OWNED
Any artist or writer - really anyone in any field - who has ever been asked to labor for free, for exposure, for payoff down the road in some yet-to-be-defined way, should read this exchange between an editor and writer about an "unpaid" book project. I found myself cheering.
posted by Matt Bors at
6:36 PM
10 Comments:
Thank you so much for that link. I loved Candy Freak, but I had no idea just how rad Steve Almond is...
I have to admit that I have a hard time getting worked up over this, as I sit in a corporate cubicle and stare at a monitor full of legal-writing-type work. I am a creative person, too, a musician, and get paid for my work, and I resent it when people want me to perform for free. But I also have to have a job that pays actual money and has actual benefits, due to my having a wife and kids and stuff. So it is a little irritating to read about how you spend your days listening to the radio and reading magazines and drawing cartoons and drinking beer, and then complain about not making money. Most of us have to work in somewhat less-free conditions. And of course I realize that I am in a privileged position just being employed and insured and all. But it gets a little difficult to resist the urge to write, "get a job, hippy."
Well, I don't spend my days drinking beer - that part was a joke. And I make rent and bills by doing paid work, not free work for "exposure" which is something writers and artists are asked to do more and more.
I do have it great in many ways, of course, since I do what I love. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I also work seven days a week and have no benefits or health insurance.
@John, who said, "Most of us have to work in somewhat less-free conditions."
Have to?
I work in a small-corporation environment, and have fair health insurance and benefits, but I also recognize that I am trading some of my freedom of expression, etc. for that security. Not the way I want the world to work, but it tends to work that way. But I don't *have* to. Even if I had a partner and kids, I wouldn't have to--it's a matter of what I will and won't give up. Bors gives up stuff like health care to do what he loves--he shouldn't have to do that, but he does. You could do the same, but you'd have to give up a lot to do it.
Matt: I recognize the value of your work and think you should be compensated. Of course, of course.
Jeff: You don't know anything about me or what I HAVE to do in my life. So perhaps you should try to be somewhat less presumptious.
@John: You crack me up. You should leave that lawyer-ing/writing job, as it's making you bitter, and neither your wife nor your kids need corporate money more than they need you to be not-bitter. And that has nothing to do with what I know about you--it's pretty much a universal truth.
Jeff. You really need to think a minute before telling me what to do. I assume you are 23 years old, right? Because you act like have no idea what kind of choices people need to make when they have responsibilities to other people. It's easy for you to be smug, especially when you are just out of college and only have your own selfish self to think about. I realize that you are assuming I'm some kind of rich lawyer and therefore it is okay to be an asshole to me. That's fine, although wrong. Your "crack me up" is really uncalled for and rude, and I am trying not to respond in kind. I hope you eventually get the life experience necessary to see how misguided it is to give uninformed personal advice to strangers.
Oh, John. I hope you appreciate the irony of telling me that I "know nothing" about you and your life whilst you create a nice little story about my age (you're way off, btw). And: Claims of rudeness, in this case, are a bit dodgy, coming off of your original "get a job, hippie," comment, which assumed that being a cartoonist really is sitting around drinking beer and the like. You're projecting like only a bitter artist who traded his desire to be an artist for a corporate gig can do, perhaps.
And that's my point. These relationships that are tying you down so much? Wife? Kids? You chose 'em. At some point you recognized, "Hey, it will be a lot harder (though not impossible) to be a professional musician and yet have kids, but I want kids, so I'll sacrifice some of what I want professionally so that I can have 'em." (Not sure how having a wife means you have to have a job you're unhappy with--unless you're living in the 50s.) More succinctly: Your wife and kids? Your choice. So whining about "having to" work a corporate gig is misleading and disingenuous.
Not to mention that there are musicians with families that don't work corporate gigs. They may not have the standard of living you do, of course. That's a choice. It's a shitty choice, I admit--I want to live in a world where musicians make more money than lawyers. But I also recognize that I don't live in that world, and choose accordingly.
Also: I don't typically "give personal advice to strangers"--did you remember that you posted a comment on a public blog chastising a guy I assume you don't know (since you were wrong about how he does his work)? If giving personal advice to strangers is such a morally dubious thing for you, I suggest you don't do it.
Guys, I think this is a big misunderstanding. I'm sure you can work out your differences. Matt, I think an Obama-style beer summit is in order. As contributors to your blog, I'd say these guys are due a bit of your beer advance anyway, maybe even some of your beer royalties, should those ever materialize.
Thank you for this. I am almost amazes at the number of big time writers who now do so much for free. It makes me feel like there's no way that me, a small time writer, will ever see a dime for my blood, sweat, and tears.
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