I first published this video in November, 2007, and because it’s more timely than ever, thought I’d run the video again.
Sure, Harlan Ellison is an abrasive pain in the ass, but he’s repeatedly put his money where his sizable mouth is when it came to protecting the rights of writers and content creators.
In a time when the concept of “paying creators for content” is conspicuously absent from most Internet business plans, this video’s worth another visit:
Tell ‘em Harlan.
Next time you’re about give away your work, remember: Pay the Damned Writer.
The message just never gets old, does it?
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This should be a primer for every keyboard stroker out there that will work for nothing and/or peanuts. “The story is everything!!!”
Stop giving it away dammit! Your intellectual rights and ability are worth gold to those that clamor for them…they make the bucks off your sweat equity and you get an “attaboy.”
There’s an old poem that starts off:
“I bargained with life for a penny…”
READ IT!!!
Yes, this should be required viewing for those who are happy to “donate” their work helping others become more profitable.
Harlan’s rant will likely fall on deaf ears; the oversupply of writers is sizable, and doesn’t look to be ending anytime soon.
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Thank you for that! The amateurs make it so hard for the pros when they continue to give away their stuff. Seems even worse in the digital age, than it was in the dead-tree era. Will we ever get the respect we deserve?
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It’s much worse, though a lot of it has to do with digital writing’s accessibility to parttimers. In the dead tree era, there were bigger barriers to overcome, which eliminated many of the amateurs.
In any case, it is what it is, and adaptability’s the key.
Is it naive of me to hope that companies that continue to “hire” free writers will a) get what they pay for and b) not know the difference, and thus embark on an ever-downward quality spiral that will help make the choice more clear for companies that are willing to pay for quality?
[rq=27278,0,blog][/rq]word diagnostics
Great work deserves great pay. The trouble with writing is that too often non-writers consider it “only” an art. However, when we start asking for money for our writing, it becomes more than just art, it becomes a business. We should remember that and act appropriately. As writers, we all need to have a lot more respect for ourselves and our work, because if we don’t, no one will. If we undersell our talent and keep on underselling it, then we’re heading down a road where writers ending up treated like second-class citizens as a matter of course.
.-= beasquarepeg´s last blog ..Our Definition Of A Square Peg =-.
Google’s robots certainly can’t tell good copy from bad, and I have a feeling that “free” remains a quality all its own.
In the fly fishing niche (I write a top blog there), inaccurate, bland, poorly written “articles” appear all the time in Google search results, so apparently “free” has a quality all its own…