I saw a great post yesterday over at Freelance Writing Jobs: Harlan Ellison: Pay the Writer. This caught my attention because just recently I was having an on-line discussion with some fellow professional crafters about the topic of payment, or lack there of at times.

In this video of writer Harlan Ellison (WARNING: He has a potty mouth, so if you have kids in the room, turn down the volume), he talks about how everyone wants a writer to work for free. This is over at YouTube, so I’ve loaded it here (further down on this post), but make sure you also go over and read some of the excellent comments on Deb’s post as well, and in fact, if you are a writer/crafter, you may also find other great info (like job postings) on her blog.

I do agree with a lot of what Ellison says. Very often, other people devalue the work writers do (everyone thinks he/she can write, right?), and this is true with craft designers as well. Now we aren’t all as famous as Ellison and with craft designing, sometimes monetary gain is achieved in other ways. Maybe you have a new book, a kit, crafty gizmo, etc. that you want to promote. An unpaid article or excerpt in a magazine is helpful for promoting it. Maybe you are a total novice with zero credits on your crafting resume. A few of your pieces in a well-known beading magazine’s gallery section is a way to get your toe in the door. Maybe you are working on branding yourself more. A page or two in the gallery section of another well-known crafter’s new book is a good way to expand your branding efforts.

Once you get to a certain stage in your craft career, however, there comes a time when possible jobs will come up that you will need to think twice or three times about. I really love what I do, teaching, designing, and writing. It’s all good. So, it can be really easy for me to think it is, well, really easy – That what I’m doing any other crafty princess with a glue-gun could also do. As a result, though, this only devalues my work to me and can to other people, like editors, if I’m not careful.

I’m not saying that I have to get paid for every little thing I do, but most of it, yes, I do need to get paid and paid a decent amount of money. And, I need to have some control over my content as far as copyright. Without the people crafting the projects for the magazines, books, and web sites, there would be no content for publishers to publish in the first place. While, sure, there are a lot of novice designers doing it for peanuts, I think you get what you pay for in the end. If you want inexperienced designers/writers who need a lot of hand-holding, bring no established audience to your publication, and who may or may not make the deadline, then paying them minimum wage is the way to go. But, if you want quality content from a recognized name by a professional who will deliver, then that will cost you.

Edit: I’d like to add here, that I am not saying this to dismiss the work of new designers but to point out that those who have been around for awhile have experienced that is worth something. They have proven themselves.

Okay, I’m coming off my soap box for a little while. Now here is Mr. Ellison to lay it on the line. Remember, I warned you about his language:

You know – I almost didn’t write about this topic because I don’t want to alienate anyone who I have worked for already or might some day, so I hope no one in the industry takes this the wrong way. I realize there may be reasons/issues I know nothing about that may dictate the amount of payment offered for certain jobs. I also really respect the editors and publishers I’ve worked with and some I haven’t had the chance to work with yet but just know “through the grapevine.” Like I said, I love this kind of work, and some of that is because of the great people I’ve worked with. But, I know I am not the only designer/writer out here in the craft world who feels she/he deserves a fair deal when it comes to compensation and ownership of our work. When I viewed this video, I just couldn’t help but say “Amen” to much of what he said.