#PIRATE THEIR BOOKS AND DON'T PROMOTE THEM ONLINE

[pensat-i-fet]

I see there is a new SJM book out this week so time for some "friendly reminders".

[elodieunderglass]

Honestly thought I'd never hear the word "usborne" again. My mom used to live and breathe that company, and while I certainly don't regret a fair chunk, I do find it amusing as I look back now. I legitimately thought it had fallen off faster than Juice+.

In reference to a post where i mention my kid has the usborne “see inside germs” book.

So if people don’t know, usborne is a weird publishing company that has done indispensable books for British children for generations; they’re in every library, school and nursery, and have shelves devoted to them in every bookstore. They are how many people learned to read, and are the originators of many hyper focuses. They’re famed for doing educational lift the flap books for all ages, like “see inside your body”, as well as as the ubiquitous touch-and-feel series, “that’s not my….” In which a mouse comments improbably on various creatures not being their creature. “That’s not my dragon,” the mouse says, inviting you to stroke a dragon with a patch of fur on it, “its tummy is too soft. That’s not my dragon,” on the next page, where the dragon’s ears are lined with textured paper, “its ears are too bumpy.” This seems like such an inefficient way to find one’s missing dragon, a fact that simmers underneath you through endless repetition. Why does the mouse own so many things (pirates, ducks, polar bears) and why is it interrogating other people’s pirates etc by feeling their legs.

At any rate, turn a parents’ house upside down and these books fall out.

Which is why it’s completely hilarious that they are also an MLM.

Well. Kind of. In the old school sense. It’s less about signing up a pyramid scheme and more about getting a random citizen to buy a crate of perfectly popular books and try to sell them on from their home. It’s very traditional for Mums On Maternity Leave to do this. Pre-social media and online ordering, they’d hook up other mums at toddler group. Today, they post awkwardly on social media. The idea is that buying from another parent is cheaper than the bookstore, and they get to keep the markup. They get intense about things, and I believe they attend conferences. Nobody makes a huge amount of money and it’s unclear how undercutting local bookstores is helpful; it’s also basically the same RRP as Amazon I think.

And the books are perfectly respectable and sell perfectly well in bookstores.

So. Like. This marketing scheme is completely weird. Why?? Why does it still exist? People buy the books normally! You don’t need to promote them aggressively! You don’t need elaborate independent local middlemen schemes! You can just buy them! I have never understood this. I just file it under one of those weird mat leave hustles.

But don’t worry OP. They’re still going. They’ll never stop. The thing is that your mom got bored and online sales probably ate whatever residual profit margins were left and it’s probably very liberating for everyone to grow out of the “that’s not my cow” stage, but Usborne books are going strong.

[incorrect-riordanverse]

It's really disheartening that Rick Riordan stance on the war I understand that he wants to be neutral on this stance but in my opinion by becoming neutral he only worsening the issue as many Palestines are dying that are mostly children, how the majority of Israeli are supporting the Genocide of Palestine, and how the government is trying so hard (but miserably failing) to justified the genocide. I will hold him accountable for what he said on this issue as during this period the choice is basically "you are with us or against us."

Part of me wishes he will realize what he said was wrong and understand the bigger issue that plays at hand. I will criticism for his actions as how can a man who promotes LGBTQIA and representation of minorities and disabilities in his books turn a blind eyes to Genocide of people. However we can only wait and see on his next move.

One last thing about your previous you said you don't group Riordan with other authors where do you would group him with? Also this is more on an opinion base answer but many people are boycotting companies that support Israel there as been another post on Twitter on boycotting authors. Rick Riordan happens to be one of them. Do you believed that he should be boycotted with other authors or he should be properly educated and apologized for his previous statement? If you believed he should be boycotted what do tou have to say to those who might have the mentality of "separate the art from the artist"

thank you for this ask, and i completely agree with you! it is extremely hypocritical of him considering what he preaches for in his books. i think he’s convinced he has properly addressed the apartheid by using very vague language that can be applied to anything, and in doing so, he’s addressed nothing really.

your first question on who i would group him with— probably other authors who are doing the exact same as him in their virtue signalling. i always like to link my other blogs to each other, so i don’t think it’s a secret that i have a red queen account and i’m pretty passionate about that. unfortunately, victoria aveyard is another fantasy author who has literally wrote a whole four-book series on the uprising against oppression but is now playing neutral in her address of the apartheid. rebecca yarros is in the same boat, although i haven’t read ‘fourth wing,’ fans have said there are large themes of oppression within the book. so if i had to group riordan it would probably be in the ‘i-like-to-write-about-it-for-profit-and-praise-only’ group.

