Posts Tagged ‘work is good’

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Work is Good. And Fans Are Not the Problem. UPDATED

by Colleen Doran on April 27th, 2013
Posted In: Blog, Culture, Colleen's Work, Essays, Culture, Fandom

Fans aren’t the problem.

Let me repeat that. Fans aren’t the problem.

Fans are never the problem.

If you hear a pro (like me) grumbling about some odd incident, or some stalker, or someone coming out of the blue claiming they created our stuff, or whatever, you may hear us refer to a crazy fan. But that’s not true.

Fans don’t do these things. Aspiring pros do. Frustrated pros do. Angry ambitious creators do.

But fans? Never.

I have never in my entire life had a serious problem with ANY fan. Never a serious harsh word, never a grope or grab, never an inappropriate attempt to force a relationship. Every single serious problem I have ever had in my entire career has come from someone trying to get in the business, social climb, cement their position, or play power games with the position they already have.

But fans? Never.

Fans want to watch the movie, listen to the music, look at the pretty pictures, read the story. They are not looking to assimilate, they are not looking for power. Fans who are looking for power in fandom, are looking for status. They are not true fans.

*True Fans enjoy. True Fans experience.

But some people out there aren’t satisfied with that, or are not very happy that they can’t be a central part of the world they admire. It’s not even that these people are truly creators themselves. They simply want the cache of appearing to be creators. They want to have been creators more than they want to create. Which is why they latch on to creators for dear life, and conflate the attachment for all it’s worth.

A fan who actually wants to write for pleasure, and create fanfic, will happily do that without spending all their time running around accusing people of plagiarizing their stuff, or stealing their thunder. Or trying to cozy up to pros to steal their thunder or credit, or get power via proximity. A fan seeking power and status doesn’t necessarily have to produce very much, but they often have complaints about how someone has taken the glory to which they are entitled.

When I mention a bad experience, it’s not about you. I’m not worried you are going to do something. I’ve a very short list of bad experiences in my career. 90% of my problems have come from a tiny fraction of a percentage of the people I’ve met. They were aspiring pros or pros. But never fans.

I am a lot better about establishing boundaries and sensing the avarice and desperation from an aspiring pro that means trouble. So, I don’t have the troubles I used to so much anymore.

But fans? You have never, ever been a problem.

I just wanted you to know that, and to know I appreciate you.

ADDENDUM: A reader on twitter (paquito) wanted me to clarify that this post is not to mean fans who have the purest of motives and never want to be pros are the only REAL fans.

You can be a fan. You can be an aspiring pro. You can be a fan AND a pro, which is why I am now re-watching all seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in chronological order. You can be an aspiring pro who never does any of the things I put in this post. Most of you are.

You should pursue your dreams. You should absolutely, positively want to make money on your work.

What this post is about is pros tend to recognize behaviors of a certain type of person who is angry, frustrated, insecure, looking to move up, or looking to dig in. And this is far more likely to be a pro than a fan.

It’s not about hampering your dreams.

There are reasons why many pros won’t look at manuscripts, or read fanfic, or why they are reluctant to look at portfolios.

It doesn’t mean that every pro or aspiring pro behaves like this. Not even close. It means the very, very small percentage that do causes almost all of the problems you will ever have. And that is why many pros tread lightly around people they don’t know well.

It’s not about how fans have universally pure motives. Wanting to make a living from your art is not an impure motive. Almost everything on my blog is dedicated to helping aspiring creators. Look at the sidebar. And I’ve hired people I knew in fandom over and over again. Wow, what an elitist!

It’s silly to interpret this as, “Oh, she’s afraid of losing her job! So she’s trying to discourage aspiring pros,” which is how one person read this. You’ve gotta be kidding me.

You can’t take my job, I own my own work. What you can do is sue me, stalk me, or simply claim you do all the creative work for me, after I hired you to pack and ship books in my warehouse. I spent over $24,000 defending myself from the bizarre legal campaign of a stalker, a published writer, who demanded over and over that I hire him. I just don’t get that kind of treatment from someone who simply wants an autograph.

