I know you weren't the OP but just in regards to the 'share stuff you like' post, I want to share a personal anecdote that might highlight exactly how important this is to creators, but am afraid to share it on my own blog because of the 'you should make content for yourself' crowd. Because fuck that, I make it for myself but I post it on the internet for people to interact with. Recently I discovered that people have been reccing both my art and fic privately on various servers and chats (1/5)
Like A LOT. I notice random fics get a few more kudos than normal from time to time and figure it's just a blip, but no it turns out my work is getting recced left right and center, and I HAD NO IDEA. I get so little engagement on tumblr that I assume everything I create is mediocre at best, and definitely not something people feel strongly enough about to reblog because they aren't bothered about sharing it with their friends. On Ao3 I have a small number of regular commenters, (2/5)
and get the odd random one from someone new, but overall again, middling responses. Appreciated, but not anything to indicate that more than three or four people really like what I'm posting, and the rest are very much 'thanks for adding more to this ship tag' type kudos and comments. I feel really, really not good about the work I create. So imagine my shock when I discover there are people out there saying it's awesome, but not telling ME. People I've never interacted with beyond (3/5)
them perhaps liking my posts every now and then. I have seriously considered removing all my fics from Ao3 and keeping them just for myself. I've considered giving up fic and fanart all together to try investing my time in a different hobby as I have many others. But fandom is my first love, and brings me a lot of joy, but that doesn't mean I don't still want to know when people like my stuff! Tell people if someone's recced their work to you in private, please. It's a huge boost. (4/5)
so folks, put yourself in that person's shoes. Could you imagine being like me, thinking you're mediocre or bad only to find out that in private people are sharing your work around like it's a big secret? If anything that makes me feel almost worse because it's like folks are embarrassed to admit they enjoy what I create, which makes me think there's something about me as a person that puts them off. An insight into the mind of one creator, that might shed some insight into the convo (5/5)
Ahh that's crazy! I'm so sorry! D: And thank you so much for sharing this. I don't have anything to add so I'll let your words speak for themselves, but I hope people stop hiding and show you the appreciation you deserve! <3
(Non-authors, please RB to signal boost to your author friends!)
An astute reader informed me this morning that one of my fics (Children of the Future Age) had been pirated and was being sold as a novel on Amazon:
(And they weren't even creative with their cover design. If you're going to pirate something that I spent a full year of my life writing, at least give me a pretty screenshot to brag about later. Seriously.)
I promptly filed a DMCA complaint to have it removed, but I checked out the company that put it up -- Plush Books -- and it looks like A LOT of their books are pirated fic. They are by no means the only ones doing this, either -- the fact that """publishers""" can download stories from AO3 in ebook format and then reupload them to Amazon in just a few clicks makes fic piracy a common problem. There are a whole host of reasons why letting this continue is bad -- including actual legal risk to fanfiction archives -- but basically:
IF YOU ARE A FANFIC AUTHOR WITH LONG AND/OR POPULAR WORKS, PLEASE CHECK AMAZON TO SEE IF YOUR STORIES HAVE BEEN PIRATED.
You can search for your fics by title, or by text from the description (which is often just copied wholesale from AO3 as well). If you find that someone has stolen your work and is selling it as their own, you can lodge a DMCA complaint (Amazon.com/USA site; other countries have different systems). If you haven't done this before, it's easy! Here's a tutorial:
HOW TO FILE A COPYRIGHT COMPLAINT FOR STOLEN WORK ON AMAZON.COM:
First, go to this form. You'll need to be signed into your Amazon account.
Select the radio buttons/dropdown options (shown below) to indicate that you are the legal Rights Owner, you have a copyright concern, and it is about a pirated product.
Enter the name of your story in the Name of Brand field.
In the Link to the Copyrighted Work box, enter a link to the story on AO3 or whatever site your work is posted on.
