Pay For The Writing You Read
As I try to become a writer I pause to think about how I consume and pay for the writing I enjoy
I've been thinking a lot lately about what I pay for the media I consume, especially what I don't pay, and while I have thought about all media in general, I'm especially thinking about the writing I read, and I think about it even more often, and more deeply, as I learn about how writers get paid today and when I wonder how I too, might get paid as a writer.
I remember in college one time at a party having a discussion about the ethics of pirating music online. One woman said it was the same as stealing and in response I conjured my techie and hacker ethos, something which used to be very central to me: I pointed out that copying or downloading music files from someone wasn't the same as stealing something physical like a car, because if I copy files, the person I copied them from still has their copy but if I steal someone's car, they no longer have a car. My roommate who had previously expressed an interest in becoming a lawyer appreciated this point. It was a not so subtle distinction that the woman's moral self-righteousness didn't allow for and it compelled me at the time and still compels me to this day.
But today as I look around at how the digital world has seemingly muddied the waters in discerning the value of creative output - with physical copies no longer required for the transfer of written words, or music, or video - I wonder how I ever let the idea that I wasn't stealing something provide comfort to me in enjoying something without reciprocating monetarily, or in any way whatsoever. I provided no money, I provided no thanks, I just consumed and moved on.
There was a time within my life where if you wanted to enjoy some media, of any form, you had to pay for it, or someone had to pay for it. Today, well, I don't need to finish this sentence the way I started it because the Internet has been written about before in this way and surely you are tired of reading that. But what I hadn't considered before I considered being a writer is how much value I get out of the writing I read, how often I read, and how infrequently I provide anything in return for the value that is now so easily shared with the world.
Just because writing or music or video isn't printed, pressed or magnetized onto something doesn't mean it isn't just as valuable. It was never valuable because of the medium, it was only valuable because of the content, because of the message.
I don't mean to suggest I never paid for any media. I did and I do, but certainly not to the degree that I enjoy it, or to the degree that I get value from it. It's this recognition that gives me pause, and I hope my little story here can give you pause too about how you enjoy and reciprocate in your enjoyment of media.
