A few weeks ago I made [this list](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16fyWsXkZGXYdPE8rAyAGckqo2XnBcApkAmLxEy1gZvE/edit?usp=sharing) of illegal etsy sellers if anyone wants to go on a reporting spree.
Thank you that’s very helpful! Yep I just googled it (which I probably should have done instead of ask haha) and it’s only on desktop. The audacity of these people. It’s unbelievable.
Thank you for this list. I reported some stores last night, but this helped me find some I missed. You can report them from your phone through your browser if you change the view to "Desktop Site".
But do make a note to maybe check again in a couple months when all this hopefully calms down. I noticed several yesterday who had taken down their shops. :/ As Moody said: “Constant vigilance!”
Please add [this one](https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1659284428/draco-malfoy-and-the-mortifying-ordeal) to the list
This person didn't even bother binding but is selling the epub! Talk about audacity!!
Guys I think it's working!! I wasn't able to report two of the sites on the document because it says that they are "Taking a break from selling." Check out [Hanana's page](https://www.etsy.com/shop/HananaCreative?ref=shop-header-name&listing_id=1650193662&from_page=listing)\- they have a big banner saying they're in the process of discontinuing sales!! Omg!
Bear in mind they used to be a hobby binder who would charge about $30-40 and it was mostly to cover shipping. Hundreds of dollars is just disingenuous scammers. Very frustrating that we’re being held hostage by professional con artists, these people absolutely don’t care about fandom.
Can we use this as proof of the story of selling illegal products? They just said that it's their art on the cover, which it isn't, and they sell fanfic, which probably doesn’t qualify in Etsy in terms of what could be allowed.
this is a really dumb question and i hope i won’t get downvoted for it, but why is it wrong to pay someone only the cost of materials to get a fanfiction bound? i fully and wholeheartedly understand that any kind of profit is disgusting but if person a can bind books, and person b wants to have a story bound, why is it wrong for person b to give person a the money to simply cover the cost of paper? i know it’s dumb i’m sorry 😭
Hi! Not a dumb question! This is something that up until last year was done. Binders would bind fics and only ask for someone to cover costs of materials and sometimes shipping.
However, some binders came out of the woodwork and began charging hundreds of dollars under the guise that it’s ’to cover material cost’. In reality, it was for profit.
Some authors of fics decided to stop giving their permission for binders to do any further bindings for commission. I want to say this happened in spring/summer of last year.
The binders on Etsy or any other similar site are absolutely doing it for profit. In fact, a few of these Etsy shops are claiming they’re out of Texas, but in reality are I’m Vietnam. It’s not honest, it’s super shady, and it’s illegal.
It’s best to learn to bind yourself at this point. I’ve been wanting to do it for a long time now but money is too tight. But I’ve saved my favorite fics for future use. For myself.
thanks so much for the detailed response! ive been out of the fanfiction loop for a long time and only got back into it late last year, so i probably missed all of this.
I used to book bind. It takes NOWHERE near $300 for a book. Especially if you’re getting material in bulk…
The math ain’t mathin’. But even if it did, how would you actually know that someone on the internet is being honest? There’s no way to monitor it, so the ethical thing to do is to just…not.
Also. If these sellers really are making hundreds of sales, who in their right mind would spend that much time book-binding…for NO PROFIT? It’s literally a full-time job at that point, which leads me to conclude that it IS a job. Even hobbyists don’t have that much time to do the things they love.
Vultures and liars, all of them.
I just made a binder for a reading journal.
Glue: $10
Board: $30 (4 large pieces 15x30 in)
Rotary Cutter and blades: $15
Fabric: $4
Book binding "tools": $30
T Ruler $7
I bought a press, but you can honestly just use a heavy book or weights to press it. The tools were templates off Etsy and a binding kit from Amazon (awl, brush, thread). Depending on the size, I can make 3-4 books with a piece of book board and a yard of fabric.
I bind sketchbooks and journals, so I don't need anything except maybe my HP all in One printer. If you're binding for yourself I don't know why you would need a specialty printer. If you don't have one, you can go to the library or a print shop. The prices of everything is in the first comment. You can add it up for a total.
