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PAY ME THE MONEY
Writer-Shaming — Who the Heck Decided We Should Write for Free?
It certainly wasn’t any kind of creative worker
In a world saturated with mobile devices and content, why is it that creative work is increasingly perceived as unworthy of compensation?
The installed base of mobile PCs (laptops, tablets) in the US alone is about 356 million units. There are an estimated 310M smartphones. And that is the root of my story about why a growing number of people perceive writing and creative work as unworthy of compensation. Selling your creative product is becoming shameful — akin to the typical reaction to begging in the streets. But why?
How do I know a growing number of people think creative earnings are shameful?
Cruise the internet. Read print publications. You’ll find books, articles, social media dreck, and all manner of material ranting about why attaching the idea of filthy lucre to a creative product is annoying at best and disgraceful to the soul of art at worst.
Hang out at the myriad of writing platforms available these days and you’ll see users commenting that writers are disgracing their art by using a paywall, a tip jar, or a subscription model to con…
