Chris Williams Gets Closer To The Talent
May. 26th, 2007 05:09 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
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The 2004 FanLib marketing brochure has been widely cited by FanLib critics, and for good reason. It flatly contradicts FanLib’s current posture as the fanfiction writer’s new best friend. The brochure makes it clear that fan writers and their fanfiction are the meal to be served up to FanLib's real clients, corporate advertisers.
When Chris Williams, FanLib CEO, responded to the questions posed by fans at Henry Jenkins’s blog, he distanced FanLib from that marketing brochure, claiming it is irrelevant to what FanLib is doing now.
But it is relevant, and Williams says so himself.
That FanLib is not shifting strategies is illustrated by Williams’s answer here:
Note the second category is bigger than the other three categories combined. Note it is FanLib’s original business model, as outlined in the 2004 marketing brochure, which Williams described to Jenkins as “…running special events in partnership with media companies and publishers in a moderated, controlled environment.”
I bolded “closer to the talent” because Williams uses that phrase six times in the short interview. What does he mean by it? Will we get to have sex with starlets? I’ll return to it later. Etymologists, quit laughing.
Chris Williams says he wants “FanLib.com (the website) to become a venue for fans who want to showcase and share their work, discover great stories, get closer to the talent behind their favorite fandoms and participate in creative storytelling events.”
I don’t believe him.
What Chris Williams wants is to make money off other people’s creative work without paying them for it. When that fails, he’ll go to Plan B.
In the past, Williams made money off other people’s creative work only in a moderated, controlled environment. Who was moderating it and controlling it? Not FanLib. The intellectual property owners (IPs).
But, based on this interview, it seems that Williams believes that is about to change because of, um, convergence. Now he can make money off other people’s creative work without involving the IPs. Sounds like a dream? It is.
I don’t think Chris Williams believes in that dream; he’s asking Warner and Fox to give him money for nothing. And that happens how often?
No, the dream is a smokescreen to hide FanLib’s Plan B, which is to tighten the control over fanfiction by IPs.
How?
Chris Williams told Jenkins, “I certainly recognize fan fiction is not your "vanilla" (user generated content).”
That was a bit coy of Williams. I wouldn’t call Care Bears BDSM “vanilla,” either.
Wait! What? There’s Care Bears BDSM fanfiction? Goodness!
I mention the Care Bears BDSM fanfiction story because it’s famous in fandom. It’s famous because it’s hilarious. It’s also a work of parody, like Hustler’s mocking of Jerry Falwell, and therefore by any definition legal. It’s a classic example of why Middle America isn’t likely to become keen consumers of non-corporate sponsored fanfiction.
But on to Plan B.
Williams said, “Fan fiction is already on the radar of media companies and publishers and being pushed into the public eye.”
It’s Williams doing the pushing.
He is shoving our fanfiction into the faces of the IPs so they will crack down on it. That’s what FanLib is for. That’s why Williams is allowing members to archive—at a mainstream commercial site!—fanfiction porn with penetration, anal, oral, threesomes, incest, and the occasional Care Bear.
The IPs are bound to love it. And they will make that love known. With lawyers.
Williams said, “We believe we can help reconcile the two models, but changes are coming with or without us.”
What he meant: “When we can’t reconcile the two models, we’ll go to Plan B.” Which is: drag all fanfiction into the original FanLib business structure, where it is moderated and controlled by the IPs.
Then Williams will be sitting pretty.
He’ll purge FanLib of the “unapproved” stories, happily assist the IPs in sending cease and desist notices to FanLib members who dared to share their Batman/Robin stories, and enjoy the brave new world, where all fanfiction makes money for someone. Especially FanLib.
Williams wants the days of un-branded ad-free fanfiction to end. That’s when he can make some serious cash.
Almost forgot. Talent. It’s an ancient measure of money.
To Williams, our fanfiction, which we make and give away freely, isn’t art. It doesn’t even qualify as a harmless hobby. It’s lost income.
Stewardess
May 26, 2007
When Chris Williams, FanLib CEO, responded to the questions posed by fans at Henry Jenkins’s blog, he distanced FanLib from that marketing brochure, claiming it is irrelevant to what FanLib is doing now.
But it is relevant, and Williams says so himself.
