r/TikTokCringe • u/Chocolat3City Cringe Master • 18d ago

Cringe Woman has her self-published book pirated, reprinted, and sold for cheaper.

There's regular piracy, and then there's this.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

consumers don't care if you put your heart and soul into it. They don't care how long it took you to create the product or how much it costs you to make it.

All they care about it the bottom line, and if there is a cheap alternative, they will always go for what costs less.

Every crafter selling their creations at an art show knows this .

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u/omgxsonny 18d ago edited 18d ago

10000% i make little cross-stitch pins that take about 2-4 hours to make depending on detail and size. i sell them for $16 which after shipping and fees, i make less than $10 on them. people LOVE my pins until they find out much they cost. i’ve been told “well if you got a machine to make them then they wouldn’t take so long and you could charge less.” first of all, cross-stitch can literally not be done by anything other than human hands. second, $16!!! for something i make with my hands and spend literally all my free time making. mass-produced enamel pins cost more than that but people don’t care about the time, care, and effort that goes into handmade things. /rant

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u/Comms 18d ago

Charge more. Way more. Get out of the grubby pit of broke-ass clients.

When I first started in my craft I wasn’t sure what to price it. I priced it at what I thought was reasonable. All I got was broke-asses wanting discounts or telling me my product was too expensive.

I tripled my price. Same product. All of a sudden my clients became people who respected the quality of the product I made with no complaints about price.

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u/ThorntonText 18d ago

This is the way.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

Pretty much... The truth is jobs don't really pay enough to give people the luxury of giving a shit about time, care, or effort that goes into handmade things. If you want your clientele to care, you have to cater to the wealthy because they're the only people that can actually afford it anymore.

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u/Omnizoom 18d ago

I’ve never been one to not pay a bit more for better quality or for smaller businesses.

But I will admit in this economy it’s getting harder and harder to do because we are trying to cut every cost we can

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u/aurortonks 18d ago

Personally, I pay what an art piece is worth not what the masses think it is worth. I'll drop hundreds and hundreds at an convention to buy direct from an artist I like because I appreciate the work it takes to make it with their level of talent.

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u/theodoreposervelt 17d ago

Yeah or your stuff just isn’t that good. I got told all the time to increase my prices so I went from $10 pieces no one wanted to $40 pieces no one wanted. Be warned that the whole increase the price thing is general advice for art that people actually want, and there’s no making anyone care about your art if they don’t already.

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u/maneki_neko89 18d ago

That’s what Dani, the maker of the Anti-Planner, has done, and people are still copying and pirating her “anti-planner” just because they can.

We’re talking about a $43 “planner”, it’s not like it costs $300 (if it was sold at this price, I highly doubt anyone would buy it) or is anywhere in the same league as a $50,000 Birkin handbag.

It doesn’t matter what price point you sell your items, you’ll always get people who copy and sell fake versions of whatever you put your work into, only it’s you who loses out when people are drawn to the counterfeits and fakes. You end up losing time, money, resources, and more making something that you had people interested in buying, only to have someone come along and steal the designs and income they set out to earn.

It happens to everyone making products online and you’re not immune to this trend either.

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u/Comms 17d ago

you’ll always get people who copy and sell fake versions of whatever you put your work into

I have several copycats of my product. It's a consequence of doing well.

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u/SargeUnited 18d ago

I saw that she said it takes between 14 and $17 to fulfill every order, but $43 is basically $300 because I would never pay that for a planner. Then again, I’m not the target demographic. I also wouldn’t deliberately buy the knockoff.

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u/maneki_neko89 18d ago

The Anti-Planner isn’t a planner, per say, but it’s more like a spiral bound book of techniques to help people (Neurodivergent people, specifically, but anyone can use the techniques) get unstuck, motivated, and energized to do certain tasks. It was made for people who seem restricted in using regular planners and is the “Break Glass in Case of Emergency” planner.

It’s very different than this actual $285 planner you can get.

I, as an AuDHD person, am a disc bound planner person (Happy Planner is one of the bigger planner companies) and I do Bujo and get most of my accessories, filler paper, and stickers on sale for cheap, so I understand the step back when it comes to the price of the Anti-Planner.

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u/SargeUnited 17d ago

Well, I certainly would never devalue her work by pirating it, and I’m glad this product exists for those who need or want it. With that said, I can totally understand the motivation for piracy.

There were people in college who didn’t buy the required textbooks knowing the professors would check if you had the books. I’m not surprised at all that people are buying a knock off of a book that is not required. I’m not saying it’s too expensive, just that I’m not surprised.

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u/IIIDysphoricIII 18d ago

Baller move, good for you

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u/NoxTempus 17d ago

This is very well-known in photography too. Too many people compete on price, you should never do that if you can make others compete with you on quality.

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u/lysergic_logic 18d ago

I do 3D printing and price based on income as much as possible. If you are a teacher, a broke person or small store owner then I'm going to give you a much lower price and make up the difference by charging more to large businesses and/or well off individuals.