Wild thought (I have those at stupid o’clock in the morning) but fic writers who commission fics for like $5 per 1k words are waaaaay under charging. That’s half a cent per word. That’s not even close to the semi-pro rate for writing in most places.
There was a post going around a while back about the old habit (more or less defunct now, at least on Ao3) of putting massive disclaimers ahead of your fic that you weren’t trying to make money off anyone else’s copyrighted stuff, you were just writing for fun, please don’t sue. All I’m saying is if Anne Rice’s lawyers ever got wind of people writing fic for commission they would be on that shit like flies on velcro.
That’s not to say I don’t agree with you: artists should be paid fairly for their work no matter what they create and that pretty much never happens. (Musicians playing gigs for “exposure” is another good example. And don’t get me started on trying to make money off knitting.) I’m just glad that the world has come far enough that we can even have this discussion with regards to fan works.
Oh yeah. I have heard of the Anne Rice (and other authors) thing. Messy to say the least.
I definitely get the legal issues with anyone selling or making money off unofficial fan products, but I personally feel that if fan artists can make money and people who create unlicensed merchandise are “okay” within fandom, fan writers ought to be, too. Realistically, it’s all dubious to say the least. None of own the names or rights to these characters and we are all subject to the whims of the copyright holders. It’s just odd to me that buying a print from a fan artist or a necklace or a phone case is cool but commissioning fan fic is somehow “more illegal”. It’s not, but fandom seems to think so.
And perhaps it’s because copyright holders haven’t gone after fan artists they way they have fan writers? Who knows. I’m just glad the tides are turning honestly.
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