[ SECRET POST #5637 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5637 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 42 secrets from Secret Submission Post #807.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not theoretically opposed to the idea of the original author being paid a small percentage for pull-to-publish works based on their IPs. Like, I'm not opposed to the idea in sentiment. But I suspect the nitty gritty of hashing out the legalities would be an absolute nightmare, and would most likely end up benefiting the "wrong" people--i.e. publishing houses and extremely successful authors disproportionately. Smaller authors would likely end up not seeing much of the profits, and it's very easy to see how the whole thing could end up being used by publishing houses and wealthy IP owners to make bullshit claims on the IPs of small creators who can't afford to fight back.

[(Anonymous)]

By small percentage, I do hope you mean sixty percent of the gross. They did at least sixty percent of the work in making the whole thing popular in the first place. Likewise publishing houses do need to be paid, because without them and all the other reviled middlemen there is no book.

Write fanfic because you are a fan of the OG author's stuff, or write your own stuff right from the outset.

[(Anonymous)]

By small percentage, I do hope you mean sixty percent of the gross.

God no, that's extremely misguided. The original author getting paid at all would be a courtesy. I believe in courtesy. Courtesy can be really constructive, and is generally favorable to a lack of courtesy. But the practical reality is that if a pull-to-publish work is original enough to be published without being legally vulnerable to an IP case, then it's original enough.

Likewise publishing houses do need to be paid, because without them and all the other reviled middlemen there is no book.

They do need to be paid. They do not, however, need to be paid the lion's share while the author of the work scrapes by. If they claim this is what they "need" then their business model is fucked--possibly irreparably.

Write fanfic because you are a fan of the OG author's stuff, or write your own stuff right from the outset.

These principles you've set for yourself seem needlessly restrictive to me, but hey, I'm not the one that needs to follow them! You do you!

[(Anonymous)]

By small percentage, I do hope you mean sixty percent of the gross. They did at least sixty percent of the work in making the whole thing popular in the first place.

I do not think this is a reasonable estimate at all, especially when talking about particularly popular fan creators.

[(Anonymous)]

You do realize that authors don't even get percentages anywhere near that when their actual books are adapted to the big screen. A cursory Google search suggests they're usually paid a lump sum that's at most 2-3 percent of the movie's budget - not earnings - and in many cases way less than that. A fanfic with the serial numbers filed off and published as original fiction is riding on a lot less recognition than a movie with the actual name of the franchise on it.

[(Anonymous)]

(Cozy Werewolf Anon)

60% of the gross. -spit take-

Trad authors do not even get 60% of the gross of THEIR OWN WORK. Much less 60% of someone ELSE'S!

Authors get an advance and 10% net royalties. NET. Not Gross. 15% if they are REALLY lucky/famous, and they have to earn that advance out before getting ANY royalties. Most never do and it becomes a write off for the publisher. It will help if you get both a hard cover and a mass market paperback AND e-book run. But not always.

The money for authors is in movie and tv rights options. 99% of the time, those options don't get picked up, but the author can have a bit of a savings account and maybe get something around the house fixed.

Life would be so much different if authors got 60% gross of the profits from their own hard work. And publishers gave all authors famous and not so famous the same advance numbers. Pence doesn't need 3 million. No way he can earn that back. American Dirt writer didn't need 27 million. Without the scandal and even with it, she probably can't earn it back.

Look, I know Castle was a cute show. In no way was it real life for an author.

[(Anonymous)]

Wouldn't it be pretty easy to track a fic with only the names changed as a new novel though? I'm not familiar with the process obviously, but like the fic would most likely have a following and be called out as such, so I can't imagine they'd have that easily of a time trying to pin a ownership charge on something that's genuinely a complete original work?

[(Anonymous)]

There are no completely original works, is the problem. Everything borrows from other things. Trying to draw some kind of legal line for how prominent, substantial, and obvious the borrowing has to be in order to legally necessitate royalties be paid would be a mess of epic proportions, and would probably lead to "little guys" getting screwed over while the people who don't actually need more profits reaped the benefit.

And "This was originally fanfic and so owes a monetary debt, whereas that is just heavily derivative and so does not," would be a horrible and, ultimately, nonsensical way of drawing the line, because plenty of PTP fics can easily be assessed to be more original than some derivative "original works."