in terms of boycotting, i think that’s a great idea! i would also like to remind everyone that the percy jackson tv show is coming out in a little over a month, but disney is a huge industry financially supporting israel as well ($2 million in funding), which is obviously far more damning than a poorly written address by one person. there is a boycott happening for disney as well— and the pjo show will be released on disney + . i implore everyone to not watch it on that platform!! personally i will be pirating it online (idk if i’ll get into trouble saying that here but lol oh well), because im pretty sure the boycott is only for withdrawing financial support, not simply consuming media.

i feel like separating art from the artist only works if that artist is… like, dead, and you’re using that art and its values as a historical insight to how the world was during its time. you can still like a piece of work that has a problematic artist, you can engage with the work (to an extent). but separating art from the artist barely works because either:

to engage with the art is to support the artist in some way, so that artist is making money based on your interaction with that (particularly in the case for singers and streaming of songs)

that artists’ views and values are so rancid that it’s literally embedded within the text itself. to ignore it is harmful.

harry potter is my all-time favourite example to use, because jkr is the scum of the earth, and her views are entrenched in her work. a lesser known example is sarah j maas and her books (she’s also not as dogshit as jkr, but then again, its not hard to be a better person than her). i’m not going to bag on these people for liking things by problematic people (would be hypocritical of me), i just think it’s cowardly not to address it when you come across it, or at least admit to it. to simply write things off as ‘separate to the artist’ is like purposefully turning off your critical thinking skills.

on whether boycotting or an apology is enough— if riordan did apologise and used specific language and not the nonsense he had in that blog, expressed his remorse for his ignorance and then actually did or said something to support the people of palestine then, yeah. that’s fine and that’s how we learn ig. but he should educate himself, too many activists, people from the arab community and especially palestinians are expected to be all-knowing and to educate everyone else on an already draining and personal tragedy. it’s been exhausting for me, i can’t imagine what they’re going through. if riordan (or anyone) needs to be educated, he should do it himself, and (at least in my opinion) i don’t think the info is very hard to find now. it’s just about weeding out the misinformation.

i think boycotting is a good idea as of now. it can serve to be a catalyst for self reflection for many people. also, as much as i hate most online discourses, talking about it online needs to happen. i don’t want these authors to forget, for a moment, about the ignorance they posted online during a time of international crisis.

[giftedpoison]

No I ranted about this in the tags of some random post I reblogged a little bit ago but I need to talk about this person and the absolute boldest that I experienced from them in the same hang out (I only hang out with them in group settings)

So first we got this Jennifer's Body bs.

(rant under cut)

I was talking about how I had seen the movie Ginger Snaps recently for the first time and I really enjoyed it and that it is very much similar to Jennifer's Body because of the themes of around girlhood and coming of age to then be objectified and taken advantage of by other boys and wanting that control back.

(Granted all I said was it's similar to Jennifer's Body before they jumped in and went: I don't like Jennifer's Body.)

And like I'm usually pretty open minded and also I was just so stunned I asked why.

And they say to me "Yeah the comphet storyline is just done poorly in my opinion and was really misogynistic"

And then when I tried to disagree with him he cut me off and told me it's fine we can disagree. We all have our opinions. MEN. I swear to God. (I should clarify they are 19 so that means that they are still learning but I just don't like the way he approaches it at all and its like he doesn't care about learning about the stuff he says that may be offensive or wrong) And then LATER

I'm talking about how I'm sad I have to wait for the second book in the series to become available at the library when I'm almost finished with the first book.

he goes "the way you won't just pirate the book" (which is actually incredibly difficult to do but they don't even read, they only read manga, so they wouldn't know that but that's beside the point.) BUT imagine telling someone who you know is a writer and wants to be an author one day that they should just pirate the book and then get confused why there are moral reasons I don't??? Like that's my community.

And then he didn't get how borrowing from a library is different than pirating. Which fair not a lot of people get but when I said the library forms a contract with the publishing company to have access to the ebook of a book for a set period of time (which they pay for) and if no one checks out the book they will just not renew the contract or a lot of people check out the book they'll renew and potentially buy more copies of the book

they still didn't get it. and just went I don't understand. And then I tried explaining it again and they eventually said ah I just pirate all my manga.

as if theres not an entirely different culture surrounding that type of media and it's also harder to find manga in libraries in america in the first place. (so while I wouldn't promote just reading free copies online of manga if you can help it - i also wouldn't tell you you are absolutely horrid person for it.)

[gate4043]

Ran a one-shot for Thirsty Sword Lesbians called Monster Fuckers today.