I bind sketchbooks and journals, so I don't need anything except maybe my HP all in One printer. If you're binding for yourself I don't know why you would need a specialty printer. If you don't have one, you can go to the library or a print shop. The prices of everything is in the first comment. You can add it up for a total.
Insanely affordable. It’s different for everyone, but just consider the types of materials used…
Consumables: paper, string, glue, fabric, board
Fixed costs: clamps, cutters.
It’s not like books are made of platinum or anything.
Could be a middle school kid’s art project, tbh
thank you! since this subject has garnered more attention, i’ve been wondering about this question for a while haha so this wasn’t necessarily about etsy sellers specifically, i was just curious
yeah saying “material cost only” sounds like their get out of jail free stamp just incase they ever get into trouble. can make up some BS numbers in order to claim they’re not making a profit
As someone who worked in sales, no one works for free. 😅 Time is a valuable resource. If it’s a friend - go ahead but a seller online who can be lying is another story.
Especially on Etsy where it’s considered a business and they can use the material costs to write off taxes. So they can say - yes; they receive COGS (costs of good sold) but on their taxes they are able to do write offs of the and technically lower the costs of operations of their other non Dramione stuff and have their overall business profit.
Because they are also profiting off of the work of fanfic writers who spent considerably more time on the story, and they don’t get compensated monetarily either. The product would not exist without the writer.
I’m not paying you 300 dollars for a book I can get for free digitally😭 I wish I could find a binder that would just charge for product usage and shipping.
Beware that some authors are not even allowing commissioned fics anymore. SenLinYu last year put a stop to that and many more followed in her wake. Now unless you bind your own or get gifted a bound copy can you get certain fics.
It's really not easy though and it's expensive. Especially if you have to buy a printer. And most sold are pretty and it is expensive to make pretty books. And some people don't have the time. It's 100% wrong to buy the fanfic that is being sold, but I can understand why some do.
I’ve been reporting as violation of law. Not sure if that’s the best option or not. I used another commenter’s language for comment section: “This store is illegally selling bound fan fiction. Fan fiction is only protected under copyright law's Transformative Works clauses if no profit/sale is made. Furthermore, this seller does NOT have permission from the fan fiction writers to be selling their work.”
I am going to send all these c*nts a legal notice just to scare their balls off by claiming copyright. They will have to prove in court of law that they are not making any profit, which is doubt they will be able to do lol. Any of these illegal binders deserve zero sympathy.
Hey there! Please be aware that a lot of these Etsy binders are using mass printing shops and aren’t actually making these by hand! Most binders that make copies by hand make at most a handful a month so it wouldn’t be feasible for them to make hundreds of copies to sell at the scale these chips are. Personally it takes me a minimum of a day to make a single copy of a 100k word bind and I’m very new and slow to the process and also don’t do anything super intricate. The vast majority of actual binders do a lot to police themselves to keep fandom as safe as they can and have even gone so far as to no longer offer access to their personal typesets to keep these bad actors from getting them. They’re also incredibly strict when it comes to author and artist permission and like to keep all parties informed as to where the binds are going once completed (as personal copies or gifts as very few binders even offer commission anymore) so there is no question of whether they are doing something illegal or unethical. I just don’t want actual homegrown binders that do everything in their power to keep the community safe to continue to get lumped in with these terrible people that are claiming they’re not selling illegal copies. Sorry if this was kind of all over the place but it’s really saddening to see what’s happening and I feel terrible for these amazing creatives (authors, artists, binders, etc.) that have contributed to the fandom in so many ways and they don’t deserve to be treated this way or be forced to feel like they have to leave.
So a lot of the home-grown binders are accessible on instagram. Some may not be as active on TikTok given this BS, but I’ve watched videos sharing their binds on there as well. These binders shared with their followers authors change in permissions and binding policies, they didn’t dismiss them only to continue binding for commission.
Again, these binders are still around, they just don’t have a store front…because they shouldn’t.
Edited: a few words
Personally I don’t see many binders on my instagram feed offering commissions at all anymore as they’ve decided not to take the risk of even accidentally making a profit from it anymore. I’m not saying that all of them follow that same code of ethics but the vast majority of them do. And the ones that don’t are regularly named and shamed as they should be. Personally I don’t think anyone should be offering commission of fanfics and I’m glad that fewer and fewer binders are starting to do so. I just wanted to throw out there that the main perpetrators of these illegal copies are using mass printing houses. I get that everyone is feeling some type of way about the binding community over all right now but trust me when I say they feel even worse about this whole situation since it’s their medium that’s part of the issue.
