You’re not doing it for the money, but you’re making it impossible for me to earn a living.
I wrote “I’m a Freelance Writer. I Refuse to Work for Free.” for Vox.
Excerpts:
But I also feel we’re in the middle of a vast, arid landscape, dotted here and there with tiny little patches of grass and flowers, illusory mirages that convey a false sense of what publishing and writing really should mean. For me, it’s just as important that we start thinking about and interrogating the structural systems of power that are part of the publishing world. Doing that means resisting the mindset of too many writers, who would have us believe that writing is magic and that they are all special snowflakes.
What I want instead is to bring back the idea of writing as something that has a muscularity and a will to bring about a different world. And if we are to do that, we need to understand it as both work and labor, and not pretend that to ask for payment is to be ungrateful about our place as writers.
You can read the rest here. Contact me if you need a pdf.