Second time running the system, and PbtA overall, went pretty well. Needs some tweaks, might run it again. Maybe I'll do it up nice, put it online at some point.

In the source book, there is a premise given, but not really very much expanded on, called "Dragons and Dungeons", which puts your characters in a community of monsters, as monsters.

TSL and D&D run on very different systems. I would say, from what I've gleamed of TSL and what I know about PbtA, the only reason to go for a PbtA system, at least one like TSL, is if you want to tell a specific kind of story. In a system like D&D, the elements that make up the story can differ drastically and you can basically use the foundations of the world and some homebrew to go from your average "saunter around, go fight monsters in a dungeon, get money, slay dragons, etc" to a city-building sim. Or you can run a circus and instead of just describing what happens, you can actually have your players play the circus games. Can't really accomplish that quite the same in TSL without it feeling like something made specific to the game. It's not as intuitive for the GM because it's not normal for the system.

There are ways to get around that. Obviously the chief way is using stat rolls in addition to moves. If you let players roll their stats on their own, it opens up a whole world of possibilities as far as opportunities go, but it doesn't keep players on theme. The move system is very fun, but it's very limiting. As a GM, what I found most difficult is how to make NPC moves, the best situations to expend strings and what I should be using them on. I didn't make any of my players roll an individual stat, but I did have an NPC make a move in retaliation a couple of times. I get the sense that wasn't the intention, but it can be hard to know the right course of action in the moment.

Overall I had a good session. I think I would run it again, but I don't know how often. I see the advantage of a system like this, which involves fewer world-based mechanics, for settings like A Sea of Pink, White and Blue, which I think I'll run in the future. My reasoning is of course, pirates fun, ship maintenance hard. In D&D, players tend to want to use their pirate ship as a vessel. That's hard as a GM if you don't have resources for that at the ready and know what to do with them, easy if you just go "everything you do in this game is a metaphor for communication, if you fire cannons, it means something, but you don't need to do anything".

Final thoughts, as a GM, this is a huge challenge. My session today was so on the rails it's not funny, there was so much prep involved, and there were still points at which I just found myself stumped. And the fact is, this system promotes so much collaboration. The entire X card mechanic is by its very nature requiring the GM to make an on the fly decision to up-end an aspect of the game, no questions asked. That's a lot of pressure to put on a GM. It does make me think that this system is not necessarily always designed for complex stories. That you're meant to keep it simple and make everything up as you go along based on what your players asked for. I think I might write some stuff challenging that ideal in a way that treats the system with dignity and respect. I'd like to look at how other GMs run this system, because I expect the reason it promotes so much flexibility is because you're meant to be running the game in an informal way when compared to a system like D&D, where everything you need is written down at all times. I'm interested in seeing how other PbtA games run though, I would like to check Masks out at some point.

[jisungshotfirst]

Toku anon:

(insert one of those memes of a burning hybe building with, I dunno, Beomgyu eagerly watching in the foreground)

Okay, so the circumstances were very different, since the... infrastructure??... of the toku fandom is a little different. Basically, very few of these toku shows actually have English subs or dubs. The ones that got dubbed were only on TV in a few countries and a lot of them are lost media. The official subtitles, if they exist, are often terribly translated. And if it's available on YouTube, it's often region-locked

Enter the fan-subbers. They're fans who translate the shows as accurately as possible, add them to the show, and then post it on the web for the rest of the fandom. And not just the episodes either: some also translate movies, bonus features, show ads, book/manga spin-offs and (in the case of that show with the bench) audio drama spin-offs too.

Here's the thing: a lot of the biggest toku shows (in terms of fandom) are made by this one company called Toei. For an idea of how big they are: nearly every Toku show I told you about ever was made by this company. They've been making these since at least the early 70s. And a few years back, some fans noticed that one of their leading staff had an official Twitter.

One thing led to another and, uh, the guy found out about the fansubs.

Toei wasn't happy.

And that's the story of why and how a bunch of translated archives were totally wiped off the internet, and totally not archived on a bunch of torrent archives for anyone in the world to totally be able to access if they know where to look.

(whispers) by the way this is sarcasm. They are archived and— uh oh (gets captured by Toei's assassins)

Here's the additional funny thing: the actors don't seem to mind that much? One time, the guy who played Main Card-Themed Protag From Evil Bench Show went to a con in the States, and didn't even think ''hey wait how do english-speakers know about us'' until he was on his flight back home. This other time another toku actor (who wasn't technically in a Toei Toku but still) learned that they stopped releasing DVDs of the toku he starred in, and straight-up endorsed piracy that day. It was wild.