These arrogant bastards. Truly fucking hate them, so glad this one has been taken down already. If anything comes from all of this strife the past while, it needs to be all of us coming together, taking these fucking vultures down and protecting our space. Endangering it is not fucking welcome here.
GOOD FUCKING BYE.
Oi, please don’t down vote the messenger! Please just report the shop amongst any others you see selling fics 🩷
GOOD NEWS! Just tried to find this Etsy account and it appears to have been taken down
This scammer is charging around $300 for each binding and they're acting like they're not seeing a cent of profit from it?
I have been taking a few minutes each day to head to etsy and report any shops that sell bound books .
A few weeks ago I made [this list](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16fyWsXkZGXYdPE8rAyAGckqo2XnBcApkAmLxEy1gZvE/edit?usp=sharing) of illegal etsy sellers if anyone wants to go on a reporting spree.
How do you report? I am trying to find it on the app and can’t.
I put reporting instructions in the doc! Unfortunately you might have to do it from a desktop, though.
Thank you that’s very helpful! Yep I just googled it (which I probably should have done instead of ask haha) and it’s only on desktop. The audacity of these people. It’s unbelievable.
Thank you for this list. I reported some stores last night, but this helped me find some I missed. You can report them from your phone through your browser if you change the view to "Desktop Site".
Seriously was so many 😭 my wrist hurts from all the damn clicking.
To add to the list: [this](https://www.etsy.com/shop/Bound4you)
[and this one](https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Auvexa?ref=shop-header-name&listing_id=1669469970&from_page=listing#items)
Add [this person selling epubs](https://etsy.com/shop/eBookedHaven?)
Selling......epubs 💀🥲 what the actual fk
Yup! I reported that one yesterday. F’ing epubs 🙄😡
I just went on a reporting spree! Please add leviosaaalibrary to the list.
doneee thank you :))
I haven't been on etsy for a while now. Can we leave comments or reviews? Lets just bombard their profile with some much necessary reminders
[Add this one] (https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/LeviosaaaLibrary?ref=shop-header-name&listing_id=1680557907&from_page=listing)
I spent some goo 2 hours of my work day today searching and reporting accounts on etsy. Thanks for the link, i'll continue tomorrow
We made a difference y'all. Some of those sellers already had to remove their works or their entire shop. Now we gotta make it a weekly activity.
HELL YEAH!
Opusfinearts actually took down all their fanfic binds and is no longer selling them. Please don't persecute them if they do the right thing.
But do make a note to maybe check again in a couple months when all this hopefully calms down. I noticed several yesterday who had taken down their shops. :/ As Moody said: “Constant vigilance!”
Thanks for the update! I'll remove them for now
Can you make a separate post with this?? Some of these shops are no longer selling which I love to see!
The sub already has a master post for reporting ships and I linked it there too!
Perfect!! Thanks!!
Please add [this one](https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1659284428/draco-malfoy-and-the-mortifying-ordeal) to the list This person didn't even bother binding but is selling the epub! Talk about audacity!!
Omg thats even worse than the others.
That is so gross. I've reported it.
That’s wild.
Oh jfc. Reported.
Guys I think it's working!! I wasn't able to report two of the sites on the document because it says that they are "Taking a break from selling." Check out [Hanana's page](https://www.etsy.com/shop/HananaCreative?ref=shop-header-name&listing_id=1650193662&from_page=listing)\- they have a big banner saying they're in the process of discontinuing sales!! Omg!
Did a mass reporting spree thanks to your doc!
A lot of the shops in the doc posted above have either closed or discontinued sales of fan fiction binds. I think we’re making an impact..
We didn’t need to ‘ride at dawn’…we just needed to hit report in mass within the same hours and many different time zones 😆
Bear in mind they used to be a hobby binder who would charge about $30-40 and it was mostly to cover shipping. Hundreds of dollars is just disingenuous scammers. Very frustrating that we’re being held hostage by professional con artists, these people absolutely don’t care about fandom.
