I had to laugh when someone reached out today with a writing gig that could only pay in exposure.
Buddy, I've been barely holding my life together on gigs that went from paying to nonpaying, unreliable classes, and seasons of high editing demand followed by crickets.
I'm freaking done with adding more uncertainty to life in a field that pays peanuts. At this point, I'm waiting out the next coronal mass ejection like any sane person, and looking forward to a better economy on the other side. 🙃
@MLClark They won't pay the writer, yet they'll gladly pocket any revenue they derive from your work's publication.
That was a lesson drummed into me by JMS, Harlan Ellison, and David Gerrold. Act like you're worth it.
I've been approached from time to time by people who wanted to compensate me with "exposure." I told them to eff off.
And then there were those who stole my blog content, but that's another story ... 🙄
@realDDGlover Ditto.
I will gladly play for free *if I have offered to do it* at a get together with friends or a charity event, but otherwise, you want me? You pay the same rate per hour as you'd pay a mechanic to fix your car or a plumber to fix your washer, because that's the equivalent skill and study to what I've done as a musician.
@stueytheround @realDDGlover @MLClark I'd probably charge less to perform than I do to work in my capacity as a power engineer, but that's just because if I screwed up as a musician it'd simply be unpleasant or boring... whereas if I screw up as a power engineer - well, depending on how bad the screwup is, things could go boom, people could die, and a lot of consequences would fall on my head.
Mind you when I say I'd charge less... my rate would still be a (very) far cry from free.
@realDDGlover @MLClark Yes, yes they do. And I hate it.
Of course, it's far worse for people who actually try to make a living off music/writing - I just do it as a hobby, because growing up seeing a lot of people struggle to make a living in the arts convinced me to do something else.
I swear all the "arts" fields tend to exploit the hell out of artists... and of course the businesspeople and corporations circle like vultures, preparing to snatch as much of the rights/proceeds as they can.
Yeah, we can only afford doing writing and music cuz of the day jobs. And we only have time cuz retired.
Sad how we treat our creatives.
The funny thing is that teaching was supposed to be my main job. But I couldn't keep paying the term fees for my PhD with my dissertation twice-drafted for a terrible committee, and that bumped me into teaching at colleges while barely hanging on via other part time jobs. Teaching abroad was supposed to help (& admittedly gave me a chance to pay off student debt), but then THAT company screwed me over big time. Writing kept me afloat when the mainstays fell apart.
But I'm not a fool. I never intended to be living in this mess of a fragile way, reliant on "the arts". It's not a life path I would ever, ever, ever recommend to others.
Getting hit on all sides.
Artists too.
I have a niece who is an award winning artist in LA who scrapes by teaching various places. She still has her debt from getting a Masters at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, a premiere school.
@realDDGlover @MLClark @IrelandTorin
Dancers too.
Not me, my nieces, two of whom are classically trained ballerinas.
The arts, man. They make life not suck but it's so hard to make a living sometimes!
Oof. I want to give your niece a big ol' hug.
We hustle how we have to.
I hope she still finds joy in some of her work!
Thanks. She has an amazingly positive attitude.
@realDDGlover @MLClark
Visual artists too. Nope.
@MLClark See, that's (a small) part of the reason I love having a fairly physical yet highly skilled job.
People don't generally ask you to work for free when your job is physical, because they instinctively/intuitively know that's not reasonable... while it's just as unreasonable to ask someone to work for free doing non-physical work, that doesn't generally occur to most people on an instinctive level the way it seems to with physical work. Probably some evolutionary quirk.
I'm deeply glad to know that you're not exploited in your labour.
That "highly skilled" component is key; there's a lot of screwing around with pay rates for apprenticeships in construction and electrical especially, and massive wage theft among so-called "unskilled" labour fields with large immigrant pools.
But if you've hit that sweet spot of being a respected skilled physical labourer, hot damn. That is fantastic. Long may you receive the compensation you're due. 👍🏻
@MLClark Thanks! I hope you find a way to do the things you love without being exploited yourself.
