This is an important debate for those of us who believe that what we create (jewelry, songs, painting, photos, stories, etc…) deserves payment. Kristen, once again, has expressed her thoughts well and I agree. I say that with the admission that I recently posted a “free” short story on my blogsite, hoping that it would bring me “exposure.” I boosted it through Facebook. Did I get “exposure”? Maybe…maybe not.
What is wrong is that I PAID for that increased exposure, so that’s even worse.
As Kristen expertly points out, we are in a different world, us creative types.
We would like to hope that living our passion (whatever it is) could also support us. And we would do almost anything to get to that goal. Even giving away something that took hours, days, weeks, months to develop.
It’s time we stop doing that.
As for me, no more FREE stories on my blog. After reading Kristen’s post, I’ve been thinking about developing that story into a novella and self-publishing it.
And to those who’ve said: Get a real job. Well, I had a “real” job for almost 45 years as an RN and during most of that time I wrote. I even got paid for some of those pieces.Kristen, as usual, you have our collective back, proving once again that “We are not alone.”
Thank you,
Mitzi
Image “Not for Sale” used with permission from the creator Ira Gelb who’s an activist in stopping Human Trafficking but authorized this image for use outside.
It’s funny, at various junctures I’ve felt propelled to tackle certain topics, even when that made me very unpopular. My biggest leviathan to date has been this notion of artists being expected to work for free, and I believe the reason that this topic is weighing so heavily on me is that, for the first time in years I’m no longer enthusiastic about our future.
In fact, I’m downright frightened, because of THIS.
I Feel Sick
Yesterday morning on my Facebook, a friend shared this open letter to Oprah Winfrey from a local performer in the Bay Area, Revolva, whose act caught the attention of mega-icon Oprah Winfrey.
Oprah was holding The Life You Want conference and the producers contacted Revolva to see if she…
View original post 3,426 more words
Mitzi Flyte 