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So Apple+ has a new show revolving around Snoopy….

Check out the first official trailer for The Snoopy Show, a new animated comedy series from Apple TV+ starring the beloved beagle and his best friend Woodstock. According to Apple, “Snoopy may seem like just a happy-dancin’, bone-lovin’, doghouse-sittin’ pup, but he’s much more than that. He’s Joe Cool: hippest kid in school. He’s surfer king and famed arm-wrestler Masked Marvel. He’s World War I Flying Ace who battles the Red Baron. Each episode of The Snoopy Show will consist of three, seven-minute cartoons based on the iconic comic series. Featuring the unique animation style that has entertained millions around the globe for seven decades, the nostalgic new series also showcases everyone’s most cherished characters from Peanuts including Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Franklin, Schroeder, Peppermint Patty and more.” The Snoopy Show will be released on Apple TV Plus on February 5, 2021.

Trailer: The Snoopy Show

If you love bunnies, VOTE HERE for the Ursa Major Awards! From March 1-31, support furry creators.

I have to get something off my chest. I’ve never seen Space Jam. I’ll let others judge if it’s a “shoe commercial” and I’m not concerned about bunny bosoms. But this site honors all kinds of fans. If it stirs something in you, it’s worthy! Now the movie has an upcoming sequel and some talk about a redesigned Lola Bunny. It’s not just furries; there’s titters in the news from Entertainment Weekly to Newsweek.

Lola’s new design is “desexualized”, according to Space Jam: A New Legacy director Malcolm D. Lee.

“Lola was very sexualized” … “we reworked a lot of things, not only her look, like making sure she had an appropriate length on her shorts and was feminine without being objectified, but gave her a real voice. For us, it was, let’s ground her athletic prowess, her leadership skills, and make her as full a character as the others.”

For an interesting bit of story, Lola’s origin now includes Wonder Woman’s Amazonian homeland.

You might hear this is making debate or even complaints about PC culture run amok. I believe my friend’s comment that it’s “99% ironic” with people being nostalgic, or at most it’s making mountains out of molehills. But for your amusement, here’s one looney-tunes source.

Proof that we live in a society.

Of course as time goes on and old stories are remade for new generations, sexy changes. And for a point you’ll only get from furry news: it’s relative for fans who love toony aesthetic. NobodyWearsPants is a SFW account “dedicated to sharing pictures of pantsless cartoony animal characters”. They have #Nullvember and groups like NullCrotchesFTW. Toon-loving fandom is animated not just by looks and parts, but pettable personality. (I think furries with abs come from the uncanny valley.) And Lola is a bunny wearing clothes — isn’t this what your art and imagination is for?

The Lola Bunny Guy is real and gets pussy. Think about that. pic.twitter.com/OJ2iNxKSzN

— Last Name Ever, First Name Gayest (@Java_jigga) March 5, 2021

For well rounded appreciation, here’s one of Lola’s most devoted fans with a Q&A about his hobby since the 90’s. 

He went viral on Twitter and I reached him by DM at the same time as Slate.com did. Our chat was very wholesome!

Victor Ramirez is Graphic Design Manager for a transit agency in Chicago. A graduate from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Victor has developed many new wayfinding signs and printing methods. His pastimes include collecting Lola Bunny, My Little Pony and Zootopia merchandise. Victor lives in Chicago with his wife and family.

Hi Victor, can you tell me a little bit about your fan collecting? How did you get into it?

Sure, been collecting a bunch of Disney toys since 1995 with A Goofy Movie. That was the movie that got me started on my collecting binge. When Space Jam was announced in 1996, a new character was announced to be part of the Looney Tunes. When I saw the first promotional image for Lola Bunny, it was instant love. Here is a new, cute character that I have a ground-up chance on collecting everything with her on it. My family, friends, and animation industry friends have been helping me collect Lola from all over the world. I’ve met a couple of the Space Jam staff members through the years and have acquired many items like sketches, prototype figures and great stories on her design.

Do we need more Lola? Do you have any feelings about the redesign?