Yep - also 'unskilled' IME often means getting seen/treated as an entirely replaceable faceless drone; white collar often involves unreasonable expectations of being "always on", plus it's not great for one's health & nearly all white collar fields are fundamentally threatened by AI (seriously, f*** AI, that shit should basically be regulated out of existence for purely eco-econo-social reasons).
😅 Oh, you'll love this, then: the venture I was asked to contribute free labour to also *boasted* that all the art for the site would be AI only. GTFO with that nonsense.
Seriously, though: I know from your posts that there are still a lot of rough times on your end, so I'm genuinely super glad to hear that being asked to do work for less than your value isn't one of the challenges you currently face. I hope the others ease up soon! You deserve not to live with so much stress.
@MLClark Oh, that's a whole new level of messed up... It blows my mind that anyone would be *proud* of that. They had to have been totally tone deaf.
Well, I consider myself very fortunate; my life may be very lacking in a few areas, but compared to a lot of people I have it pretty good.
Honestly, the biggest thing would probably be finding a life partner because while I can bring in an income, cook, clean, &c... I'm *extremely* apathetic about doing anything that solely benefits me.
@MLClark And for what it's worth, thank you for your kind words; I appreciate them.
I bring some (okay maybe a lot) of the stress on myself, constantly thinking about major issues and whatnot - but a lot of that comes from isolation. Too much thinking and not enough living does weird things to people; some people go batty, & others just become... y'know, what I am.
Compared to a lot of people my difficulties are minor; I don't really have room to complain. There's only so much one can expect.
I brought a lot of stress on myself, too, when I lived in Canada. I was a "calculating venter"; I'd overshare all the problems I was working through, as a way of getting a handle on them & trying to rationalize my way through them.
Even outside that context, it took years to break the toxic habit.
When you live a cerebral life most of the time, it's super hard to imagine there might be other ways to work through stress. So you're doing the best you can. Be kind to yourself, eh?
@MLClark: Gotta love the exposure gigs.
@MLClark
Oh no. Nope. They need to pay you good cash money and lots of it. I am so sorry some imbecile had the nerve to say this to you. 😠 Glad you sent them packing.
The best part is that this is someone I worked with before, and who seemed so sorry at the time that the venture was reneging on its original promises. Now I understand that their "genuine" contrition and 35 cents would buy me a tinto.
Fool me once, shame on you, etc.!
That's not even a good deal for an exhibitionist, @MLClark 😉
In weird solidarity, I managed to catch a summer cold, or a bronchitis flare-up. Who knows?
Hope you're almost out of the woods.
Thanks, Root-rot!
Sorry to hear you're suffering too. Hope it passes quickly. I haven't been able to stay upright for more than an hour at a time all day, but I'm getting there.
I'm not in nearly that bad of shape, but it is annoying, @MLClark. Might even be a 72-hour allergy attack. We've had a conflux of air quality issues this week. 🤔
@MLClark Not sure why anyone would want the exposure that comes with customers who don't pay.
I don't particularly want to put out a sign that says "I work for free."
@MLClark hold it. I wonder if it was the same gig that gave Alma Alexander grief for giving him flak about not paying the author? She reposted it and some of us are suggesting that it be brought to the attention of Writer Beware.
No, this is a different, more personalized insult in another field of publishing. The person reaching out is someone I've worked with before, and who should know a lot better than to pull this nonsense again.
One of those "fool me once, fool me twice scenarios", alas.
But creative writing is full of such manipulation too! I always recommend sending along concerns to Writer Beware, to let them look into it properly. Better safe than sorry!
@MLClark sigh. Alas, I'm not surprised, unfortunately.
(@Graci, @Kaysymmetry: three-day-sick ML is apparently like an *angry* drunk. Maybe Day 4 is when I get silly again, and become an equestrian!)