Harlan Ellison -- Pay the Writer

[ThomasKCarpenter]

Warning language. Love Harlan and I'm entertained by just hearing him talk. Makes a great point here, too. Value your work people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE#t=189

[morshana]

I like how he points out that all the writers writing for free is what makes it hard for professionals, since people are used to getting it for free.

[tmaulhardt]

Nothing like taking it right to the point, eh? I love it! And from one of the demi-gods I worship. Thanks for sharing. That made my day.

[TomKnighton]

What he's saying isn't really unique to writers. I know a lot of musicians who have a problem finding places to play and get paid. So many places are only offering "exposure". Kind of sounds like the boat writers find themselves in, and even then it's not just fiction.

My other writing is as a political blogger/commentator. I've had a moderate amount of success with that. However, when I look at larger markets to try and expand my reach, I find the larger sites don't want to pay anything. Why? Well, they don't have to pay, so why would they?

Creative types as a whole need to stop giving their work away unless it's on their own personal sites and start expecting payment as a general rule. Unfortunately, a lot of creative types call this "selling out", so they won't. The rest of us have to pay the price for that.

[ggeezz]

Bah.

Those scabs, I mean amateurs, are making it hard for the union, I mean professionals, to make a living.

There's a market for creative content just like there's a market for everything else. If you offer the "premium" product for a higher price, you have to compete with the "amateurs" offering a lesser product for a lesser price.

In other words, in some cases, it absolutely makes sense for an amateur (or a professional) to trade work for exposure. What do you think authors are doing when they do a "tour" when their book is released? Some opportunities make sense and others don't.

In this specific instance there's a different economy in play. Namely, vanity. A lot of people would do the interview Harlan is complaining about because they want to. Because they would love to sit down and have someone interview them where the whole purpose is to aggrandize their work. I would.

Harlan clearly doesn't, so he was right to demand payment and decline the opportunity since WB didn't want to pay.