Most definitely. I was so happy to see Lola in Baby Looney Tunes and The Looney Tunes Show. Can’t wait for Space Jam: A New Legacy.

Lola Bunny will hopefully be a strong role model in the new film. The desexualization of the character will help in her development to become a stronger heroine with an independent voice rather than simply becoming Bugs Bunny’s girl with “no voice”. I support the animators in this new version of Lola. I see no problems with her new body style.

You were chatting on alt.tv.tiny-toon in the 90’s, so you were close to online fandom roots. At the same time you’re a design professional. I love finding bridges between both worlds — like secret furries at animation studios. Are you open with your hobby at work? Do you ever combine the two things?

I love incorporating animated characters at work. Whenever we have to test a new color palette, we use My Little Pony characters with our large format printers. My staff now knows if the printer has an issue if Twilight Sparkle doesn’t look correct. We have so much fun creating props with characters. It’s a fun job and having cartoon characters in the workplace makes our area fun.

Are you just a casual fan or have you been to conventions? Have any friends you want to shout out or experiences to share?

Wow. Furry conventions. It’s been ages. Did ConFURence back in mid 1990’s, DUCKON, Midwest Furfest, Ponyville Ciderfest, Whinny City Pony Con, C2E2 and Anime Midwest. Met the greats like Dusty Rhodes, Max Blackrabbit, Eric Schwartz, Daphne Lage, Terrie Smith, Jim Groat, Tygger, Michele Light, Reed Waller, Margaret Carspecken, Steve Gallucci, Roz Gibson, Genesis Cook, Andy Price, Mary Bellamy, Jay Fosgitt, Thom Zahler, Sara Richards, Katie Cook, Amy Mebberson, and Tony Fleecs.

I found out about these cons on the very early internet news groups and at comic shops. So much fun. My fun at these cons was to collect original art, autographs and hang out with the artists. Didn’t have a fursuit until I saw A Goofy Movie and ordered a Max Goof fursuit. When My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic debuted in 2010, I fell in love with Trixie and had a fursuit of her commissioned about two years after her appearance. Love these fandoms! So much fun and now my twin girls are loving My Little Pony, My Hero Academia and yes the Marvel Cinematic Universe in both film and print.

Good dad. Thanks Victor!

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Cast your vote now for the 2020 Ursa Major Awards. Voting closes on March 31 for the 14 categories below. Every year, furry creators (and mainstream creations) are eligible for this popular vote. Which movies, art, books, news magazines, and more will the community choose as favorites?

When you’re done, please ask your friends to share and repost the link! It helps creations that deserve attention.

Since 2001, these awards have been run with hard work by volunteers. They would appreciate any support you can give to defray costs for a website, making and mailing awards, and more. (paypal@ursamajorawards.org)

The 2020 Nominees: 

Best Motion Picture
Live-action or animated feature-length movies.

• Hayop Ka! (You Animal!) (Directed by Avid Liongoren, October 29) Mature Audiences.
• Onward (Directed by Dan Scanlon, March 6)
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Directed by Jeff Fowler; January 25)
• Soul (Directed by Pete Docter and Kemp Powers; December 25)
• Wolfwalkers (Directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart; October 26)

Best Dramatic Short Work
One-shots, advertisements or short videos.

• “Burrow”  (Directed by Madeline Sharafian; December 25)
• “Mystery Skulls Animated – The Future” (Directed by Ben Mangum; October 31)
• “The Humiliation of Jinjur Maiham” by The Home Guardsmen (Created by K Garrison; December 30)
• “Trick Moon” (Directed/Storyboarded by Geneva Hodgson, July 21)
• ZooPhobia – “Bad Luck Jack” (Directed by Vivienne Medrano; September 30)

Best Dramatic Series
TV or YouTube series videos.