That’s why, when I post something about this, I want fans to know, “I am not afraid of you. This is not about you.”

Aspiring pros. This is not about you either, wanting to get into the biz. This is about extreme behaviors. Read the links. They tell the story.


The people most likely to give you a hard time, either looking for a personal or a professional relationship, have issues. From an interview with J Michael Straczynski:

And I still have to be fairly ruthless in enforcing the no-story-ideas thing, because it’s just too dangerous to do otherwise. Marion Zimmer Bradley had to abandon one of her books because a fanfic writer thought it was based on that work, I almost scuttled one of my own scripts after someone posted a similar idea online and I was afraid I might get sued, and others have had similar experiences. People think “Well, it’s just me, why can’t you read my idea/story/script, why are you being such a dick about it?” Because it’s not “just you,” it’s the ten thousand other guys standing behind you asking the same thing, many of whom are prepared to launch lawyers if I ever do a story similar to that in future. Ain’t worth it.

We live in a world where people sue at the drop of a hat, and reading fanfic in 1994 means being sued over it in 2013. It’s sad and frustrating. It is about the tiny little percentage of people out there who do some not very nice things, or jockey for position and power in fandom or prodom.

I hate that many fans feel that pros have to keep their distance because they’re worried that writer or artist or actor thinks they’re being “that guy”.

Fans are never “that guy”.

Pros are rarely “that guy”.

But if you ever meet “that guy”, in my experience, he’s an angry, frustrated creator. And as my friend the art director Val Trullinger once said to me, there is no more destructive force on Earth than the thwarted ambition of a creator. They can get pretty creative about it.

And my school of hard knocks tuition was $24,000 in legal bills.

*Glossary: TRUFAN or TRUE FAN is an old, complimentary SF fandom term. No, it does not mean spiritual purity for pursuit of only fannish activities, any more than FEELTHY PRO means a paid writer is a filthy sell out.

A TRUFAN is simply someone who is well-regarded for their activities in fandom. That’s all.

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Thoughts on the Creative Career

by Colleen Doran on April 9th, 2013
Posted In: Creator Resources, Art How-To, Blog, Creator Resources, Creator Resources, Education

Nice vid for inspiration. Really worth your 7 minutes.

Hat tip: Patrick Ross.

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Work is Good: Get Thee Behind Me, Gurus of Art Twee

by Colleen Doran on March 3rd, 2013
Posted In: Colleen's Work, Creator Resources, Education, Colleen's Work, Essays

I’ve been trying to figure out how to frame this for a long time. How to make a point that everyone can and should make art if they want, while at the same time, making the point that creating art that is actually good, or of cultural value, or even salable, is not so simple.

The Gurus of Art Twee disturb me, because they sloganeer at people, convincing them that Anybody can Make Art, and conflate the work of little Timmy with the Mona Lisa, as if art is one thing that encompasses any recorded emotional human experience, and not a vast bell curve of value quite beyond your personal investment and values.

When someone creates a work that is something beyond personal value, something that is of value to others, or culturally important, then that is something that is rare and precious. And not everyone can do that, or gets to share in it beyond being a consumer or patron. It’s not something you get to make for yourself just by wanting to.

Art may be easy, but stop lying to people Gurus of Art Twee. GOOD ART IS RARE AND IT IS HARD.

It is right and proper to encourage those who want to make pictures or write stories, but there is also a lot to be said for moderating the discussion with reality – the reality that you put it out there, that thing that is a part of you, and that you love – and the world will judge, and that judgment may be rough.

Go for it.
Do it. Dream.
Dream on.
Dream big.
But DREAMS DON’T COME TRUE UNTIL YOU WAKE UP.

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Gurus of Art Twee are trying to sell you a t-shirt with a slogan on it, or they are trying to contextualize the good feeling of their pep talk about how you too can be a wonderful artist with whatever book or album they are trying to sell.

Anyone can open their mouth and sing. Not everyone is good at it. Sing in the shower, by all means. Bless you. But the right to make art is often confused with the right to be perceived as being good or successful at it.

