Wahoo! A paycheck!
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Wahoo! A paycheck! |
| Creator: | Kal |
| Date(s): | April 3, 2001 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | Wahoo! A paycheck! |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Wahoo! A paycheck! is an essay by Kal in April 2001.
It is one installment to "Beyond the Emerald Dawn," the author's regular column at Fanfiction.net.
Some Topics
- fandom and profit
- why pay big bucks to disinterested professional creators when fans will work for "pizza and three action figures" as well as "never dare to write trash" about characters they like
- tie-in novels
The Essay
I'm sure that, when novels, theater, television and movies started, nobody thought they would turn into a profitable business. Today, there exist editorial empires, theater companies that travel the world, television shows can be watched virtually anywhere, and movies make millions of dollars.
So, will fanfiction rise like those other media?
We write fanfiction because we like it, and because we love the characters. Yet there are always the creators and authors who feel threatened by what they call "misusage" of their characters. But what if instead of giving us a citatory, they gave us a paycheck?
In the coming years, multimedia phenomena like Pokémon will become more usual. In fact, I think that every novel/movie/cartoon will not succeed if a huge merchandising like cards, movies, toys and the likes doesn't back it up. But the creators could also use fanfiction to their own good.
Think about it: The creator is happily counting his money in his three-mile island in the southern pacific, when he realizes he hasn't wrote or drew or thought of anything about his characters for half a year. Obviously he doesn't want to stop making money, but at the same time someone has to keep an eye on those pesky accountants to make sure the IRS doesn't take everything away from him. But people just want more: the new toy line won't be ready until fall, the next chapter of the novels is two months away, and the TV show is already on its third re-run.
But people just want more.
Fanfiction could fill that void easily. All it would take is to grab the more talented fanfic writers of the game/movie/book, give them a contract that pays them more than a job at McDonald's, tell them a few guidelines ("No, you can't kill him. He's going to die heroically in the novel.") and make them write a short story every week, or a long multi-chaptered one. And the stories could be the ones the editorial or TV station would never show to their regular audience (totally absurd comedies, alternate stories that explore more the less-seen characters). And it would be cheaper: one person writes, sends the text file, the story is read and approved and is posted in the official website. The author is happy because he has enough money to pay this month's rent and maybe order a pizza. The creators are happy because people still get interested in their characters and they make money. Everybody is happy.
Up to now, I've seen some examples of this: George Lucas has given licenses to well-known writers to write any kind of story, with any characters they want in the Star Wars universe, as long as it doesn't screws up the original story. And in The Matrix website (www.whatisthematrix.com C'mon, do I really have to tell you the address?) there are short webisodes that tell stories that don't conflict with what their have in mind for their next two movies.
If any creator is reading this, c'mon, there are lots of talented people here just dying to work with you, writing about the characters they know and love so much. Let's be honest: some of the creator-licensed stuff is bad. What were you thinking when you let that novel get published, or that movie be done, in the first place? There are people here that could do a much better job; they would never dare to write trash about these characters because they really like them. And they just ask for a little more than the minimum wage (But if you maintain your position, they'll accept pizza and three action figures).