• Aggretsuko (Directed by Rarecho, Season 3 episode 1 – 10, August 27)
• Beastars (Directed by Shinichi Matsumi; Season 1 Episode 1 to 12) (USA Release, English Dub)
• BNA: Brand New Animal (Directed by Yoh Yoshinari; Season 1 Episode 1 to 12, June 30)
• Helluva Boss (Directed by Vivienne Medrano; Episodes “Murder Family” and “Loo Loo Land”, Oct 31 – Dec 9)
• Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (Created by Radford Sechrist; January 14 – October 12)

Best Novel
Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for the year that the final chapter is published.

• Disbanded by Frances Pauli. (Goal Publications; February 2020)
• Entanglement Bound (The Entangled Universe Book 1) by Mary E. Lowd (Aethon Books, December)
• On The Mark, by Bernard Doove and Jeff Hartt (Self; October 23)
• Spin the Bottle, by Dajan Tafari (Fenris Publishing) Strong adult material
• The City That Barks and Roars, by J.T. Bird (9781838047917, August 1)

Best Short Fiction
Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry, and other short written works.

• Familiar, by Linnea Capps (in Dog Pile, Bound Tales Press)
• Summer Strawberries, by Mary E. Lowd (in The Voice of Dog, April 23 )
• The Glow, by Linnea Capps (in The Electric Sewer, Bound Tales Press)
• Tittilating Trivia, by Linnea Capps (in Sensory De-tails, Bound Tales Press/Thurston Howl)
• What Makes a Witch, by Linnea Capps (Weasel Press, August 18)

Best Other Literary Work
Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction works, and serialized online stories.

• Blacksad: The Collected Stories, by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido (Dark Horse, graphic collection, July 14)
• Bush Heroes, by Bush Heroes (many artists). (SFW Sexy Firefighters, art album, March 1)
• Difursity: Stories by Furries of Color, edited by Weasel (Thurston Howl productions, anthology, August 10)
• Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements, Vol. 1, edited by KC Alpinus (Goal Publications, anthology, August 31)
• Tales of Hayven Celestia, edited by Rick Griffin and Gre7g Luterman (Self, anthology, January 4)

Best Non-Fiction Work
Includes documentaries, opinion pieces, and news articles.

• From Paw To Print: Essays About Writing in the Furry Fandom, compiled by Thurston Howl. (Thurston Howl productions, essay compilation, June 1)
• Furries Among Us 3, compiled by Thurston Howl. (Thurston Howl Publications, furry essays, 2020)
• The Best and Worst Anthro Movies Tier List, by Saberspark (YouTube, video, June 26)
• The Fandom: A Furry Documentary, directed by Ash Kreis & Eric Risher (You Tube, video, July 3)
• The Last Bronycon: A Fandom Autopsy, by Jenny Nicholson (YouTube, video, July 21)

Best Graphic Story
Includes comic books, and serialized online stories.

• A&H Club, by Rick Griffin (Internet, January 24 to December 12)
• Beastars, by Paru Itagaki (Viz Media and Weekly Shonen Champion, Volume 4 to 8)
• Found Retake, by Toddlergirl (Fur Affinity, September 18 to December 30)
• Oren’s Forge, by Tegan Gavet (Tapas, pages 112 to 161)
• Shine, by Babystar (Fur Affinity, January 4 to December 28) adult material

Best Comic Strip
Newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.

• Carry On, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg (Internet, January 1 to December 31)
• Doc Rat, by Jenner (Internet, January 6 to December 31)
• Freefall, by Mark Stanley (Internet, January 1 to December 30)
• Housepets!, by Rick Griffin (Internet, January 1 to December 30)
• The Whiteboard, by Doc N. (Internet, January 1 to December 24)

Best Magazine
Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people, professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or audio-visual form.

• Dogpatch Press, edited by Patch Packrat (January 6 to December 31)
• Flayrah, edited by GreenReaper, Sonious, and Dronon (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
• Furry Writers’ Guild, edited by Literalgrill. (Internet, January to December ) (Monthly publication of the FWG, sponsors of the COYOTL awards)
• Pocari Roo, YouTube videos (January 11 to December 25)
• Zooscape, edited by Mary E. Lowd (Internet; Issue 6 – 9)

Best Published Illustration
Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for such, coffee-table portfolios.

