![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexandraerinSo, there's a publishing start-up I've been Twitter-following for a while (I think I saw someone replying to them or retweeting them) called Forbidden Fiction. I find them interesting and have thought about shopping some of my more fetishy material there, but there's something that stops me and it's kind of at the forefront of my brain right now.
It's this:
Okay. Having a finite term is great. It's a step forward But seven years for digital publishing? Not a good deal for authors. Not a good deal at all. Seven years ago, there was no Kindle. Heck, four years ago there was no Kindle. Two years ago there was no iPad. There's no reason to think the market in four years won't look as different from today's market as today's market looks in comparison to the market four years ago and if you signed a seven year contract today, you'd only be halfway through it.
Or maybe there won't be any huge changes in the next few years. We don't know. The world of digital publishing as we know it is too new for us to have any realistic idea of what seven years looks like. Any time much longer than a year might as well be exty kazillion rells for all that anyone knows.
For some reason, it seems to be impossible to criticize or deconstruct anything on the internet without somebody rolling up to say "You're wrong, there's no malice here, quit thinking everybody is evil." so let me say very clearly: I don't think they're trying to pull a fast one on anybody. They're new. This is my point: we're all new. I imagine they're still feeling things out, and even the idea of a finite term is progress.
But a seven year contract for digital rights is more symbolic progress than actual.
(Now, given that Forbidden Fiction has as part of its mission to be a venue for the sorts of things that other platforms might reject... this could change the calculus a little, because it effectively puts them in a different market than everyone else. But I'd maintain that it's still too early to know how much impact that will actually have.)
Note for Dreamwidth readers:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
forbiddenfics has responded here.
It's this:
Authors retain copyright. ForbiddenFiction is contracting for exclusive publication rights both digital and print for a period of seven years.
Okay. Having a finite term is great. It's a step forward But seven years for digital publishing? Not a good deal for authors. Not a good deal at all. Seven years ago, there was no Kindle. Heck, four years ago there was no Kindle. Two years ago there was no iPad. There's no reason to think the market in four years won't look as different from today's market as today's market looks in comparison to the market four years ago and if you signed a seven year contract today, you'd only be halfway through it.
Or maybe there won't be any huge changes in the next few years. We don't know. The world of digital publishing as we know it is too new for us to have any realistic idea of what seven years looks like. Any time much longer than a year might as well be exty kazillion rells for all that anyone knows.
For some reason, it seems to be impossible to criticize or deconstruct anything on the internet without somebody rolling up to say "You're wrong, there's no malice here, quit thinking everybody is evil." so let me say very clearly: I don't think they're trying to pull a fast one on anybody. They're new. This is my point: we're all new. I imagine they're still feeling things out, and even the idea of a finite term is progress.
But a seven year contract for digital rights is more symbolic progress than actual.
(Now, given that Forbidden Fiction has as part of its mission to be a venue for the sorts of things that other platforms might reject... this could change the calculus a little, because it effectively puts them in a different market than everyone else. But I'd maintain that it's still too early to know how much impact that will actually have.)
Note for Dreamwidth readers:
forbiddenfics has responded here.