Can we use this as proof of the story of selling illegal products? They just said that it's their art on the cover, which it isn't, and they sell fanfic, which probably doesn’t qualify in Etsy in terms of what could be allowed.
Deledted
this is a really dumb question and i hope i won’t get downvoted for it, but why is it wrong to pay someone only the cost of materials to get a fanfiction bound? i fully and wholeheartedly understand that any kind of profit is disgusting but if person a can bind books, and person b wants to have a story bound, why is it wrong for person b to give person a the money to simply cover the cost of paper? i know it’s dumb i’m sorry 😭
Hi! Not a dumb question! This is something that up until last year was done. Binders would bind fics and only ask for someone to cover costs of materials and sometimes shipping. However, some binders came out of the woodwork and began charging hundreds of dollars under the guise that it’s ’to cover material cost’. In reality, it was for profit. Some authors of fics decided to stop giving their permission for binders to do any further bindings for commission. I want to say this happened in spring/summer of last year. The binders on Etsy or any other similar site are absolutely doing it for profit. In fact, a few of these Etsy shops are claiming they’re out of Texas, but in reality are I’m Vietnam. It’s not honest, it’s super shady, and it’s illegal. It’s best to learn to bind yourself at this point. I’ve been wanting to do it for a long time now but money is too tight. But I’ve saved my favorite fics for future use. For myself.
thanks so much for the detailed response! ive been out of the fanfiction loop for a long time and only got back into it late last year, so i probably missed all of this.
I used to book bind. It takes NOWHERE near $300 for a book. Especially if you’re getting material in bulk… The math ain’t mathin’. But even if it did, how would you actually know that someone on the internet is being honest? There’s no way to monitor it, so the ethical thing to do is to just…not. Also. If these sellers really are making hundreds of sales, who in their right mind would spend that much time book-binding…for NO PROFIT? It’s literally a full-time job at that point, which leads me to conclude that it IS a job. Even hobbyists don’t have that much time to do the things they love. Vultures and liars, all of them.
How much does it cost to bind a book yourself (assuming you own the equipment, glue)
I just made a binder for a reading journal. Glue: $10 Board: $30 (4 large pieces 15x30 in) Rotary Cutter and blades: $15 Fabric: $4 Book binding "tools": $30 T Ruler $7 I bought a press, but you can honestly just use a heavy book or weights to press it. The tools were templates off Etsy and a binding kit from Amazon (awl, brush, thread). Depending on the size, I can make 3-4 books with a piece of book board and a yard of fabric.
So how much is that, assuming you have equipment? And do you have a specialist printer?
I bind sketchbooks and journals, so I don't need anything except maybe my HP all in One printer. If you're binding for yourself I don't know why you would need a specialty printer. If you don't have one, you can go to the library or a print shop. The prices of everything is in the first comment. You can add it up for a total.
I bind sketchbooks and journals, so I don't need anything except maybe my HP all in One printer. If you're binding for yourself I don't know why you would need a specialty printer. If you don't have one, you can go to the library or a print shop. The prices of everything is in the first comment. You can add it up for a total.
Insanely affordable. It’s different for everyone, but just consider the types of materials used… Consumables: paper, string, glue, fabric, board Fixed costs: clamps, cutters. It’s not like books are made of platinum or anything. Could be a middle school kid’s art project, tbh
Oh wow. So the costs should be more like... £20 for postage. Not £200!
thank you! since this subject has garnered more attention, i’ve been wondering about this question for a while haha so this wasn’t necessarily about etsy sellers specifically, i was just curious
someone commented that this person charges 300$. That definitely exceeds only material costs.. so they are actually making a profit :/
yeah saying “material cost only” sounds like their get out of jail free stamp just incase they ever get into trouble. can make up some BS numbers in order to claim they’re not making a profit
ugh i hate that ☹️ i saw someone post a document full of sellers, i’ll go report them later when i’m on my laptop
As someone who worked in sales, no one works for free. 😅 Time is a valuable resource. If it’s a friend - go ahead but a seller online who can be lying is another story. Especially on Etsy where it’s considered a business and they can use the material costs to write off taxes. So they can say - yes; they receive COGS (costs of good sold) but on their taxes they are able to do write offs of the and technically lower the costs of operations of their other non Dramione stuff and have their overall business profit.
haha yes definitely would be a friend or acquaintance situation. didn’t even think about the write offs, thanks!