• A_Blue_Deer, A Night At The Fair (FurAffinity, October 10)
• Ashley A. Adams, Sir Monty, The Good Boy (Artstation, August 11)
• BubbleWolf, Paintwork (Furaffinity, August 4)
• Foxer421, Take Off Your Headset!! (Twitter, November 28)
• Lofi, Cheers (Furaffinity, January 24)

Best Game
Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Developer and Publisher: Nintendo; March 20)
• Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (Developer: Toys for Bob, Publisher: Activision; October 2)
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Developer and Publisher: Moon Studios; March 11)
• Spiritfarer (Developer and Publisher: Thunder Lotus Games; August 17)
• Them’s Fightin’ Herds (Developer: Mane6, Publisher: Humble Games; April 30)

Best Website
Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational works. Includes galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal sites.

• Fur Affinity, Furry art and stories
• Furry Life Online, online community
• Loona, Moonlight_howling_666, Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss character (on Instagram)
• SoFurry, Furry art
• Stolas, daddy_hoothoot, Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss character (on Instagram)

Best Anthropomorphic Costume (Fursuit)

• Cassidy Civet, Maker: Blue Wolf Studios, Owner/Wearer: Cassidy Civet, Photographed at VancouFur 2020, March 7.
• Inutami Luki the Saluki, Maker: Kotoori Works, Owner/Wearer: Inutami Luki, Displayed Online August 7.
• Toriel, Maker/Owner/Wearer: Nautilus20000, Displayed online on September 12.
• Xif, Maker/Owner/Wearer: lutamesta, Displayed on the Japan Fursuit Creators runway January 17.
• Zigc the Khajiit, Maker: Inerri Creatures, Owner/Wearer: Zigc The Khagiit, Displayed online July 3.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Recently Aardman Animations tweeted about their new CGI TV series: “Lloyd of the Flies follows the adventures of Lloyd B Fly, a housefly and the middle child of 453. Lloyd lives with his parents, his little sister PB and their 225 maggot siblings inside a compost bin they call home. In the series, Lloyd and PB are often accompanied by Lloyd’s best friend, Abacus Woodlouse, and eccentric tag-along, Cornea Butterfly. Together they explore the strange world beyond the compost bin, where there is no shortage of lessons for Lloyd to very nearly learn.” Visit the Aardman web site for a whole lot more information. Bzzz!

image c. 2021 Aardman Animations

In a Telegram group post, Scarlarius, chairman of Singapore’s Little Island Furcon (LIFC) has recently announced they will not be holding their event this year. To clarify, the post was made inside LIFC’s official Telegram group. The link is given here: https://twitter.com/littleislandfc/status/1110126680197087233?s=21 and internal post link https://t.me/c/1297222220/16542 He says despite the returning of local large […]

Part 2 of our special on writing retreats at @RAWRWorkshop. We discuss how the retreat went. Original Air Date: Sep 11, 2017 Ep 76 – Post-Rawr! - Part 2 of our special on writing retreats at @RAWRWorkshop. We discuss how the retreat went. Original Air Date: Sep 11, 2017

Part 1 of a special on writing retreats from @RAWRWorkshop. Hear what goes on at writing retreats! Original Air Date: Aug 15, 2017 Ep 75 – Pre-Rawr! - Part 1 of a special on writing retreats from @RAWRWorkshop. Hear what goes on at writing retreats! Original Air Date: Aug 15, 2017

We had more mail and so we kept answering it. We talk about what it means to be mainstream, marketing, song of summerking, feral as a concept in furry and other things Original Air Date: Jul 5, 2017 Ep 74 – Xmas Mailbag Pt 2 - We had more mail and so we kept answering it. We talk about what it means to be mainstream, marketing, song of summerking, feral as a concept in furry and other things Original Air Date: Jul 5, 2017

Right before Christmas we went through our unanswered emails. Original Air Date: Apr 10, 2017 Ep 73 – Xmas Mailbag Pt 1 - Right before Christmas we went through our unanswered emails. Original Air Date: Apr 10, 2017