Jenkins: Your previous efforts around The L Word and The Ghost Whisperer involved working directly with production companies to authorize certain kinds of fan fiction. Why have you shifted strategies with this new initiative? And can you reconcile the two models?
Williams: The premise of this question is 100% false. We have not shifted strategies. As noted above, fan fiction is already on the radar of media companies and publishers and being pushed into the public eye. We want to be a positive agent in this changing environment by collaborating with fans, media companies and rights holders. We've already experienced significant success on this front through our series of special storytelling events, and we intend to build on that success with the FanLib.com venue where all the parties can participate in fan fiction. We believe we can help reconcile the two models, but changes are coming with or without us. (emphasis mine)
That FanLib is not shifting strategies is illustrated by Williams’s answer here:
Jenkins: What does FanLib offer a fanfic writer that other ad-free sites run by people from within the fanfic community do not?
Williams: FanLib offers four things: First, we provide a venue for people who want to showcase and share their stories, discover great stories, get closer to the talent behind their favorite fandoms and participate in fun events.
Second, for people who want it, we provide the opportunity to be recognized and discovered by a wider audience and by our media partners. For example:
- FanLib has run two online storytelling events resulting in twelve winning authors being published in e-books distributed by HarperCollins.
- FanLib is currently running an event where authors have their parenting stories produced into short video episodes with major stars that are distributed on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and online. These videos have already been viewed over 2,800,000 times online, and we are only on the second episode with three more to go.
- FanLib launched the first ever collaboration between a television creator and their fans resulting in an original episode screenplay for The L Word. One of the winning authors secured literary representation as a result of the contest.
- FanLib has given away more than $50,000 in prizes to winning participants in our online storytelling events.
- FanLib has secured local and national press coverage for winning authors of FanLib events.
We have many more special fan events coming. You'll see us shortly announce and launch: a fan event with a major media company around one of the most popular fandoms, a collaborative feature film screenplay and movie, a partnership with a major talent management company to identify star writers from the FanLib.com community and create opportunities for them.
Third, we have highly responsive customer support.
Lastly, no other site - whether they have ads or not - offers all of the features listed below. Our beta site also actively solicits member feature requests and implements them.
Note the second category is bigger than the other three categories combined. Note it is FanLib’s original business model, as outlined in the 2004 marketing brochure, which Williams described to Jenkins as “…running special events in partnership with media companies and publishers in a moderated, controlled environment.”
I bolded “closer to the talent” because Williams uses that phrase six times in the short interview. What does he mean by it? Will we get to have sex with starlets? I’ll return to it later. Etymologists, quit laughing.
Chris Williams says he wants “FanLib.com (the website) to become a venue for fans who want to showcase and share their work, discover great stories, get closer to the talent behind their favorite fandoms and participate in creative storytelling events.”
I don’t believe him.
What Chris Williams wants is to make money off other people’s creative work without paying them for it. When that fails, he’ll go to Plan B.
In the past, Williams made money off other people’s creative work only in a moderated, controlled environment. Who was moderating it and controlling it? Not FanLib. The intellectual property owners (IPs).
But, based on this interview, it seems that Williams believes that is about to change because of, um, convergence. Now he can make money off other people’s creative work without involving the IPs. Sounds like a dream? It is.
I don’t think Chris Williams believes in that dream; he’s asking Warner and Fox to give him money for nothing. And that happens how often?
No, the dream is a smokescreen to hide FanLib’s Plan B, which is to tighten the control over fanfiction by IPs.
How?
Chris Williams told Jenkins, “I certainly recognize fan fiction is not your "vanilla" (user generated content).”
That was a bit coy of Williams. I wouldn’t call Care Bears BDSM “vanilla,” either.
Wait! What? There’s Care Bears BDSM fanfiction? Goodness!
I mention the Care Bears BDSM fanfiction story because it’s famous in fandom. It’s famous because it’s hilarious. It’s also a work of parody, like Hustler’s mocking of Jerry Falwell, and therefore by any definition legal. It’s a classic example of why Middle America isn’t likely to become keen consumers of non-corporate sponsored fanfiction.
But on to Plan B.
Williams said, “Fan fiction is already on the radar of media companies and publishers and being pushed into the public eye.”
It’s Williams doing the pushing.
