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Character sales - Getting something off my heart
4 years ago
I'm going to tell you a story that left my heart feeling really heavy and I need to get it out in the open. For your disappointment, no I'm not selling a character here. And for clarification: In this journal by character I mean a creation that comes with not just a design but also significance: story, personality, meaning and potentially a long journey.
For years there's been a trending success story in the fandom that building up popularity for a character and then selling them will net for good profit. Which is alone is quite questionable because they often come with commissioned art that never had rights to sell forward, but technically the art is not what is being sold so there's an obvious loophole to exploit. First off: This is not the profitable idea it's often said to be, but there are even bigger issues at play.
Most furry characters are not created as investments or "just fun", a lot of us put our soul into them, they are personal companions, they mean a lot. Giving away that sort of characters is like removing part of ourselves, potentially seeing someone else misuse them feels truly damaging - it can discourage from sharing or even creating anything as powerful and wonderful in the future. What makes me worry is seeing how many younger artists feel pressured to sell away their creations during difficult financial times, the idea is being tossed around too often, it's the new "just draw some porn" suggestion except it's worse.
So what happened was: I was looking to give my offer for a character on sale, and wanted to ask the original creator for the backgrounds - turns out they felt shocked and terrified that the character was being further sold forward and then potentially being used in ways that was uncomfortable. My first thought here of course was that I couldn't even live with knowing that if I had then acquired the character. For my relief(or not?) the character was sold before I could give that fact much thought. It's not the first time I've come across a similar story, but this time the story crossed my own path.
What I'm getting to is that I know our fandom can do better, our fursonas & characters are what it's largely about, it should not be so common to suggest selling those will net us significant financial gain because it likely doesn't and then it can result to remarkable damage to both the creators and the fandom as whole. From personal experience I know that collectively we can help those in need more than one character sale can ever do alone. There are a lot of more productive means to handle difficult times which should be encouraged first.
Thank you for reading!
-Neo
If you are one of the parties of this story: Know that I will not be sharing identities of any party here, and I've ensured there are no ways to track who it's about.
For years there's been a trending success story in the fandom that building up popularity for a character and then selling them will net for good profit. Which is alone is quite questionable because they often come with commissioned art that never had rights to sell forward, but technically the art is not what is being sold so there's an obvious loophole to exploit. First off: This is not the profitable idea it's often said to be, but there are even bigger issues at play.
Most furry characters are not created as investments or "just fun", a lot of us put our soul into them, they are personal companions, they mean a lot. Giving away that sort of characters is like removing part of ourselves, potentially seeing someone else misuse them feels truly damaging - it can discourage from sharing or even creating anything as powerful and wonderful in the future. What makes me worry is seeing how many younger artists feel pressured to sell away their creations during difficult financial times, the idea is being tossed around too often, it's the new "just draw some porn" suggestion except it's worse.
So what happened was: I was looking to give my offer for a character on sale, and wanted to ask the original creator for the backgrounds - turns out they felt shocked and terrified that the character was being further sold forward and then potentially being used in ways that was uncomfortable. My first thought here of course was that I couldn't even live with knowing that if I had then acquired the character. For my relief(or not?) the character was sold before I could give that fact much thought. It's not the first time I've come across a similar story, but this time the story crossed my own path.
What I'm getting to is that I know our fandom can do better, our fursonas & characters are what it's largely about, it should not be so common to suggest selling those will net us significant financial gain because it likely doesn't and then it can result to remarkable damage to both the creators and the fandom as whole. From personal experience I know that collectively we can help those in need more than one character sale can ever do alone. There are a lot of more productive means to handle difficult times which should be encouraged first.
Thank you for reading!
-Neo
If you are one of the parties of this story: Know that I will not be sharing identities of any party here, and I've ensured there are no ways to track who it's about.
What I mean is that it shouldn't be what we consider the assumed action to take, certainly should not be what we suggest for someone to do, especially not to pressure them on it for whatever reason. It's totally okay to take a break from the fandom (or leave permanently) and carry your fursona & characters along. And then there's the problem that because it's such a typical thing to do now, including the manipulative sales pitch that "I really don't want to do this but", sets the action in such a light that younger folk who are still figuring out the right things for themselves will easily feel pressured that they should be able to do so without feeling so heavy.
Sometimes people just lose connection to a character be it emotional reasons, moving on or other stuff. So its just better to give them away to get over with it and start new.