In the Additional Information box, explain that you are the author of the work and it is being sold without your permission. That's all you really need. If you want, you can include additional information that might be helpful in establishing the validity of your claim, but you don't have to go into great detail. You can simply write something like this:
I am the author of this work, which is being sold by [publisher] without my permission. I originally published this story in [date/year] on [name of site], and have provided a link to the original above. On request, I can provide documentation proving that I am the owner of the account that originally posted this story.
In the ASIN/ISBN-10 field, copy and paste the ID number from the pirated copy's URL. You'll find this ten-digit number in the Amazon URL after the word "product," as in the screenshot below. (If the URL extends beyond this number, you can ignore everything from the question mark on.) Once this number has been added, Amazon will pull the product information automatically and add it to the complaint form, so you can check the listing title and make sure it's correct.
Finally, add your contact information to the relevant fields, check the "I have read and accept the statements" box, and then click Submit. You should receive an email confirmation that Amazon has received the form.
Please share this information with your writer friends, keep an eye out for/report pirated works, and help us keep fanfiction free and legally protected!
NOTE: All of the above also applies to Amazon products featuring stolen artwork, etc., so fan artists should check too!
I love it when anons/guests find my works and kudo/leave reviews, but given the new revelation that Elon Musk is using bots to mine AO3 fanfiction for a writing AI without writer's permission, my works are now archive-locked and only available for people with an AO3 account.
“Your art isn’t valued by the number of notes you get” okay but. If you spent 6 hours baking a cake for a party, but no one at the party eats your cake, it’s still disappointing.
hey guys! i know i haven't been active a lot lately... but lookie! a zine i'm a part of is having a sale from Nov 23-26!
if you like them Anemo Characters and you wanna buy merch featuring them, please do consider supporting this zine! everyone has worked so hard for their pieces and the mods as well in organizing this.
i know most of my audience are because of zhongchili but if you're also here for my poems (shoutout to those from HoYoLAB huehue) or some semblance of "literary" work (not that i think my shit is literary but i try okay? idek what makes literary literary but--), maybe this zine could be for you!
i'm sorry for rambling. it's just that. my piece for this zine was one of the funnest projects i've done this year and it would be really cool if i get to share it with you guys :>
lemme give you a hint, my main subject was Kazuha, set in his travels with the Crux post-banishment, and my theme was... well, you'll have to find out about it yourself, don't cha?
hey guys! i know i haven't been active a lot lately... but lookie! a zine i'm a part of is having a sale from Nov 23-26!
if you like them Anemo Characters and you wanna buy merch featuring them, please do consider supporting this zine! everyone has worked so hard for their pieces and the mods as well in organizing this.
i know most of my audience are because of zhongchili but if you're also here for my poems (shoutout to those from HoYoLAB huehue) or some semblance of "literary" work (not that i think my shit is literary but i try okay? idek what makes literary literary but--), maybe this zine could be for you!
i'm sorry for rambling. it's just that. my piece for this zine was one of the funnest projects i've done this year and it would be really cool if i get to share it with you guys :>
lemme give you a hint, my main subject was Kazuha, set in his travels with the Crux post-banishment, and my theme was... well, you'll have to find out about it yourself, don't cha?
Them is ageswap au Albedo and Klee bc I’m back at it again with the ageswap aus
In which Klee the spark knight takes in a mysterious child that doesn’t seem quite human. Albedo is quiet and reserved and rare to see in Mondstadt, but you can always tell where he goes by the small snowy trail footprints he leaves behind. (Oddly enough, the footprints are little light imprints of chalk. But the mondstadtians don’t ask questions—their resident spark knight has always been a bit odd.)
We looked inside some of the posts by
sniper-childe
and here's what we found interesting.
Average Info
Notes Per Post
501K
Likes Per Post
262K
Reblog Per Post
238K
Reply Per Post
739
Time Between Posts
4 days
Number of Posts By Type
Note
1
Text
11
Photo
4
Video
1
Explore Tagged Posts
Fun Fact
Kazakhstan’s Minister of Communications and Informatics has blocked the Tumblr site because it contained 60 sites of terrorism, extremism, and pornography in 2015.