Fandom Trumps Hate

As of noon EST on January 25^th – with 534 total fanworks offered so far, and just under a week left to sign up – we have exactly fifty fan labor offerings. As part of our efforts this year to boost fan labor, we thought it would be interesting to give everyone a snapshot of what, exactly, is being offered so far. Buckle up, it’s seriously kind of mind-blowing.

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Almost all 50 of our fan labor offers so far include the offer of beta work; this can include anything from final polishing of spelling and grammar (SPAG) all the way back to early brainstorming and story development. Most of our beta readers are also willing to offer advice on characterization in the fandoms they know.

But wait, there’s more! So, so so much more.

if you want really high-level or in-depth spelling and grammar feedback, we have not one, not two, but three fan laborers who currently work as professional editors; we also have a former English teacher and a former newspaper copy-editor, and someone with extensive experience helping non-native speakers of English with English language writing.

We have several offers for Brit-picking (checking for British English and cultural details), and a couple of offers for America-picking (including an all-fandom offer that labels itself “Yank-picking.”) We have a Jewish reader willing to culture-pick for Ashkenazi Judaism. We’ve also got someone offering a “gffa-pick” for Star Wars slang and technology.

We have a couple of translation offers: one offer for Russian-to-English translation for any fandom, or for M/M original fic; another offer for MCU, Harry Potter or Star Wars from someone willing to translate between German and English, in either direction; another reader who will translate English-to-German and will beta read in either language; and another who will translate form Spanish to English.

There are several readers offering first-hand experience of different cities and countries – Los Angeles, New York City, London, Oxford, the American South, and rural Alaska, among others.

For writers who want to get the details of their characters’ professions right, we have a reader who has worked as both a professional assistant and a library assistant, and another who was/is a sex worker. We also have two professors who can advise about the inner workings of college and university life.

We also have a couple of fan laborers offering sensitivity reading. One offer –  for Sherlock, Star Wars and Kingsman – can read for bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, ASD, and ADHD. We have another all-fandom offer from someone who identifies themselves as fat, non-binary, and chronically ill. There are also a number of readers willing to advise on LGBTQIA issues and experiences.

In addition to these things, our fan laborers are willing to help you out by sharing their expertise on guns, Bible School, medical issues, BDSM, poly relationships, farming and the care of farm animals, religion and mythology, calligraphy, cooking and baking, service dogs, dancing, family law, ancient Greece and Rome, riot grrl culture, goth culture, disaster services, and fiber crafts. We have several beta readers with personal experience in BDSM, including one who has spent more than a decade volunteering as a trained dungeon monitor. We have a Sherlock reader who has played violin for many years. As varied and extensive as this list is, it's only partial -- and, we hope, still growing.

More than thirty-five of these amazingly talented fan laborers have also volunteered to join the newly-formed Regiment of Fan Laborers (ROFL), which means that anyone who offers a fic through FTH this year will be able to call on them for help. Read more about ROFL here.

We’re going to do another roundup shortly before the auction opens, when we have a complete list of signups – but we’re doing this now in the hopes that the complete list grows a lot between now and next Friday. Almost everyone out there has something they know a lot about which some creator out there doesn’t know about, but wants to.

Are you interested in offering fan labor (or fic, or fan art, or a podfic, or a vid) in this year’s auction? Sign up here.