Someone wrote in [community profile] fandomsecrets 2017-03-13 11:22 pm (UTC)

Why is this surprising?

If anything, I'm surprised they get as much as you're estimating. Very few people who read someone's fanfic have any interest in their original writing.

Would it be nice if all of this person's readers (at least the ones with disposable income) showed how much they enjoyed her fanfic by giving her money? Yeah, absolutely. But people aren't habituated to voluntarily paying for things that are free. If anything I'd say "the system" pretty thoroughly discourages us from paying for something if we don't have to. So the fact that most people are strongly disinclined to volunteer money should be a surprise to no one.

And I say that as someone who has, at various points in my life, had to go to the food bank in order to get by.

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