He is shoving our fanfiction into the faces of the IPs so they will crack down on it. That’s what FanLib is for. That’s why Williams is allowing members to archive—at a mainstream commercial site!—fanfiction porn with penetration, anal, oral, threesomes, incest, and the occasional Care Bear.
The IPs are bound to love it. And they will make that love known. With lawyers.
Williams said, “We believe we can help reconcile the two models, but changes are coming with or without us.”
What he meant: “When we can’t reconcile the two models, we’ll go to Plan B.” Which is: drag all fanfiction into the original FanLib business structure, where it is moderated and controlled by the IPs.
Then Williams will be sitting pretty.
He’ll purge FanLib of the “unapproved” stories, happily assist the IPs in sending cease and desist notices to FanLib members who dared to share their Batman/Robin stories, and enjoy the brave new world, where all fanfiction makes money for someone. Especially FanLib.
Williams wants the days of un-branded ad-free fanfiction to end. That’s when he can make some serious cash.
Almost forgot. Talent. It’s an ancient measure of money.
To Williams, our fanfiction, which we make and give away freely, isn’t art. It doesn’t even qualify as a harmless hobby. It’s lost income.
Stewardess
May 26, 2007
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Date: 2007-05-26 12:19 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2007-05-26 12:40 pm (UTC)This just gave me an evil conspiracy plot.
What if we started flooding FanLib with thousands of poorly written, boring, yet totally vanilla stories?
Some obvious problems with the idea, but I can see a lot of IP holders being like, "Nothing to see here, lol."
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Date: 2007-05-26 05:55 pm (UTC)Still, the idea of spamming the site somehow is tempting.
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Date: 2007-05-27 11:34 am (UTC)*g* My evil thought was for someone to write a terribly boring story, and for everyone to upload it thousands and thousands of times... Perhaps with the names changed for different fandoms, that's all. ;)
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Date: 2007-05-29 12:27 am (UTC)... not that I would ever encourage such behavior. Ahem.
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Date: 2007-05-27 11:28 pm (UTC)Angie
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Date: 2007-07-26 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-27 03:04 am (UTC)Fanfiction is still operating behind the scenes. He wants to drag it to the forefront to make money off of the gen ficcers.
We gen writers and readers are no more behind what FanLie is doing than anyone else in fandom. The whole thing seems like a giant sting operation to catch all fen in a giant legal quagmire where they can pick us off fandom by fandom.
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Date: 2007-05-27 06:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-29 07:50 am (UTC)Yes! Though after reading the emails maida_c exchanged with FanLib (http://miera-c.livejournal.com/280712.html?format=light) in March, I'm leaning back towards the confederacy of dunces theory.
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Date: 2007-05-26 06:05 pm (UTC)No, the dream is a smokescreen to hide FanLib’s Plan B, which is to tighten the control over fanfiction by IPs. - When I read this line, the phrase "get closer to the talent" connected to it in my mind. Scary.
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Date: 2007-05-26 08:24 pm (UTC)There's no official definition of "press coverage." As long as they can claim the authors' names were shown on two venues, one intended for locals somewhere and one intended to be read by Americans in various locations, they're not "lying."
The cute part of Plan B is his assumption that fandom has any interest in getting "closer to the talent." (Some do; that's why authors and actors get invited to the sci-fi conventions. But those who want to be involved in fandom, are...we're not pushing to drag in the rest of the Original Artists and get chummy with them.)
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Date: 2007-05-27 11:31 pm (UTC)Angie, sighing
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Date: 2007-05-26 08:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-27 02:43 am (UTC)Bingo.
...get closer to the talent behind their favorite fandoms
How do we get closer to, say, Raincoast books or J. K. Rowling -- the talent behind one of my favorite fandoms -- if they're not participating in FanLib?
On those story events:
What bothers me about their contests is that by making the work collaborative, they cut away the single author. As far as I can tell, they win for the best scene. No one wins for the final work. Then they rewrite it and it's theirs. The copyright is owned by HarperCollins or Avon books, and there's no single author to fight them on it.
It doesn't look like something designed to reward authors. It looks like something to get around the inconvenience of authors.
I looked at the rules for the Avon romance contest. The prizes were very small, $250 shopping sprees at Saks, that sort of thing. Most were given away in random drawings and for "early bird" postings (the first person to post their scene) which can't possibly encourage quality work.
