Posts tagged: harlan ellison

Freelance Video Friday (You Know, Get Paid, OK?)

August 17, 2012, by 2 comments

“The problem is there’s so goddamned many writers who don’t know they’re supposed to be paid every time they do something”
 –Harlan Ellison

I stumbled on the first video which reminded me of the second (stolen quote above), and I thought it was time to run them side by side.

 

The first video ran atop an article about a freelance writer who rewrote a badly ghostwritten book, and not only didn’t get the second half of the payment, she actually gave the first payment back.

Cringeworthy.

(If any of my readers ever do something that stupid, I’ll find you and beat the crap out of you)

Keep writing (and getting paid for it), Tom Chandler.

“You send me the goddamned DVD now or I’m going to come down to your office and burn it to the ground. How about that?”
 –more Harlan Ellison

Planning to Become Famous? Start Saving Your Eccentric Writer's Gear Now…

January 3, 2011, by 2 comments

You know an era has passed when the devices that used to torture you suddenly become valuable icons.

For example, typewriters are much in the literary news these days, what with Cormac McCarthy’s old Olivetti fetching a cool quarter million dollars (interesting note: instead of going digital, McCarthy continues to write on a typewriter).

Now Harlan Ellison – a science fiction legend and subject of this brilliant “Pay the Writer” video (featured several times on the Underground) – is also selling his original typewriter.

Naturally, I began to wonder what – after I became famous – I could sell to my legions of fans for an obscenely high price.

Sadly, absolutely nothing leaps to mind; my original typewriter is long gone, my 128K Mac lasted about as long as anything which ran on a Macintosh power supply (not long), and I refuse to save my broken-down office chair simply because the imprint of my butt might someday be valuable.

Then there’s the little matter of fame, which I haven’t accumulated and won’t, so you might say I’ve solved the problem, and in the most direct way possible.

Still, if you harbor any hope of one day seeing yourself on the cover of The Rolling Stone, start squirreling away your eccentric/period writer’s gear now, though what that might be in the digital era isn’t entirely clear.

Keep becoming famous, Tom Chandler.

p.s. – If you missed my earlier post about a stunning collection of antique typewriters, give it a look. They’re beautiful.

An Underground Replay: "Pay The Damned Writer"

June 12, 2009, by 9 comments

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.

Pay The Damned Writer (A "Getting What Your Worth" Primer With Harlan Ellison)

November 21, 2007, by 4 comments

Done any free work lately? Or seen that work used in multiple places — without ever receiving a dime for the additional uses?

The never-demur Harlan Ellison — a successful, outspoken and abrasive writer — tells it like it is in this short interview. Great stuff — I would have laughed more if so much of it hadn’t been painfully on target.

Ellison still writes on a manual typewriter, and successfully sued movie producer James Cameron after noticing the original Terminator script bore a striking resemblance to two of his own short stories.

He’s fought (viciously) for writer’s rights since the early 1960s, and serves as an excellent counterpoint in the current times, where intellectual property and creator’s rights seem to be going to the way of the Dodo bird.

Bookmark this video, and when you feel yourself edging towards a giveaway — when you’re about to apply a value of “zero” to your work — give it another viewing.

And then read Michel Fortin’s latest “Olympic” pricing post. I wouldn’t apply his approach on all my jobs, but it’s a good example of thinking through the pricing process — namely, what are you really getting paid for, and what does your client know about the process?

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.