Carol Pinchefsky has written nearly 2,000 articles about geek culture for outlets such as Forbes.com, Playboy.com and Syfy.com. Over the past 20 years, she has seen fantasy and science fiction grow from a niche interest to a huge cultural force.
“There was a time when I knew all about geek culture because it encompassed several areas,” Pinczewski said in Geek Culture Episode 504. Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “But now it’s spreading so much, it’s a little overwhelming. I can’t really keep up. It’s sad for me, but also very exciting.”
As a freelancer, Pinczewski knows firsthand how difficult it is for science fiction geeks to make a living doing what they love. “The market for being a geek writer was hot, but it wasn’t as lucrative as I’d hoped,” she said. “So what I’ve been doing lately is using geek references in my business writing. I wrote about ‘doctor who and Change Management”, I wrote about “Security and Change Management” Star Wars: Rogue One,” I wrote, “game of Thrones and project management.So I can be a geek and Get paid. “
Pinczewski’s first book, Turn your followers into cash, teaches geeks how to monetize their hobby without incurring the wrath of their favorite creators. “I went to New York Comic Con and I looked around the dealer room, and I saw tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars in transactions every hour, and I thought, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of potential intellectual property infringement. It’s ongoing,” Pinczewski said. “That’s what really made me think I should write a guide to make sure people do what they love while respecting intellectual property laws.”
For the book, Pinczewski interviewed dozens of writers, artists, cosplayers, conference organizers, and executives. The biggest weapon in any geek’s arsenal, she says, is a supportive community of fans. “The idea that individual entrepreneurs are making their way and blazing a trail in the world is just wrong,” she said. “You need help and you get help because you’re surrounded by people and friends and community and we tend to help each other.”
Listen to the full interview in Episode 504 of Carol Pinczewski Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (more than). And check out some of the key points from the discussion below.
Carol Pinchefsky on growing up as a geek:
I grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey. I’m smart, I’m small, and I’m completely unathletic. I wore big glasses—and when I say “big glasses,” we couldn’t afford new glasses, so I wore my mother’s glasses, so they were really big for my face. I was bullied a lot and I’m sure I didn’t make life easy for myself, but I was that girl who always raised her hand whenever I had a question because I always knew the answer. School was so easy for me, I spent it almost in my sleep. I didn’t interact with anyone. Looking back, if I had been more self-aware, I would have tried to join the others and say, “Hey, let’s talk about books.” But instead, I just stayed silent, which made me a target.
Carol Pinczewski at strange story:
I worked as an editorial assistant under Darrell Schweitzer and George Scithers, which was quite an experience. We get all kinds of interesting emails… [In one story] An old woman was sitting on a chair when a man jumped out and stabbed her. Finish. I read the envelope but didn’t recognize the return address.I said, “Well, that’s weird,” and someone said, “How could that be?” I said, “Oh, a guy jumped out and stabbed his mother, and I don’t recognize the address.” The guy said, “Oh , yes, that’s the guy. He was a prisoner and every week he would send in a story, a variation of the story in which a man suddenly killed an older woman, usually his mother. Sometimes it was thrown Out the window, sometimes beheading, but there’s always a murder, and it’s always a woman.” I said, “Not only am I not going to write a rejection letter, I’m going to make sure your There’s a name on the rejection letter, Darrell. “
Carol Pinczewski on travel:
[My husband] I’m from the UK and I’m from the US, so we earned all those air miles during our courtship. So we had enough air miles to go to Japan for our honeymoon. We went to a shrine in Kyoto. You had to choose your fortune – you picked up a stick and handed it to the guy behind the counter and he found the fortune for you. My destiny tells me that I will have good luck, but I will also lose something. Then when Peter’s luck comes, it says he will have great luck and he will find the lost thing. The guy was reading the article in Japanese and he started laughing. I think we succeeded because our destinies seemed so connected.
Carol Pinchefsky on intellectual property:
I met a guy who was licensed to write an RPG and had zero experience.He was kind enough to let me use his intellectual property to file [in the book]. He just wrote down what he thought the company wanted to see, and then after years of pursuing it, the company finally agreed.That’s a video game called Elite– That was the 1980s version – now the modern version is Elite: Danger. So that’s how he licensed the IP… Another guy signed up for the IP Licensing Expo. She wasn’t met once, but just because she signed up, her name was on the creators list, someone found her, and now she has the IP rights for an upcoming TV series.
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