Jules Older wonders............
How is it,
dear friends, that so many of us don't just say no?
We gnash
and moan at the parlous, perilous, ever-worsening state of writing for pay… and
then we write for free.
I'm not
talking about writing for struggling startups. Nor for good causes. I'm talking
Huffington Post. I'm talking examiner.com
And I know
why you're doing it. When I ask, you give me answers I understand. “I do it for
the free trips. For the free theatre tickets. For the free lunch.”
I
understand.
What I
hope you'll understand: There is no free lunch.
Especially
for writers. When you write for lunch or tickets or trips, you're holding out a
sign that says, WILL WORK FOR FOOD.
And once
you do that, there is no reason on this good, green Earth that anybody should
hire you for money. Ever.
When you
write for Huffington Post, you're working for AOL — they own Huffington Post.
How’s AOL doing when they're not paying you?
They've just “reported more than a fourfold jump in first-quarter profit
as online advertising revenue increased. Net income rose to $21.2 million from
$4.7 million a year earlier.”
When you
write for peanuts — no, for peanut shells
— for examiner.com, you're putting cash in the pocket of a billionaire who
uses what he doesn't pay you to support right-wing causes that will make you
even worse-off than you are now.
Why are
AOL and examiner.com doing so well? In part, because you're supporting them.
You are a 21stcentury ragged-trousered philanthropist. That phrase
was coined in 1910 by Irish-English author Robert Tressell to describe workers
“who throw themselves into
back-breaking work for poverty wages in order to generate profit for their
masters.”
I urge you:
Don’t be that sap.
Don’t
steal from yourself. Don’t take food from your family. Don’t be a
ragged-trousered philanthropist.
Stop
giving away your talent, your skills, your work to the obscenely rich who grow
ever richer on your back. Your voluntarily
offered back.
Take back
your back.
Demand pay
for your services. Your plumber does. Your kid’s teacher does.
Your
receptionist/librarian/nurse/croupier/mailman/mechanic/publisher does. So should you. Starting here and now — Just say no.
Let your sign read,
WON’T WORK FOR
FOOD.
— jules
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