I have bought and sold chars in the past already without having bad feelings about. I just lost interest in some designs or couldn't afford to give them all the attention they deserve so I rather give them to someone and see them getting used instead of rotting away and being forgotten.
Sometimes a person's enjoyment of a character fades, as Lipton said. Sometimes bad memories are associated with them, or it could be strictly because of financial woes. I don't think it really is our place to question it or judge.
If there are several bits of art coming along with the piece, them it looks like a real character, but I'll ignore that too, because it's not part of my personality. :)
I couldn't really imagine selling any of my personal characters, even the ones I don't use any more.
I could imagine writing up some... oh... private detective, or fishmonger, or something, specifically to sell, and maybe if I become good enough at drawing, selling those, but... I don't think I've ever seen that sort of character being sold.
I'm talking about a growing trend where it's expected that we should feel unserious about our characters and that selling them away is a good way to survive a difficult time, because quite frankly it's not a very efficient method and additionally it can be very damaging to the person. It's okay to feel strongly about characters, they're not just pictures.
That incident you've mentioned, though, seems like a miscommunication between the artist and the original buyer? If there was a ToS that set some conditions for the character - no NSFW, no reselling, no altering the design, etc. - and the buyer went and ignored them, then the buyer's obviously at fault. Otherwise, they can't really know what the artist is or isn't comfortable with (except for some common-sense things like not making the character a raging bigot, or the mascot of a business).
A creative mind can't always be so willing to give up soemthing it creates. Soemtimes, without meaning to..you grow really fond or clsoe to the creation and givign it up is like, well as you said, giving up a part of yourself. I agree. The fandom really shouldn't think this is a normal thing for everyone. It will jsut serve to eventualyl tear itself down.
If an artist is in rough times, maybe throw them a commission so they dont have to sell the character, or buy the character but return it as a gift (in cases where its clear its hard for them) I say it that way as sometimes people don't like taking money handouts and that sort of thing is a fair workaround of that. They get to keep soemthign clsoe to them and you get to help them out in a way that isn't handign them money. Find other methods, build each otehr up. Especially these days.
If one hopes that someone will buy the character back to you, the sale should never even be considered. Before selling a character, even if to a friend, you need to consider the worst outcome and be ok with it. It's not okay to guilt trip people to buy the character back to you or set up sales with "I don't really want to but", shame on that. To be truthful it did cross my mind buying and giving the character back to the original creator in that moment, but these were both strangers to me: I cannot write off the possibility that it might've been setup purposely like that.
Personally, no matter how much I may drift from an old character or change my focus to different ones, I don't think I could ever sell any of mine. The thought of one day seeing them in art that I never intended them for makes me feel uneasy.
I personally feel the same way about adoptables -- Everything we create has pieces of our soul, our energy, within it. A fresh owner can breathe so much life into a design and have it grow into something much more personally meaningful, which is so cool....But to create something like a character just to have it be sold....Doesn't sit well with me. It's different from things like comics or dakimakuras, selling visages of characters that people can fall in love with, y'know? Again, artists are free to do as they choose but it still pains me to see designs that could flourish so well with lots of love just sold off without a second thought, like a factory for money. Art is so much more than just a means to an end.
But with the sell-your-character culture I think we are at the dangerous point where a lot of people will actually just suggest that lightly, kinda like the "make NSFW art" type of suggestion used to be years ago (but thankfully we are finally past that being quite as typical thing to hear now, thanks to so many successful artist's doing something else).
...Handing them off to be simple fodder to someone else... would be almost akin to selling a family member. I had never quite understood the concept of just passing them around to make money...
However, I believe there should be a slight distinction; Adoptables, strictly as a design, are not quite on the same level without attached stories and actual development; they are a blank slate. As a case in point, the majority of my ladies were adopts gifted to me over many years, all as blank slates. They have since grown and intertwined as realized characters, with personality, history, goals, and the like. And now, they are each a valued part of my own little canon universe. In some cases, I have even gotten the original artist of an adopt to do a commission with the one I got from them... celebrating what they had become through that connection of creatvity.
So yes; we should cherish the creativity and pure soul we pour into our characters... We should rightly have, and understand a connection to them. And, above all, we should not trivialize them...
I can even understand selling a character because you feel you need to part with it, losing touch or perhaps it contains a memory so painful you simply cannot proceed though believe someone else could built upon something better. I think these instances need a lot of thought given first, definitely time, and the idea should always spark from the owner themselves, not someone outside suggesting it so lightly. And those sales should also contain discussion, rules even.
