped me.

I did quit my job as that was a huge factor into my illness and started my own business as an editor, book coach and marketer which has been fairly successful but I still earn a hell of a lot less than I previously did hence why the Patreon is still helpful.

I think if you aren’t earning fuckloads from it you’re able to fly under the radar, if you’re drawing in thousands like I know some people are in very popular fandoms then you’re more likely to get spanked as it’s seen as a depreciation of income to the original concept (book/show/movie)

I also think the way I sort of run my Patreon is kind of holistic in a way as everyone will still get access to those fics, you’re just paying for early access. They are not exclusive to Patreon or tucked behind a paywall forever where you can’t read the next part of your fav series (which is what a lot of Patreons do).

On the topic of fanfic and making money, there’s authors out there that who actively market their own work as based on stuff like Criminal Minds (Dr Rebecca Sharp) – how she hasn’t been hung, drawn and quartered by Disney I’ll never know. She has literally stolen actual eps and written them into her books.

I think a lot of older fandom writers remember the Anne Rice drama and are terrified because of it but I don’t think that’s as prevalent as it once was. 50 Shades of Grey started as a Twilight fanfiction, no one has sued E.L James for it.

I know for a fact that some tv show writers do check in on fanfic to take the temperature of their audience. It’s not publicly acknowledged but it can be good market research.

I hope some of that helps and if you have any further questions please feel don’t hesitate to give me a shout.