Discussing how much species needs to matter in furry lit. Are zipperbacks okay? Original Air Date: Dec 16, 2016 Ep 72 – Fur For All - Discussing how much species needs to matter in furry lit. Are zipperbacks okay? Original Air Date: Dec 16, 2016

We discuss the Furry Writers’ Guild Original Episode – November 1, 2016 Ep 71 – Furry Writers’ Guild - We discuss the Furry Writers’ Guild Original Episode – November 1, 2016

We discuss DarkEnd’s list of themes he sees too often in his slushpile. Original Air-Date: October 9, 2016   Ep 70 – Twenty Five Erotic Clichés! - We discuss DarkEnd’s list of themes he sees too often in his slushpile. Original Air-Date: October 9, 2016  

This episode marks the 13th year we've been doing this podcast. Goodness. We talk vaccinations, cancellations, and the most active discourse across the nation- cartoon rabbit boobs.

Thanks for supporting us on Patreon, you rock!

Links
Fiesta's Gaming Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/furryfiestagaming
Telegram fan chat: https://t.me/joinchat/P2iJgznWiMDBt5xS 

Episode 486 - Lucky 13 - This episode marks the 13th year we've been doing this podcast. Goodness. We talk vaccinations, cancellations, and the most active discourse across the nation- cartoon rabbit boobs.Thanks for supporting us on Patreon, you rock!Lin

MOOBARKFLUFF! Click here to send us a comment or message about the show!

This week it's just Bearly and Taebyn doing what Bearly and Taebyn do.  Having a good time, discussing general subjects including Corned Beef, Guacamole, smoke detectors, and other random things.  With the crazy weather the last few weeks we were not able to record a guest, so you are going to be entertained by your hosts.  Tune in and have a great time with Bearly and Taebyn.

Support the show

Thanks to all our listeners and to our staff: Bearly Normal, Rayne Raccoon, Taebyn, Cheetaro, TickTock, and Ziggy the Meme Weasel.

You can send us a message on Telegram at BFFT Chat, or via email at: bearlyfurcasting@gmail.com

Bearly Furcasting #45 - Last Time Today, Media, Storytime, Bad Puns, Classic Comedy Bit

Okay here’s something different: A new movie, heading to Netflix, based on a single illustration. Slashfilm explains: “Back in 2013, word arrived that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was going to make a movie based on a single drawing that appeared on DeviantArt. That’s right: Not an adaptation of a story, but a drawing… a piece called ‘Sweet Halloween Dreams’ by artist Alex Panagopoulos. The project seemed to vanish as quickly as it was announced, but now it’s back – and headed to Netflix. Johnson will produce the film, now titled Teddy and the Guardians of the Night, with Dany Garcia under their Seven Bucks Productions banner.” No word yet on a planned release date, or even any more details on the plot, but many people are making guesses based on the illustration below. We’ll let you know more when we do. Pleasant dreams!

image c. 2021 by Alex Panagopoulos

The’re not is not a furry … but …

 

Is This A Furry?

Fox and Burger Podcast #4: From Cosplay to Fursuit Making, Pawaii, and More - Feat Daza. ---- This time, we're going to a place that we've never been before - Indonesia. As our first non-lion guest, we're extremely excited to have Daza on the show. Daza is a fursuit maker from Indonesia, making over 50 partials and over 10 full bodies. He was also the GOH for Pawai 2018. Join us as we delve for the time into the Indonesian furry fandom! ---- Social Media Fox: https://twitter.com/foxnakh Burger: https://twitter.com/L1ghtningRunner Daza: https://www.facebook.com/Daz_Wolf-Fursuit-381282592429555/ https://www.instagram.com/daz_wolf21/ https://twitter.com/wolf_da ---- Footage Used: https://twitter.com/191119inori/status/1329258227284865024?s=20 https://twitter.com/wolf_daz/status/1360190671345250308?s=20 https://twitter.com/wolf_daz/status/1340157444186488832?s=20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llhs2FMLtxY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuPp5Rwm07I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_UIISregp4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpYzSOIw__k Stock photos provided by Pixabay

Roo, Sammy, Klik, Firebreath, and Nuka talk about fursuit handling and fursuit handlers in this episode.