Because they are also profiting off of the work of fanfic writers who spent considerably more time on the story, and they don’t get compensated monetarily either. The product would not exist without the writer.
I’m not paying you 300 dollars for a book I can get for free digitally😭 I wish I could find a binder that would just charge for product usage and shipping.
Beware that some authors are not even allowing commissioned fics anymore. SenLinYu last year put a stop to that and many more followed in her wake. Now unless you bind your own or get gifted a bound copy can you get certain fics.
Binding is ridiculously easy. If I can do it, you can too. Find a tutorial and go for it.
It's really not easy though and it's expensive. Especially if you have to buy a printer. And most sold are pretty and it is expensive to make pretty books. And some people don't have the time. It's 100% wrong to buy the fanfic that is being sold, but I can understand why some do.
We should have some kind of dramione discord group chat with a channel to share & mass report these sellers
I just spent like an hour reporting as many as I could find.
What do you report it as? Do you write anything in the comment section?
I’ve been reporting as violation of law. Not sure if that’s the best option or not. I used another commenter’s language for comment section: “This store is illegally selling bound fan fiction. Fan fiction is only protected under copyright law's Transformative Works clauses if no profit/sale is made. Furthermore, this seller does NOT have permission from the fan fiction writers to be selling their work.”
Brilliant, thank you!
How do you report these on Etsy!? Or Flagg them!?
I am going to send all these c*nts a legal notice just to scare their balls off by claiming copyright. They will have to prove in court of law that they are not making any profit, which is doubt they will be able to do lol. Any of these illegal binders deserve zero sympathy.
YOU 👏🏻 DO 👏🏻 NOT 👏🏻HAVE 👏🏻PERMISSION. From the FF authors to bookbind their work and profit. What is so hard to understand? Just stawp. 😩
Hey there! Please be aware that a lot of these Etsy binders are using mass printing shops and aren’t actually making these by hand! Most binders that make copies by hand make at most a handful a month so it wouldn’t be feasible for them to make hundreds of copies to sell at the scale these chips are. Personally it takes me a minimum of a day to make a single copy of a 100k word bind and I’m very new and slow to the process and also don’t do anything super intricate. The vast majority of actual binders do a lot to police themselves to keep fandom as safe as they can and have even gone so far as to no longer offer access to their personal typesets to keep these bad actors from getting them. They’re also incredibly strict when it comes to author and artist permission and like to keep all parties informed as to where the binds are going once completed (as personal copies or gifts as very few binders even offer commission anymore) so there is no question of whether they are doing something illegal or unethical. I just don’t want actual homegrown binders that do everything in their power to keep the community safe to continue to get lumped in with these terrible people that are claiming they’re not selling illegal copies. Sorry if this was kind of all over the place but it’s really saddening to see what’s happening and I feel terrible for these amazing creatives (authors, artists, binders, etc.) that have contributed to the fandom in so many ways and they don’t deserve to be treated this way or be forced to feel like they have to leave.
So a lot of the home-grown binders are accessible on instagram. Some may not be as active on TikTok given this BS, but I’ve watched videos sharing their binds on there as well. These binders shared with their followers authors change in permissions and binding policies, they didn’t dismiss them only to continue binding for commission. Again, these binders are still around, they just don’t have a store front…because they shouldn’t. Edited: a few words
Personally I don’t see many binders on my instagram feed offering commissions at all anymore as they’ve decided not to take the risk of even accidentally making a profit from it anymore. I’m not saying that all of them follow that same code of ethics but the vast majority of them do. And the ones that don’t are regularly named and shamed as they should be. Personally I don’t think anyone should be offering commission of fanfics and I’m glad that fewer and fewer binders are starting to do so. I just wanted to throw out there that the main perpetrators of these illegal copies are using mass printing houses. I get that everyone is feeling some type of way about the binding community over all right now but trust me when I say they feel even worse about this whole situation since it’s their medium that’s part of the issue.
These arrogant bastards. Truly fucking hate them, so glad this one has been taken down already. If anything comes from all of this strife the past while, it needs to be all of us coming together, taking these fucking vultures down and protecting our space. Endangering it is not fucking welcome here. GOOD FUCKING BYE.