Chris Williams Gets Closer To The Talent
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.
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
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