the fact is, writing and poetry are overtly and obviously undervalued as artforms online as compared to visual art.
There is no shortage of posts discussing how undervalued visual art is by society at large, how to fairly price commissions, how to properly tip visual artists, how much work goes into visual art, why visual artists deserve more recognition, higher pay, and more respect.
And this is good!! It’s true! Society and the professional field notoriously underappreciates, dismisses, and underpays visual artists.
However, the reason these types of posts don’t really make it around about writing, is because, well, writing is so dismissed in general, even by other artists and fans, that charging for writing isn’t even on most writers’ radars.
Go to an artist alley at a convention, visual fanart abounds. There are beautiful prints, models, keychains, stickers, etc. And yes, notoriously artists have to undercharge for these things, but there is a space to sell them.
Imagine seeing a fanfic booth in an artist alley. Imagine a fanfic author charging for and successfully selling a written product. Imagine them being able to advertise their original work along with it, which sometimes gets appreciated and purchased.
I’m a writer, and even I catch myself thinking “well, that just wouldn’t make sense.”
Why have we formed a culture in which visual art can be sold, but we expect and even demand writing for free or else we’re not interested?
Visual artists work hard, and they post countless pieces for free on their blogs, and they deserve any support they get. But given the opportunity, they can take that product to a space designed specifically for them to profit from it.
Writers work hard, post countless poems, fanfics, and original works for free on their blogs. And it ends there.
We need to reframe the way we think about nonvisual art.
jacobvanloon
theartofmadeline
jbbartram-illu
tangentwithtanner
kaledo-art
andulkaphoto