The grand prize was that you got an opportunity to write a screenplay that would be produced, and for that you got literary credit. However, you signed away all copyright to the work. It would belong to Fox.
First glance at this, these guys are bad for writers of original fiction, too.
As for Plan B... *fumes*
Icarus
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Date: 2007-05-27 07:36 am (UTC)When I wrote, "What Chris Williams wants is to make money off other people’s creative work without paying them for it," I considered making "other people" narrower. But I decided not to, because it is a broad group: the IP holders not "sponsoring" FanLib, the fans who participate in the contests, and the people who archive fic at FanLib.
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Date: 2007-05-27 08:00 am (UTC)It occurs to me how bad it was that FanLib alienated the LJ fandom. When Six Apart took over the ownership of LiveJournal in (I believe it was) 2004, LiveJournal went down for one weekend. For that weekend, Google announced that its number one search term was "Harry Potter fan fiction." Fans used to getting their fanfic on LJ had to look elsewhere.
That's how much fanfic on is LJ. *whistles*
Icarus
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Date: 2007-05-27 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-27 11:38 pm (UTC)You know why so much of fandom is on LJ? Because every other site has specialized in one form or another. ff.net has everything but NC-17 stories. Other archives have only one fandom, or only up to an R-rating, or don't allow chan, or don't allow RPS.
LJ is the only place where we have all of our multi-faceted interests thrown into one pile. And the balkanized nature of it keeps these various factions so separate that they don't even know what's housed next door. (I worry about the in-fighting over such things as RPS and chan on the
FanLib would never be able to compete because eventually they'll have to remove that NC-17 bible slash three-way to please their sponsors. That prospect no doubt doesn't bother FanLib, but it's good we didn't get suckered.
Icarus
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Date: 2007-05-28 09:34 pm (UTC)http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml?view=popular&mode=text
If you look up popular interests like "writing" through search, it will show at most 400 users or communities. That's when the search program times out to prevent slowdowns.
To see the real figures, you have to use top interests. It's a fun page. For instance, the most popular person is Johnny Depp, with 115,000 people listing him as an interest. Jesus is way down there with 48,000, failing to beat out beer, sarcasm, and slash.
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Date: 2007-05-28 10:11 pm (UTC)Icarus
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Date: 2007-05-28 10:22 pm (UTC)Icarus
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Date: 2007-05-28 10:55 pm (UTC)Icarus
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Date: 2007-05-28 11:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-29 10:50 am (UTC)Yes. It privatizes creativity, out of the hands of the creative communities in which they thrive (both formally published, and fanfic writers), and into the hands of Any Ten Guys with a keyboard and the pockets of Chris Williams to smush it together and mail it in to the producers.
I'm wondering which published authors will take an interest in speaking out for other *writers* - whether fanficcers or not - as opposed to the would-be leech upon them? What about published writers who began in fandom? Surely they don't think it would accomplish anything for them to have FanLib etc. get rid of fanficcers. In fact, for those who sell to TV and film, it would just, as y'all note, create unpaid substitutes ... for some of them.
The only light in this tunnel is that creativity *isn't* free. As H.J.Heinz is only the latest to discover, getting the customers to provide the ads, so you can just snag the best, gets you one thing in abundance: non-creativity.
As New York Times reported May 26, H.J.Heinz is only the latest company to discover that inviting the customers to provide the ads, so you can just run them for free, actually gets you one thing in abundance: crap. Heinz is not the first company to create and run a contest for consumers to create the winning ads. Here's how it's been working:
"...These companies have found that inviting consumers to create their advertising is often more stressful, costly and time-consuming than just rolling up their sleeves and doing the work themselves. Many entries are mediocre, if not downright bad, and sifting through them requires full-time attention."
Heinz, for instance, has hired a firm to watch all the videos and help find the possible winners. So far, the Times reports, they're rejected more than 370. Heinz only needs five, "if there are enough that convey a positive, appealing message about Heinz ketchup," a spokesman said.
"But advertising executives who have seen some of the entries say that Heinz may be hard pressed to find any that it is proud to run on television in September."
So may it be for FanLib.
The High Price of Creating Free Ads
Louise Story
Business|Media & Advertising
The New York Times
May 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/26/business/26content.ready.html