Don't Pimp Yourself

NYTimes Article by Tim Kreider today is an important reminder to writers and artists to not work for free. "Slaves of the Internet, Unite! in the Sunday Review section.

Kreider laments how often he gets ask to write, create, and perform for free. Common, but when he mentioned the Huffington Post, i was really pissed. This publication makes millions in profits, enough money to pay its writers but chooses not to, so I choose not to read the HP, especially when they can't even recognize their own hypocrisy when they chastise fast food corporations for not paying a living wage to their workers. HA HA HA HA HA.

I agree wholeheartedly with Tim albeit that I have submitted my work for publication for free: this year I am published in Grisly Shorts, and in the forthcoming "Ultra Short Memoir" and a 20 year anniversary issue of poets from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Since I was the first runner up (to winner Paul Beatty) in 1990 in the very first Grand Poetry Slam I was happy to be invited to be included in the publication. For that I will publish my poem/song "Lose the Day, The Rose Bordello Song". I wrote it when I was living in New Zealand after my partner told me that going to a prostitute in his country didn't count as a betrayal because it was legal there. He had a five year old son at the time and I asked him  how he would feel if he ended up in the brothel and  unbeknownst had sex with  his daughter.

But I digress, as words lead me away from the point, as they always do, I wrote a response to the NYT article, impulsively, unable to stop my disdain for corporate greed:

Great! But sorry you didn't mention how writers are now expected to pay submission fees to have their work considered by literary magazines. A quick look this morning shows fees at some literary publications at $22 per story, poem, etc., which also publish on the internet. Some use a submission app for which you have to pay to submit! Shame on the Huffington Post, the queen, that says let them eat cake. Will she also require a fee to submit? She's probably wondering how she can get in on that action. Artists need to keep their integrity. Don't work for free and don't pimp yourself in social media.

Well! this posting is all over the place. How many times can I say I hate FB? I guess there is no end. Especially since the radiator is cold for the seventh day in a row and I waited for the three maintenance guys to return to fix it. Instead they argued about the source of the problem. I'm still waiting.