Here's an interesting article: 1000 True Fans

[sff_corgi_lj]

A concept where fandom is actually seen as economically valuable.

It's a little long, but worth a few minutes. What are your thoughts? (Other than 'Happy Birthday', that is.)

Comments

[ashavah]

It is an excellent day for birthdays. My best friend at work's birthday is today, as well.

[ashavah]

And yes, I think that's a very interesting article. I've often thought that fandom actually pays off for the creators because it helps keep the fans interested and gets them to buy spin-off material they might not otherwise have bought.

For example, in recent weeks in research for morethanrevenge, I have bought each of the two movies twice (once in digital format off iTunes, once on DVD), plus the Gotham Knight DVDs. For Torchwood, I've bought all the DVDs (or will have once Children of Earth comes out tomorrow), the official companion, and spin-off novels. Etc, etc.

[alicebentley]

I haven't re-read the article recently (though I went through the whole thing when it first came out).

I think one point missed by a lot of the conversation when that came out is that the 1,000 true fans are not the same group as the people who read your webcomic and then buy your T-shirt, even though they probably think they are. To throw some numbers at it: If you need to acquire $100,000 in one year to make a reasonable living (and lemme tell you, that's conservative, because since you're self-employed you cover both your taxes and your employer's share, so take at least 40% of that right off the top), that's $100 dollars per [true fan] per year. NOT including any production expenses you might encounter, like actually designing, printing, storing, packing and shipping T-shirts.

So in the webcomic world, it would be more reasonable to talk about 10,000 fans, and figure that between wallpaper donations, the part you get to keep from making the T-shirts, the part you get to keep from printing the books, etc., an active creator may indeed net $10 per year from each.

The bad news is, you have to keep the production-of-stuff going, and there's no reason to count on your popularity holding over the long haul. The good news is, that's possible - obviously, as dozens of people are currently making their living doing free webcomics.

And birthdays are fun! Glad to see another one!

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

I wonder what the proportions work out to - 1 Trufan = 1+n Loyal Fans = 1+n+n Casual Fans...?

[spin1978.livejournal.com]

1.) Happy birthday!

2.) I think the article presents an interesting idea about what it takes to "make it" as a creative professional. If nothing else, I would be perfectly content with 5000 Loyal Fans who spend just $50 a year on the average. ;)

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

It does allow for variation on the theme.