Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Quite a lot of people have a pension, Hitch.
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Harry:
Of course. I should have said that I recognized it as a fact. But there are many of us--
many--who have either switched gigs, or been self-employed through necessity (since the penultimate big bank crash in '89) who have bupkus for a pension. Or, as soulfuldog posted, a pension that is near-meaningless.
That wasn't really my point; it was the...I can't explain it. I'm as big a proponent of authors being paid as exists, as everyone here who has seen my posts on the topic knows. I'm a strong believer in the capitalistic approach toward publishing, whether Indie or Trade. I don't have biases against publishers as "evil" and "greedy," because I've been in business for far too many years, and I have a crisp understanding of what it takes to run a business.
BUT. I guess my "but" is that many of us aren't doing what we LOVE for a living. I'm certainly not. Most people don't. And we slog along. I've always thought that authors (in the more traditional, legacy-pubbed sense, looking at it from my own frame of reference) were extraordinarily lucky; they got to earn their living doing something that they loved. Unlike MANY of us. But at the end of the day, that means that they are self-employed. And like all the rest of us who are self-employed, or run small businesses, the market dictates. It changes. It goes up and down.
So...maybe my reaction is because they are blessed enough to do what they love. I am not discounting the work, or saying that writing isn't "real work;" of course it is. But if you are fortunate enough to be able to do what you love, then...man. Enough. I can't clearly explain why that whole piece got under my skin as it did.
Hitch