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Guardian Lion and Katchshi and Koru Colt (Yes, him)

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MUSIC

Opening Theme: RetroSpecter – Cloud Fields (RetroSpecter Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2018. ©2011-2018 Fur What It’s Worth. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Century Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
First Break: Thinking of Us - Patrick Patrikios, Creative Commons, 2020.
Second Break: Hyun Yang - Starship, Argofox, Creative Commons 2019.
Patreon: The Tudor Consort, Inflammatus, Creative Commons, 2010
Closing Theme: RetroSpecter – Cloud Fields (RetroSpecter Chill Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2018. ©2011-2018 Fur What It’s Worth. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Chill Out Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!) S9 Episode 6 – Handling the Handlers - Roo, Sammy, Klik, Firebreath, and Nuka talk about fursuit handling and fursuit handlers in this episode. - NOW LISTEN! SHOW NOTES SPECIAL THANKS Everyone who wrote in! - PATREON LOVE The following people have decide

Hello Furry Writers’ Guild! I know it’s a bit silly to call this a guest post, but I was hoping to take of my President hat for a moment to write a post for the blog on a personal experience and I thought that it would be far more fitting. Recently, an anthology I am involved in editing had its submission call reach a larger audience of folks who haven’t worked with traditional Furry publishers before and it caused quite a stir.

I help maintain the Furry Writers’ Market so I see all the submission calls put out by the community. This call didn’t look like anything out of the ordinary. However, gaining these fresh perspectives from outside eyes showed me there are ways we could try to improve submission calls in the community to help attract more authors to write for anthologies.

I want to personally thank Personalias, Daddy Wuffster, and CK Crinklekid for opening up these discussions. I hope the information I can share with you all here can help all of us find new ways to improve the anthology process. With the preamble finished, I’ll get to the good stuff!

New Authors Don’t Know About Furry Publishing Standards

I say this not as an insult, but more of as a fact that somehow we’ve all been missing. We as authors, publishers, and editors, are used to the general process involved here. This isn’t the case to people brand new to the writing scene in general or those looking at submitting to an anthology for the first time.

For example, it’s standard for anthologies to include a section about the authors where they can promote themselves. We may know this, but an outside observer would have no clue. When we lack this transparency, even if accidentally, it’s easy for someone to look at a submission call and feel like something shady is happening. With this in mind, here are some of the things I was directly told would be awesome to see in submission calls from outside observers.

• The anthology payment is placed prominently on top of the call, not buried after explanations of stories that are being looked for.
• Mentioning the promotional section for authors.
• Stating the period of exclusivity for stories.
• Stating if stories can can use their stories as the basis for other works like sequels or continuations.
• Directly state how stories should be formatted for submission. (My number one question from new authors as President is how do I format submissions. A link to the Standard Manuscript Format could help with this.)

These suggestions made a lot of sense to me and I am positive there are more things that we take for granted but outside observers would have no clue about we don’t explicitly mention. The potential to make submissions more attractive to submit to through transparency and clarity is something we all should consider.

Payment For Anthology Stories

This will not be a debate on payment for anthologies being too low. Furry publishers cannot feasibly offer SFWA rates of eight cents per word and be able to reasonably continue production. A half cent per word has been standard for some time and some projects like Difursity have even managed to offer higher rates. In general, compensation for anthology writing has been on the rise as of late in terms of flat rates and contributor’s copies offered which is an exciting prospect.

Now, several anthologies have offered contributor’s copies as payment for their work as the only payment. This can make a lot of sense as many authors end up buying a copy of the book they are in and want a copy. With many anthologies being passion projects made more for authors than readers, this makes a lot of sense. Sometimes, the flat rate that could be offered would be less than the cost of buying the book in the first place, so to those in the community this makes sense as payment.