Anywho, to bring this back around, we also have a similar meme for these situations where we're upset at a big company. We call it ''destroying Toei Studios would be even faster! :D'' (insert image of some toku protags cheering in the corner as the Toei building breaks). Ironically that meme is also just a screencap from one of their shows, the words and all.

Beomgyu SHOULD <333

Omg fuck Toei ... like the way they found out they had a bigger audience than they assumed and instead of engaging with y'all they cut u off ... I literally don't understand these companies fr.

Fandom subtitlers and translators are the best people ever and I don't say that lightly like fr they do so much !! They are incredible !!!

I love when actors are chill about that stuff it's so great fjdj they are just happy to have worked on what they did and have fans engage in any way they can. Ugh what a legend promoting piracy we do love<3

The topic of piracy is so interesting because artists are often so split on it. There was a period of time kinda like early 2000s where there was this music sharing site where bascially someone could upload a recording of a tape/cd they had and share the mp3 online to other people who could then download and listen to it for free! So it was pirating music but on a Massive scale because anyone with any computer skills all got their music there. And artists spoke out about it and lots were against it because they don't get paid what they would be due from physical copies bought by all those people. But then some artists who had an anti-capitalist mindset supported it and encouraged it even tho it directly effected their income! It is just really interesting to see

Ahh we love a good burning a company down meme<3 Beomgyu deserves to burn hybe down he rly does

[purplepirate123]

Writeblr Intro

(Take 1,792)*

Hi, writers of Tumblr! I thought I'd try this again since every other time has been... Not great lol. Mostly my doing, but I think I've figured it out.

Aurthor name: Rebecca/R. K. Fisher

Age: 28

Pronouns: She/her

Writing From: Cleveland, Ohio USA

Sexual Orientation: Labels have never worked for me, but I'm married to a wonderful person ❤️

Educational Background: Bachelor's Degree following English and Wiring (2016), 36 Credit Hours of a Master's of Library and Information Science Degree (left in February 2019). Now considering an MFA ccuuzzz why not add more to my student loan debt 🙃🙃🙃

Genre: Young Adult/New Adult Speculative Fiction & Short Stories

Most Common Theme in Books: Social Justice/Social Commentary

Published: "The Basement" in The Monsters We Forgot, Vol II (2019), "Canary" in What Monsters Do For Love, Vol I (2020), Devil In the Details (2022)

Non-writing: We do cat rescue in our neighborhood and might start posting pictures of the critters that come to us for help from time to time. Depending on the cost of care it might be in the form of a GoFundMe so reblogging is much appreciated!

Current WIPs:

Mercenary of the Stars: a New Adult novel featuring lesbian space pirates breaking up a human trafficking ring made up of Earth migrants and sponsored by society's wealthy elite. (Hoping to traditionally publish)

Firavanna: A Young Adult/New Adult novel about a young Earl from a fallen family trying to solve the murder of the girl he was supposed to marry - if only her ghost was more helpful. (Indie publisher)

Heir of Rot & Ruin: a Young Adult novel following 16-year-olf Charlie Harris and her friends as they work together to get back the children and babies stolen by the mysterious Court of Salt and Brine - and banish them from Belfast, Maine for good if possible. (Self-publish)

Song of the Autumn Court: a New Adult novella about a girl who always thought the fact that her mother was taken by faeries was a tragedy until she discovers the real monsters might be in her village. (Self-publish)

... and a whole bunch of short stories (mixed publishing).

I guess that's about it for me! I spend a lot of time on Tumblr reblogging aesthetic pictures of nature and animals that inspire me and bring me joy and I hope they do the same for you! I'll also share some political/current event commentary (I am a leftist/progressive) and write the occasional blog post. Tumblr is my only social media platform now so I'll also be announcing project updates and book-releases. I will happily help promote other writer's works, too!❤️

NOTE TO FELLOW WRITERS: As you can see I've written a lot and been writing for a long time, so if you're new to writing or want tips or feedback on your latest project, please reach out! I don't know if I'll have time to beta-read a full book but will certainly do what I can to help guide you through the process of finishing it.

Thanks, all! See you online ☺️

P.S.: I've always wanted to do a Write-With-Me Livestream either on YouTube or Twitch where a bunch of writers join me either on stream or in the chat in writing a sort of ad-libbed story together. When I proposed it during my time on Twitter it went down in flames but I thought maybe this community would like to try it. If so, let me know by commenting, reblogging or DMing me! Writing is lonely work and it might help us all feel a little more connected if there was a way we could do it together.

