Artists, Unite!

In a useful article, writer Tim Kreider, author of We Learn Nothing, tells about his experience with people and organizations who want him to write for free. Despite having written a book and numerous articles for magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, Kreider still gets requests to write "for exposure." Kreider's experience is similar to my own, though I have been fortunate to get steady work as a musician over the years. Still, the pay has never been exactly wonderful. One of my worst enemies are people with sub-par training who are willing to work for $10, or even for free. Like so many workers these days artists are usually not unionized. Their solitary status thus puts them at a decided disadvantage. Kreider describes all this very well. And, his article includes truth-telling about Wall Street, very uncommon in the mainstream press these days. Highly recommended. Source: New York Times Sunday Review. "Slaves of the Internet, Unite!" October 27, 2013.