Thank you for contacting me. If you are media, please call 847-344-3052 for an immediate response. Don’t send me material to read without asking first, and don’t tell me that it’s something that might be of interest to me. Your work will go straight into my trash/bin folder.
If you would like me to speak or write for you, in any kind of formal capacity (like at conferences or in publications) make sure you begin with what your rates are. This does not include media shows, including podcasts, or public appearances and panels where no one else is getting paid: I’m happy to appear on those for free.
Otherwise: I don’t work for free, for anyone (I turned down Harvard and Yale when they asked me to speak without pay). Starting in 2023, I will no longer write without an advance or an absolute guarantee of payment within two weeks of the final draft. For speaking or teaching engagements, I expect either an advance or a written guarantee of payment within two weeks. This policy is necessitated by the fragility of publishing today and the fact that universities and other places tend to be terrible at paying on time: even prestige-driven and well-funded enterprises like Astra magazine can’t last beyond three issues. As for universities: I’ve had to threaten wealthy institutions like DePaul with legal action in order to get paid for even the smallest amounts (“small” for them, not for me).
I’m always happy to blurb books (without pay, of course) but I will need at least two months’ notice and an absolute guarantee of a hard copy of the publication once it’s published. Don’t be rude: blurbing is hard work and unlike certain Very Famous People whose blurbs appear everywhere, I do actually read the books.
In all your communications, approach me with the same courtesy you would offer any white man. Pretend I’m Noam Chomsky.