[langorion]

okay i have never made a single controversial post till today but i think this needs to be said:

Joanne Katherine Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter Series is a TERF and reading her books, watching her movies, or engaging in her content in any positive way is NOT justifiable.

She has been spreading her transphobia around since years and if you, as a person who is aware of this, choose to engage in her content, are supporting her and there is NO VALID EXCUSE you could give for that.

No, you cannot "seperate the art from the artist" here. It is only possible to seperate the art from the artist when the artist isn't actively using their art to fuel their bigotry. So even if you say that you are just a fan of Rowling's works and don't support her actions, you are STILL supporting JKR because she is getting money from you buying her books or watching her movies. And the argument isn't even about the money. Its about the victims of her transphobia. She is using her money and power to negatively impact the lives of trans people. The argument is about the safety of trans people across the world.

And even if you aren't buying her books and just reading them online, or pirating the movies: you are watching the content created by a terf. A person who hates on people for no reason. A person who is the reason so many trans people are suffering. If you really think that you watching a movie or buying a book won't make any difference then please read this post. An actual trans person living in the UK saying that their life is being negatively affected by JKR. So please, I am begging you to not buy JKR'S books or watch her movies, or purchase her merch or give her any kind of clout or money.

If that wasn't enough, here are some of the comments that she has made about Trans people and how much she "supports" them:

The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women - ie, to male violence - ‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences - is nonsense.

If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.

‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?

So, if you're still reading JKR's books, watching her movies, or in any way promoting her work because of "nostalgia" then I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but your attachment to fake people written by a terf is not more important than the safety and well being of trans people.

[edwardsvirginity]

I have no issue with people choosing to pirate or donate instad of buying the book, but there are certain people, where it comes off as so disingenuous, and i just ask myself, if they hate smeyer and her visiona and interpreation so much why don't they just.. not read the book. If people donate thats amazing but it's so easy to tell, the ones who are only promoting donations out of guilt and shame that they like the series, rather than genuinly caring for the struggles of indigenous peoples.

 (cont.) and as a poc myself, i get first hand the struggles and the criticism twilight faces, and i think its important to acknowledge what the writer does wrong and how they misrepresent the series, but that doesn't mean if you like the book, then your evil and racist f you don't double that in donations. I can buy the book and critisize it at the same time.

Yeah, I think that when things like this happen, there’s always going to be some level of performativity to the response. I know lots of people genuinely care about supporting indigenous causes, but I also think that “smeyer is evil, support indigenous causes instead” is The Popular Narrative, and while it’s a much better popular narrative than say “smeyer is a genius and twilight is perfect”, the fact that it’s The Fandom Stance means there are always going to be people who feel conflicted about it but feel obligated to endorse it anyway. I think allowing yourself to like something that’s “problematic” without berating yourself for liking something “problematic” is a hard skill to learn. Lots of people are still working on it. And it’s especially hard when so much online discourse promotes the narrative “liking something bad makes you a bad person”. But that’s not true-- it’s ok to enjoy something with flaws, so long as you acknowledge those flaws, respect ppl who don’t want to engage with the thing because of those flaws, and don’t allow yourself to mimic the toxic behaviors in canon. 

Twilight fandom: you don’t need to “make up for” being excited about midnight sun. If you genuinely don’t want to give smeyer your money, and you genuinely do want to help the indigenous people she harmed, and you have the money to do so, please consider donating to the quileute’s Move to Higher Ground. However, liking midnight sun doesn’t make you A Bad Person, and you don’t need to pay penance in order to Make Up For This Sin. Of course it’s important to acknowledge the ways smeyer has messed up/promoted toxic ideas and hold her accountable for that, but as long as you do that, you don’t need to Punish yourself for liking canon. The whole point of the twilight renaissance is letting go of the shame and guilt we experienced a decade ago because twilight was “bad” (but for different reasons!) Also, please don’t promote causes you don’t genuinely believe in in order to get Good Person Points-- it’s uncomfortable for everyone. However, if you know you should promote indigenous rights, but don’t actually feel all that invested/concerned, I would encourage you to learn more about different indigenous histories. I’ll admit I’m a bit lost on resources for this (aside from “google it” and “read the first few chapters of A People’s History of the United States with a box of tissues”) but if any followers have any suggestions for things that helped them connect with the indigenous struggle (please put a pause on the I Didn’t Need Empathy Aids Because Indigenous People Are People comments-- we know, but unlearning racism and white supremacist ideology is a Process, and it’s ok if some people need extra help so long as they’re willing to do the work) please add them to this post!!