Michele Lee

I have been through some crazy stuff the last 24 hours. Some I can share later (the good) some I can’t share (and you probably don’t want to know). But I’ve found an outlet in this post by Apex Jason concerning his online subscription plan.

I’ve also seen others say that the Apex readers are funding my ‘hobby’. I won’t lie. I *love* doing Apex Magazine. I love reading the great short fiction we publish. As do our editors. All of us are genre fans and love science fiction, fantasy, and horror. We are delighted that others enjoy the product we produce. But giving people the option to contribute monetarily to help us continue to publish a free product as ‘funding a hobby’ is, again, silly.

So here’s my two cents.

Dear Fuckos Poor misguided persons,

No. Donating to a magazine, buying a book from a small press, a huge press, a new author, an old favorite, Stephen King or Joe-fucking-Blow that you’ve never heard of is NOT fund their hobby. It’s funding YOUR hobby.

YOU are the fan. YOU are the reader. If YOU like the product be don’t be a goddamned leech, show the people involved in producing the product you love your approval by sending them money so they are encouraged to, and have spare time to produce more.

What the hell makes you think that a person or a group of people are not entitled to support from their readers? What makes you think that you have the right to read their hard work for free, to enjoy it (or else why would you keep reading?) but should have to support the project at all?

Now, I understand if you don’t have the money (Really though, a lot of places like Apex, GUD, Skullvines, etc try to meet you halfway by having sales, promos, reduced price opportunities and ebook editions available for less. I recently bought TWO of Apex’s books in ebook form for under $5 thanks to a combined promo.) and I understand if you don’t like Apex’s fiction. I would never expect anyone to hand over money for a product they don’t think they’ll enjoy.

But what the hell kind of community to we work/live in where it’s okay for people to send out messages saying “Please buy my book so I can feed my family” then dismiss supporting other authors and publishers.

I am not saying this specifically happened. I don’t know who made this sort of remark about Apex. I just know that I am getting a lot of Facebook and GoodReads demands for my money. I have authors who instead of communicating with me as a reviewer take m email address off my BookLove site and add it to their list of people to hit up for money. I see people who I have read, and who I think are putting out substandard work shilling all over the net, in incredibly obnoxious volumes which reads as “Buy my book!!”

With Rot I have worked  to raise awareness that it exists, and tell people what it is about and where they can get it if they are interested, but not to tell them they should buy it, not to guilt them or con them to pull the “support the genre” card. I have tried to make it easy on the consumer by convincing my own publisher to make the cheaper ebook version available (PS to you naysayers, the ebook version is outselling the print version.) I’ve made two excerpts of a 60 page book available. I’ve targeted independent reviewers to give neutral opinions on it, so people can decide if it’s the kind of thing they wish to read or not.

And every “Fan me!” request and message board post that is nothing of substance but a link to the person’s latest book and whine about “I need money and wanna be a successful writer so please buy my self published book is a stomp on the toes of the hard working writers out there trying to meet their audience’s needs.

Those of you out there who take everything for free that they can get, and can’t even bother to leave a good word or an Amazon review, who think you are entitled to free fiction because it’s the internet, or because you are a fan well you are not a fucking fan if your contribution is to suck down the efforts of authors and editors and publishers and cover artists and PR people and denounce requests for fiscal support as “funding someone’s hobby”.

Fuck that. Authors and publishers are funding YOUR hobby. You wouldn’t expect a hobby shop to just give you paints for miniatures, or puzzles, or coins to collect. So why the hell do you expect authors to give you all their work for free.

Stop being an entitled, greedy parasite and start being a fan. Start by admitting that good fiction (good meaning YOUR idea of good) deserves support. Believe me when I say we all understand if you can’t be a collector or can’t afford something right now. We even understand if you don’t like the work.

What we don’t understand is the horrible selfish attitude and the greed behind it.