It would be impossible for me to ever say "yeah I'm gonna sell Pentalis, I got tired of him" WHAT, that's like saying I'm going to sell an arm or my face, just, what. It doesn't compute. I often just say "me" or "myself" instead of Pentalis, because that's really how it feels. We only talk about our bodies or minds in the third person when we need to be descriptive about them, like when we say "my brain doesn't let me do that", but other times we just say "I can't do that", because you understand your brain is part of you, you body is part of you, you are you, and that's Pentalis to me.
Sorry, I digress. I feel very strongly about this so your journal resonated with me.
I can't see characters as collectibles to sell in a transaction for money; I understand why others would, so I'm not going to exhort them not to do it, but I'm not going to celebrate the free market of characters, either.
I've always appreciated simple character with complex stories. Most of mine fall into this category with few exceptions. It's... Significantly easier for me as a writer to not have to describe a bajillion intricate details, and rather, just let the character develop thier own place.
But each of the ones I've created (And Ive lost count. It's significant x3) means something to me. I always feel a tinge of longing for established characters for sale. Will their new owner give them as good a home as their creator? Will their tale continue?
But, that's me. Folks move on. Folks lose attachment. Situations and priorities change. The art situation is iffy at best, but I doubt folks do it with any malice towards the artists who help bring the characters to life.
There's stories to be hold. My biggest hope is that the new homes established characters find continue them with their own passion and creativity.
I mean, I can understand creating an oc with the express purpose to sell it, but then I wouldn't give it a little of my soul on the character like I did with Mirra
I don't begrudge anyone the ability to buy or sell characters or just character designs, but I personally do not see the need for a character market so to speak. I think characters in the fandom should be something very personal and they are for many people, and so is the creation process. Simply purchasing an existing design or character would never result in that character feeling like "mine". (If it hasn't become clear - I also don't see the need for adoptables, but apparantly there is a certain demand for it out there, so why not meet it.)
But as long as there are buyers, people will sadly keep doing it.
I dont personally view my characters as much more then characters, and if I had to sell them, or wanted to sell them...I dont see the problem in that. However I wouldnt sell them to try to get a return in investment or for a big profit. I do see an issue and have noticed some people get characters just to sell them for a Profit later. I just find it annoying that somebody else who probably legitimately wanted that character got cheated out of it because of this practice.
But also, I dont necessarily find anything bad about selling a longtime character in financial need either. If you REALLY need the money, and there is somebody out there who is willing to pay, I say let it happen. Thats their prerogative
Most character sales go for something between 100-1000$, but for something that was potentially sinked a thousand hours alone and may include a strong emotional attachment that hinders you in the future, the price should be in tens of thousands at least - that's like telling someone go win the lottery as a good plan for easy money.
I haven't seen a practice of Pressuring someone to do so or telling them to sell their Sona or favorite/longtime characters or that this is some magic trick...that one is new to me
$100 to $1000, if they wanna sell it for that much thats on them lol. If you wanna try to sell a design for $10,000+ go right on ahead. If you can find a buyer.
But yeah, I definitely agree with you on it.
Then came the flood of new artists, about 25 years ago, but that idea still carried through. A character may not be a persona, but it was a character, originated by one person for stories (usually drawn, sometimes written) and there wasn't even the idea that it could be sold.
I think I first started seeing this selling trend ten years ago, along with people selling fursuits, which are characters in their own right, often with a very personal history. I've always found it weird to think of buying a fursuit made for someone else (both in personality and in physical build) and wearing it... do people try to continue the original wearer's persona? Do they change it radically? Fursuits are unique, they can be recognised from con to con, and it weirds me out that suddenly it can be someone else under it. Similarly, people create clear characters in art that are close to fursonas, then sell them off after featuring them in enough art to make the character recogniseable. Here, I can see two kinds - one where the character was made as companions for commissioners, and there wasn't much of a personality except a few broad traits, and there wasn't anything personal imbued in them. I recently noticed one such character which had been used in all of three pieces in years. I can understand selling off this kind of idea that hasn't been fleshed out much. But then there are others featured many times where the personalities are pieces of the artist/creator, and it would weird me out to suddenly have to ask another creator to be featured with that character. To me, it's just not them anymore.
Basically I understand your feelings on people setting up characters purely for sale through popularity. I may be old school (okay, I am as I said previously) but unless it's been clearly designed from the ground up as something without much personality, it's going to be weird to see it sold, and it would discourage me from commissioning art with that character again.