I find Diana Gabaldon's
latest remarks interesting on a level I think she's completely missing. She's right that the internet changed the music industry and that that is analogous to how the internet changed fiction. But she's missing the part where the shift is taking the means of production out of the hands of the capitalists. (Fuck yeah, I went there!) This works for all kinds of artists.
Because musicians can distribute their music digitally and directly, people who never would have had a shot at getting in with the older model of the music industry can find a fanbase and do their thing now. Will most of them ever make any money? Hell no. However, they WILL be able to make their art and play gigs (maybe) and experience their lives in a different way than in the oppressive pre-internet days of top down record sales.
I think you can see the analogy already.
Will some people get huge book deals and make tons of money after writing successful fanfic? Sure. And just like always, that's about who you know and how savvy you are more than talent--just like in the music industry. You probably have someone who's done this on your flist.
Both publishing and music are struggling to figure out how to stop new media from fucking with their business models. I wish I could say I pitied them and their lost cause. The change has already happened. What we need to do is to figure out how to make new media work for the artists making the content and NOT for the gatekeepers. Why should 50 people in publishing/the music industry make all the money while artists can't even afford medical insurance?
The one sympathy I have with the OTW is with the notion that we do what we do for the collective good and not for some third party to get rich. I am down with that. Mostly because that's my real life, y'all.