However, it’s easy for this to look like this is a typical vanity press scam to those who aren’t familiar with the process. This became very apparent when this became a discussion on Twitter with people upset authors were being paid “in exposure” but becoming more understanding once the situation was better explained to them. With this in mind, I was given two suggestions to improve on this.

• Have publishers offer either a contributor’s copy OR monetary compensation (author’s choice).
• Allow authors to buy the anthology at cost (or at least at a discount).

This would make it easier for outside observers to see authors are not simply being paid “in exposure” which is good optics for everyone involved. Making contributor’s copies easier to purchase could also benefit publishers and authors as well. Cheaper books create the potential for authors to purchase copies for giveaways (which grows both the publisher’s and the author’s audience) and provides another perk for authors in terms of payment. For those who writing is mostly a hobby, being able to buy copies of the book they can share with friends and family at a better price point would help bridge that gap between half a cent a word and a full eight cents per word.

Making Submissions More Attractive To Independent Authors

As previously mentioned, many Furry authors write as a way to engage with the fandom, promote Furry literature as a while, and enjoy their hobby. The goal isn’t always to make a big profit or get famous. However, plenty of authors are able to make livings (or at least have an impressive side hustle) purely writing commissions, running a Patreon, or getting donations from stories on gallery sites.

Traditional publishers cannot manage to offer the lean production a single self-published author can when producing their work and that is understandable. However, we need to realize that as it stands many anthology submissions calls would be a detriment for some of these authors to submit to.

If an author is making less on their anthology story than they would get writing a commission, what is the value in submitting to a publisher? Maybe it’s the prestige of being featured in a very competitive anthology or an easier chance to win awards. Maybe it’s just wanting to see a story in a printed book.

However, even the best furry anthologies don’t sell more copies than the views more popular authors can get on stories posted to a gallery website like FurAffinity or SoFurry. If we cannot pay them the rates for commissions and even a free story is going to offer them more exposure to a general audience, it’s reasonable for these authors to think their time is better spent writing elsewhere. This makes it harder to attract the best talent to anthologies to write, which would in turn boost anthology sales and allow publishers to pay more.

I wish I had ideas on how to do this — sadly I don’t. I’m willing to admit when I don’t have answers to a question. However, if publishers, authors, and editors all work together and brainstorm, I’m positive we can find solutions. Perhaps the Guild hosts a round table to discuss these ideas or these talks take place across whatever social media and chatrooms people participate in. It doesn’t matter where they happen, I just hope that they do so we can find ways to keep bringing Furry literature to even greater heights.

I hope everything I wrote today was useful and at least a little entertaining to read. I would like to remind everyone that while I may be the Guild President, I am perfectly capable of being wrong on a subject. If you disagree with anything said here, I want to hear that feedback (or any feedback) so I can gain more perspectives. Learning from the amazing members of the guild and those who strive to join us someday has helped lead to many improvements for us and I hope this editorial can lead to discussions that help make the Furry writing community as a whole stronger.

— Linnea Capps

First the Ursa Major Awards announce their nominees for 2020, and now the Annie Awards — considered to be the Oscars of animation — have done the same. 2020 must have been a good year for furry animation, because many of the Ursa Major and Annie nominations line up! Onward and Soul are up for Best Feature Annies, while Wolfwalkers is up for Best Indie Feature — along with Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon. And all of those are up for multiple individual achievement Annies too — like Best Character Animation, Best Character Design, Best Direction, and so forth. Best Special Production nominees include The Snail and The Whale and Shooom’s Odyssey, while the Best TV/Media for Preschoolers includes Muppet Babies, Stillwater, and The Adventures of Paddington. Also up for a variety of awards are TV and streaming favorites like Hilda, Bojack Horseman, Amphibia, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Brand New Animal, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and Mao Mao — Heroes of Pure Heart. And more! Visit the Annie Awards web site to see all the nominees, and watch for an announcement about this year’s virtual awards ceremony.

image c. 2021 Cartoon Saloon