Entry tags:

ao3, author entitlement, bitter so bitter, deep fanfic thoughts, dogpile, everyone entitlement, fandom: the avengers, fanfic, far too complicated, kudos, misplaced anger, reader entitlement

Writing fanfic is totally like running a restaurant.
Taken from a kind anon, with some small changes made.

Ice, an author of some regard in the Avengers fandom, is no stranger to wank. A few months ago, she attached a long author's note to one of her fics that, simplified, requested readers not leave kudos (still needs caps):

"You know what? I am currently in too much fucking pain and under too much fucking stress to give a flying fuck about social conduct.

I had one simple wish — no kudos.

I keep on asking that on every fic and every fucking time on every fucking one of them, there's a person who just... what? Can’t help themselves? Well done. Thanks for reminding me, over and over again, that I must, indeed, not post my stuff and hope for a simple fucking courtesy to respect my fucking wishes."

Fail_Fandomanon and Tumblr got ahold of the story and promptly spammed it with kudos.
Since then, her fics have continued to be subject of kudosing and - in her mind- low comment counts when compared to the rest of the fandom. Thus, she decides to leave the ficdoms in a blaze of glory.

By writing a longform analogy comparing writing fanfic to running a restaurant. (Original link BALEETED, caps HERE.)

This immediately lands on Avengersanon, Fail_Fandomanon and Tumblr, and subsequently her comment pages fill up with snark. (All deleted: page 1, page 2, page 3, and page 4, with bonus fic.). There's even podfic! After trying to orphan the piece (since deleted), Ice deleted all of her Avengers fanfic, leaving her table AO3 account empty of Avengers content.

For a bonus treat, be sure to read this gem from the wank report, in which a disgruntled ex-ficwriting mousie pops up to sympathize with Ice and humblebrag about her important profic writing career, eventually declaiming all feedback-denying fanfic readers and non-pro fanfic authors as a "whiny ass bunch of freeloaders" and "doormats," respectively, who may or may not be in an abusive relationship.

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janegraddell
2013-02-25 11:44 pm UTC (link)

leaving detailed crit takes effort and talent

Urgh, I know. A lot of writers seem to think that they're the only writers around deserving this attention, that of course every reader will love nothing more than to sit down and spend half an hour sweating over the perfect comment for the each of the dozens of stories they might read in a few days. This gets up my nose as a reader *and* a writer.

I feel kind of strongly that my readers didn't sign up to be my editors. I feel like it's my responsibility to find people who enjoy betaing and volunteer for it, and to get that stuff done before I post. That way,the readers can kick back and (hopefully) enjoy the story without feeling that they have to be my unsolicited betas, too.

About FFR: Wasn't there also a rant a while back about some people going around kudos-bombing on AO3? I don't think it was connected to this, but as I recall there was a certain group that really hated kudos and decided that the appropriate thing to do would be to troll around AO3 and systematically leave kudos on *everything.* The idea, as I understood it, was to dilute the meaning of getting kudos so they'd become worthless. Or something.

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iczer6
2013-02-26 01:16 am UTC (link)

I feel kind of strongly that my readers didn't sign up to be my editors. I feel like it's my responsibility to find people who enjoy betaing and volunteer for it, and to get that stuff done before I post.

This. I mean I understand and respect wanting to improve but there's something almost lazy about people who demand readers also be editors.

That instead of putting the effort into finding someone willing to work with them to improve their work it's like they're expecting it to fall into their laps.

I'm sure this isn't always the case though.

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luthe
2013-02-27 08:16 am UTC (link)

I admit, I do volunteer to beta for people if I think they have a good story that could benefit from some work. But those are always people who admit they don't have betas and acknowledge the rough edges on their fics. It's a way of encouraging the up-and-coming writers who don't have fandom friends yet and so can't just go out and find a beta easily.

That said, I'm only going to put in that kind of effort if I think the story warrants it. Not every piece of porn posted to AO3 deserves detailed concrit. :P

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janegraddell
2013-02-27 09:08 pm UTC (link)

Whoops, sorry for the poor wording. This is very true, and I realize now that I made it sound like because *I* prefer to get a beta and do all that beforehand, that getting a beta is a Fanfic Law that everyone else has to follow. Sorry about that. I think writers should edit as much or as little as they damn well feel like; this is supposed to fun, after all. :) I was being annoyed at writers who seem to expect detailed beta services from everyone who is worthy enough to have been allowed the great privilege of reading their fanfic (aka the internet), and got a little carried away. Oops. :)

And yes, thanks for reminding me that there are readers who *do* love to concrit, and why we love you. :)

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