this is where i say, cool

[seperis]

Related to the entire Unfunny Prowriter making vague whining sounds about fanfic that we all celebrated in song and rhyme and whatnot, but much more interesting.

From comments,

Comments

[fyrdrakken]

I don't think that's the kind of argument the so-called "pro writers" are going to really respond to -- on the one hand, I think they'd be more likely to take pride in being one of the rare lucky talented ones who achieve publication (and continue to use that as evidence for their own specialness), and on the other, twenty or thirty or forty thousand still isn't a really scary amount when compared to the book-buying public as a whole. If they don't get that fanfic amounts to free advertising for their published works, I don't see them as being really scared by the prospect of fannish boycotts of their books.

[seperis]

For the purposes of that post and the latest brouhaha, this particular argument was relevant in terms of numbers. That's why it's an interesting statistic to have around.

[fyrdrakken]

Why were the numbers important? I followed back to the comment thread you linked to but couldn't tell what point it was trying to make, and I'm not curious enough to pull up all those screencaps on the main post looking for it.

[seperis]

Characterization of fanfic writers as a tiny fringe group.

[fyrdrakken]

Waded through the discussion threads on that post (many of them, anyway, and bitterly regretting JF's lack of an "Expand" link on threads) and ran across some of what was being said about ficwriters being dismissed as a fringe element of "real fandom." So, yes, when coming up against a statement like GRRM fans displaying their characteristic level of fail, or RTD's crack about the outrage at the Torchwood miniseries' ending coming down to "twelve angry women on the internet," then yes, being able to point to thousands is helpful.

Though maybe not as much as we would like. (Still, very interested by the comment about some publisher or whatever calculating that the bulk of the bookbuying in the US is down to 20,000 very devoted readers. Then again, print media isn't doing so well lately.)