The Art is Easy! slogan is nice, because it is encouraging and tra la, but it’s twee. Being an actual professional artist is not easy. I mean, bricklaying isn’t rocket science either, but no one devalues the labor that goes into it.

Every time someone twees Art is Easy! Michelangelo’s ghost is forced to haul another cart of Corinthian marble in Hell.

My blog is full of examples of my encouraging people to make art. But I ALWAYS temper it with a dose of reality. Making art does not make you a professional.

Not being a pro does not mean you can’t live an art centered life and be perfectly happy.

I have wasted much of my precious time on this earth worrying about whether or not people thought I was a good artist. If I’d put all that time into actually working harder on my art and blocking out the noise, I’d be a much better artist today.

Finding the right advisors to help you become the artist you want to be is difficult. Your internal voice is tough, but judging the verity of the external voices can be even tougher. Sometimes they are ignorant and cruel, and sometimes they are simply telling you what you are not prepared to hear.

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You may very well be a wonderful artist or writer or musician.

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But it will have absolutely nothing to do with what someone is trying to sell you.

It will have everything to do with what comes from inside you.

It’s yours and you don’t need slogans. You don’t need gurus.

And this post is way too big to fit on a t-shirt.

So, have it for free.

Art is easy? HAH! Art is hard.

Art is a matter of the heart, as easy as falling in love and just as common; but falling out of love is just as common and never easy.

And art is love and lack thereof, every single day.

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Work is Good: Spam is Not

by Colleen Doran on February 1st, 2013
Posted In: Creator Resources, Art How-To, Blog, Creator Resources, Creator Resources, Education, Creator Resources, Publishing

More tips from my FB page, with some added commentary

I know a lot of you out there are dying to get into publishing, but many of you don’t go about it the right way. Here’s a few simple tips that will help you target your efforts more effectively.

It is very easy to put off a potential client, or friendly contact, with one simple mistake: failing to research the person whose attention you’re trying to get.

One of the worst and most common mistakes is to send emails, particularly those which include manuscripts or artwork, as attachments to artists and writers. I don’t know any creators who are happy to get those unsolicited works. I got five this week.

Most of us have lawyers who tell us not to look at anything we haven’t solicited. We live in a very litigious society, and unfortunately, professionals also have to deal with unbalanced people who seem to think we’re getting all our ideas from their stuff. Stuff we could not possibly have seen. Ideas are common, similar ideas are common, and throwing around accusations of idea stealing is so common it is not funny. Which is one reason why many creators won’t look at unsolicited work at all, or even do portfolio reviews.

Creators don’t do the hiring as a rule, publishers do. So you are wasting your time sending your work to a creator.

Sending your work to a creator also proves right away that you are not serious about being a creator yourself. You show that you don’t know what you are doing right out of the gate, and didn’t bother to find out what to do. That’s cute when you’re 14, but it’s not so cute when you’re 30.

A serious creator will do some research, and will check out publishers and their submission guidelines.

If you are emailing an artist or writer like me about how to get hired, asking who the editors are, where you should send stuff, and if I can make an introduction for you, I know right away I am dealing with someone who is trying to take shortcuts. The names of editors are easy to find. You need to scope out editors, look at the kind of work they edit, scope out publishers, look at their submission guidelines, and then proceed accordingly. Asking me what publishers want to see wastes your time and mine because there are no hard and fast rules about submitting. Every publisher has different rules.


There are no shortcuts to getting published. It isn’t “Who you know,” so trying to be best buds with an artist or writer online will not get you very far unless you have good work to show someone, and you show that work to the right people. If you send spam emails, and clog up FB and twitter feeds with your stuff, you will not make an ally of a creator. You will just piss them off.

Your target client is not other creators, your target client is a publisher.

Find the publisher that suits your goals, and do what you should do.

Remember, a publisher speaks business, but an aspiring creator speaks need. You need to learn how to speak the publisher’s language. They already know how to speak your language, they hear it from 100 people a day. Your need to be published is common. What you must show to a publisher is how your needs are congruent with theirs.

