Home For Fiction – Blog

The phrase of the title, “No Ads, no Corporate Masters”, is of course a wordplay on “No Gods, no Masters”. It’s also a phrase I use on Home for Fiction, for example whenever you try to access any of the apps (we’ll talk about this more in a moment) .

It’s a way for me to remind you that Home for Fiction displays no ads, and it’s controlled by nobody.

But why all this? Why do I refuse to put ads on Home for Fiction? The short answer is, for the same reason I’ve refused corporate masters (and as you’ll discover in this post, I’ve had many such… suitors): Because I can’t compromise on what Home for Fiction is – in terms of content as well as aesthetics.

The longer answer is something I decided to write this post about.

Note: Years have passed, and certain things have changed regarding Home for Fiction. I’ve tried really hard to make things my way, moving in an increasingly more artistic and less materialistic direction. For instance, I tried various ways of keeping the Home for Fiction apps free, but people abused the offers. I am officially defeated. My idea of keeping them free turned out to be naive, and I simply can’t afford to pay for the server resources required. I only wanted to make apps I liked, that’s it.

Everything below this point should be seen as a snapshot of history and might not reflect current reality.

No Ads, no Corporate Masters: The Hows and Whys

There was a very brief time – probably less than a month or two, I don’t recall – that there were ads on some selected Home for Fiction posts. There were also ads in several Home for Fiction Android apps, and I’m very happy these apps are no longer available on Google Play.

The truth is, I hate ads. I refer you to Bill Hicks for the details:

Click to display the embedded YouTube video

And so, just as I decided early on that I didn’t want to pollute Home for Fiction with social media links or buttons, I very quickly realized I didn’t want to defile the page (both aesthetically and content-wise) with trash.

The only content on Home for Fiction that remotely resembles sponsored links is affiliate links – almost always to books. For instance, check the “Works Cited” section of this post on Mary Shelley or the post on The Perfect Gray.

The reason I use them is because I can control them fully, in terms of both content and aesthetics, and because they are highly relevant and potentially useful to the reader. If I’m talking about a certain book and the reader is interested in previewing it or buying it, they can access it directly.

But what about corporate masters? Who have they been and what have they offered?

From Ads to Corporate Masters

If you’re a blogger and you have high enough traffic, you’ve likely encountered them too. The email is pretty standard, and I’m sure they send countless such emails daily: “Hi, I’m contacting you… blah blah… collaboration opportunity… blah… guest post for our company… blah blah… We’ll pay you the sum of… blah”.

Basically, these companies (whether directly or through those marketing people Bill Hicks loved so much) want to advertise on Home for Fiction in the form of a paid guest post. They offer good money for what would be almost zero trouble for me. I receive at least a couple such emails per month, sometimes more.

Now, here comes the funny part.

I always give them the same answer: I don’t accept payment for guest posts, because that would allow them to write anything they’d want. It would also imply a client-provider relationship – more about this below, in the section about Patreon. So I tell them, send me your post, and if it’s truly good and suitable for the blog content, I’ll publish it for free and you’ll get links to your website etc.

Not once have I heard from them again.

Which tells me, they know their content is shit, and they hope to pay their way out of this mediocrity. That’s certainly never going to happen on Home for Fiction.

Note: If you’d like to submit a guest post to be published on Home for Fiction, feel absolutely free to email me and ask. But please understand that I’m extremely picky. There’s a reason that, at the time I’m writing this, only three authors – Igor, Binati, and an author who will remain anonymous – have guest posts on Home for Fiction.

No Ads, no Corporate Masters, no Client-Provider Relationship: The Home for Fiction Patreon Page

Home for Fiction is not a product. I don’t sell anything – knowledge should be free (more about this below). And so, anything resembling a client-provider relationship is not something I’m comfortable with.

That’s the reason the Home for Fiction Patreon page changed radically some months ago.

Until then, if you wanted to try any of my apps and games – such as Narrative Nods, Gothic Meter, or Mansion Escape – you had to become a patron; a subscriber on Patreon. I also created plenty of exclusive content for Patreon subscribers, such as presentations, checklists, and Patreon-only posts.

At some point last spring, plenty of Home for Fiction patrons unsubscribed after a specific Patreon-only post was published. I don’t remember the exact details of what the post was about (I’ve since deleted the entirety of Home for Fiction Patreon content), but I do recall that in that post I stated the obvious thing, which I repeatedly have stated here on the blog as well: I don’t care about my audience.

If readers find my writings useful, I’m happy (knowledge, after all, must be shared in order to be meaningful). But at least primarily, what I write is not meant for others; only for myself.

Perhaps it was a coincidence, or perhaps people got offended. I don’t know (and, in a twist of metatextuality, I don’t care). But it made me realize something: The Home for Fiction Patreon page was turning into the client-provider relationship I never intended.

To Get Rid of Ads and Corporate Masters (and Clients), You Need Radical Solutions

I immediately made radical changes, precisely to rid myself of this unwanted and unintended client-provider relationship. I changed every link to Patreon (i.e. from app and game posts here on the blog) so that it read “[app/game] is available on the Home for Fiction Patreon page. Or, email me”.

In other words, I immediately gave everyone the option to use the programs by simply sending me an email and asking for access. Plenty did, and everyone was very kind and grateful – except one person who didn’t bother to send a “thanks” afterward; that disappointed me.

Eventually, I decided to bypass emailing altogether. Now every blog post referring to one of my programs includes a link to a common interface reminding you of why I do things the way I do, and offering you the opportunity to access any of my programs. You might have also noticed the link “Free Apps” on the blog menu – it links to this page of the main site containing a handy list of all the programs, with links.

I also deleted every post from the Patreon page. Moreover, the Patreon page now clearly informs prospective subscribers that “being a patron doesn’t give you any additional benefits”, and the page is only meant for showing support and respect for the endless hours I’ve dedicated creating this content and these programs.

Should Knowledge Be Free…

In the past we’ve wondered whether art should be free. I’ve come to the conclusion knowledge should be under the same umbrella. Knowledge should be freely available. As a result, and as I stated above, I refuse to ask others to pay for it.

You might argue that there’s no connection between one thing and the other. That is, knowledge that is freely accessible doesn’t mean there should be no ads or corporate masters. But, I’ve come to realize, whenever there are ads or corporate masters in the picture, there is also – even subconsciously – some sort of filtering. And could we still speak of knowledge in such a context?

In plain terms, I’d lose control of my content. And that, I can never allow.

…The Blogger Should Starve?

“Should Art Be Free, the Artist Should Starve” was one of the subheadings in the art post, linked in the previous section. I there stated “The artist is starving anyway“. But whereas that comment was generic, now I will only talk about myself.

No, I will not starve, even if not a single person supported Home for Fiction. And even if I did, I’d never emotionally blackmail anyone about it.

If you choose to support Home for Fiction, you’ll only be doing it as a gesture of respect toward my work – and one of defiance toward ads, corporate masters, and their minions.

On Home for Fiction, there will never be ads, corporate masters, pop-ups, sponsored posts, and overall anything that interferes with what I create. I’m not perfect, but whatever I make is mine.