unofficial claim count, and the dwindling artist problem
alright. I’m still keeping my spreadsheet. as I write this 160 stories have been claimed. that means 50 stories remain going into round three.
Guys, this is a really slow selection year. It’s slow because while the number of stories for each year of the DCBB goes up, the number of artists who sign up each year goes *down.* it’s not your fic’s fault, if you’re still waiting for a claim. There’s a serious artist shortage.
We need more artists. If I had -any- skill at all I’d help, but even when I did draw I did it on paper. but the fact is that each artist would need to take on two or three separate projects to cover the demand, and that’s a lot of work. too much work.
So if you can, put out a request for artists to illustrate the DCBB. if you already have your artist, if you don’t have one yet, ask for artists to join and take on a fic.
I also wonder: if the number of writers keeps going up, and the number of artists keeps going down, how do we solve this art shortage problem?
#i’ve seen multiple complaints from artists #saying the dcbb is unfair to them #and i think that’s true #there needs to be a guideline/policy/timeline change imo #more time for artists #or more in-depth summaries allowed #i’ve always been slow to be claimed (at least last year) #and this year i haven’t been claimed yet #and i know part of the reason is low artists #this is a reminder that claims are now open to any and all #artists that didn’t sign up can now claim things #dcbb2015 #calling all artists
I caught these tags and I want to know: how is the dcbb unfair to artists? I don’t doubt for a second that it is, but what needs to change so that it is fair and a better deal for artists? This is really important for everyone to understand.
The time constraints, for one. Authors are given like three times the amount of time to write, and that’s even assuming they only start writing once they sign up. There have been years where I was writing a fic since November and only threw it in for the DCBB because it was convenient. Artists don’t have that luxury.
They claim and then they have to read the thing and come up with a certain amount of images for the piece. Sometimes they don’t get what they thought they would because the summaries are misleading or can’t get inspired by the story.
If they drop out there’s a lot more negative stigma. And this is all depending on the fact that the author contacts them immediately and they can read fast.
It’s just v unfair and a lot of authors don’t post things that might be important because of ‘spoilers’ (which should be ignored for DCBB stories because ARTISTS DESERVE TO KNOW WHAT THEY WILL BE ILLUSTRATING). Some artists care who bottoms or who gets abused or who dies. It’s important to communicate that and a lot of authors might not consider it important.
So there’s a lot of reasons. These are just to name a few.
I partecipate as an artist and I convene that time is a big issue. I’m a fast reader but slow at drawing, so I’ve seen some interesting summaries for fics that counted 80k+ words that I unfortunately couldn’t even consider. The risk of having to drop out is too high: this year the claim masterpost goes up on Aug 22nd and the art is due on Sep 29th, that’s absurd.
I also agree that the the summaries should be more explicative. As an artist, I actually prefer to read some spoilers and be able to really choose.
The first one is an organisation problem, that should be addressed at a admin/mod level. The second one is a shout out to all the authors: I’m most likely to choose a story presented with abundance of information any day, spoilers or not. Go have a look at BB038 (it’s just the first one that comes to my mind): now, THAT is a good summary! My thanks to the authors like BB038′s one, who really helped me choose.