So, don’t waste your time targeting creators.

On occasion, a creator will get you a job. I’ve done it.

But I’ve never done it for someone who sends me huge email attachments and spams my feed. That trick never works.

Something you guys have got to understand: this is our job. This is what we do for a living.

To an aspiring creator, it’s a dream. Their identity as creators is a core tenant. The need to be acknowledged by a respected source is crippling to some artists. And almost everyone says, “Oh my God, I love it so much I don’t do it for the money! I’d do it for free!”

And that is why it is hard to move from pro to aspirant. That is why you can’t connect: we speak a different language.


To you it’s a vacation, to us it’s a vocation.

If you want to be a pro, you need to tune in to pro values and language.

One of my publishers (a big one) who reads my blog regularly wanted me to pass this on:

He doesn’t want to work with people who don’t care if their work makes money, who’d do it for free. He wants to work with people whose work makes money. Because if the work he publishes doesn’t make money, he goes out of business.

If you want to make love to the world with your art, by all means do so. No one is stopping you. It does not devalue your art in any way.

But if you want to be a pro, you must learn to think like a pro. Informing a client you don’t care if the work makes any money is not going to impress the client one bit. You can be sure the client wants to make money on what you are hoping he’ll publish.

Some emphasize the importance of networking, getting to know pros who will put in a good word for you.

That’s not really networking, because you are not in the network until you’re a part of the scene. You are not part of the program, any more than you’re on television because you know an actor.

There is no value in knowing a pro unless you have good work to show. No pro is going to push you unless you have something to offer. They’re not going to give you an introduction without a reasonable belief you will be able to pull through on a job. If you flake out or screw up, it reflects badly on their judgment. I’ve had reason to regret a few people I’ve pushed forward. Big time.

Knowing a pro is absolutely useless without your good art samples or a good manuscript. It is not really that hard to get published somehow or somewhere in this business. This industry is crawling with small publishers, and anyone can publish on the web.

Getting published is common. Getting published well, not so simple.

Cozying up to creators will avail you very little without quality work. Work on your art. Your art will get you much farther than hitting the like button 1000 times on someone’s FB page.

The work first, worry about the pro life second.

Do good work.

Then be a good pro.

Good luck.

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Use that dust-gathering easel in the corner to make a Cintiq mount

by Colleen Doran on January 25th, 2013
Posted In: Creator Resources, Art How-To, Blog, Creator Resources

I’ve done only one oil painting in the last two years, but I’ve done dozens of digital paintings, and the painting area in my studio was starting to look both lonely and useless. The easel just sat there gathering dust. Not only do most of my publishing clients not want analog art, I just don’t have as much time for it anymore.

But I hate the feel of working on the Cintiq: the mounts you can buy don’t satisfy, I hate leaning over my table. I dreaded every time I had to fire the thing up and work on it.

Then I got a visit from Captain Obvious!

Mount the Cintiq on the easel.

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The Cintiq weighs no more than a large painting, so it clamps right on there, and seems as sturdy as it does sitting on a desk on one of those mount things they sell you. But my easel feels more normal and natural as a work space to me, and I can raise or lower it more easily, which is important for someone who is as short as I am.

Here is what my digital office area looks like now.

office-space-colleen-doran

My large screen Apple monitor is on the now-cleared desk, which feels a lot more comfortable since it no longer competes for space with the Cintiq. The Cintiq is right there on the easel next to my computer tower. Behind it, my home made treadmill desk, now moved next to the window, where I write posts like this one on my laptop. This new arrangement also keeps all the cords out of traffic areas, so people who visit don’t trip and kill themselves.

I like being next to the window watching the birds, and getting some fresh air while I am on the treadmill. So does the resident fox, Mycroft Peverall Cumberbatch III.

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Hey, some dudes have toy Wolverines in their offices, I have a fox. The real ones make a mess. So, whatever.

I hope this easy and quick Cintiq solution is of interest to my peeps. I’m loving it, and it integrates with the look I also prefer in my work area. Give it a try.

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