I met a freelance writer tonight, a nice enough woman (can you see I'm setting her up for a fall? LOL you know me too well).
She said she had a flickr account, and I said I did too, then I asked her if she blogged.
She responded in a tone that made it sound like I had asked her if she was the one wiping her butt on the bathroom towels.
"No," she said. "I feel like it is giving my work away for free."
"But," I pointed out, "You don't have an editor to bother you. You can write anything you want. And you can use terrible English if you want to."
Her expression made it clear that flaunting your poor grammar skills in public pixeland was not something she wanted to take part in. Or was not even something in which she wished to take part.
Yeah, I give away my "work" for free. But if you can find me an editor who is willing to pay me for putting up pictures of rotten cantalopes, I will take you to the magic ticket window where free Lakers floor seats are being handed out.
And anyway, the real payoff from blogging, for me at least, is not in money but relationships. Not to get all googy, but you, dear readers, enrich my life in so many ways.
You give me my best laughs and my best compliments. You give me something to look forward to and something to look back upon. You teach me geography, sociology, medicine. You point me to great books, articles, movies and music. The things you point me to make me seem a lot cooler than I really am.
And sometimes, like yesterday when Belgian Waffle said she felt like she was never going to laugh again, but then got a chuckle out of my rotten cantalope, you let me know that I do for you what you do for me.
Oh, I gotta stop. I'm about to break into that "Circle of Life" song, and no one wants that. Aiiiiitibwaaaaaynaaaaa!
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23 comments:
hey you want some of my work? I am having a fire sale...
Here. Here.
I get so many great recommendations.
You sure do look good today.
Yes. Totally agreed. Advice on how to get eye drops in a pissed off child, what to feed whippets, what to do with the wrench holding the shower together, presents, reassurance that others are as fucked up as me, confidences, and sooooo many laughs.
I might laugh again if we could see you performing circle of life yourself. Maybe accompanied by some rotting produce.
That's an interesting perspective that woman had, but I agree with you...I never consider it "giving away my work for free". It's about the connections for me. :)
I consider blogging separate from my "work" (if I ever get around to writing something of merit, I mean). Blogging is all about friends... keeping them updated on me, and making new friends.
I heart blogging, even if it is giving it away. :)
I can't even imagine having that view.. of "giving it away free".
Ugh!
I did laugh at the rotten cantaloupe. :)
~*
Jeeesh... thank goodness everything isn't about work! I would be happy just to have a few comments every time I post, much less get paid for it!
oh oh! I had a similar experience. Well sort of. I made the mistake of telling someone about my own blog and she said in a snarky tone,"Oh gawd, once you hvae kids, you know you won't have time for silly things like that." I wanted to just slap her.
I know it's a different 'product' but sometimes, as you stated, there's a benefit to giving your work away for free.
I'm a convention & event planner which is code for "I'm never going to be rich" There are dozens of causes I believe in, but I've never had the money to be able to contribute any sort of money to make me feel like I've done something. Back in 2000 I started volunteering to produce the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Chicago gala dinner. Over the years I have (and I do keep track of this stuff) saved them over $750,000 in contract negotiations, saved over $200,000 in event planning expenses and through my convention industry contacts, brought in silent auction prizes that have sold for over a total of $25,000. SO, giving my work away for free has given/saved over $1M in 8 years.
You give it away all you want SueBob and shrink as many cantelopees that you want!
and then flick a bugger on her if you see her again!
Amen honey. I don't even want to pimp my blog with ads, because I don't want it to become about the money.
It's about *this*.
Everytime I say the word "blog" around here, I am met with hostility. Either people have no idea what a blog actually IS and just equate it with something only teens do (which is funny, since teens are NOT the main blogging demographic), or they say something like, "Oh, I DON'T blog!" like "Oh, I DON'T smoke crack!"
It's so provincial here I can barely stand it.
Funny how people are so quick to judge something that know so little about...erm, about which they know so little.
So I give it away! What, am I gonna run out?!
Pearl
huh. suddenly i flashed back to that lovely parental lecture on not giving the milk away for free 'cause you'll never sell the cow that way, which confused the hell out of me 'cause we didn't even have chickens, much less cows and we'd never sold any livestock... which may explain why i'm still single, and still have no cows, and don't drink milk. or not.
I think of blogging as a community building experience. GIVING it away? That woman's missing out on something special.
Great, All you brilliant bloggers respond with intelligent reflections on blogdom while I actually watched the Circle of Life video. But oh the revelation...
Now I know what Michael Jackson was trying to do when he held his baby off the balcony. Only he's not a baboon and there weren't crowds of adoring and choreographed wild animals in waiting... or?
You had me until Circle of Life. Aargh!!!
Although maybe if you sang it for us ....
It's all about the connections for me too! IRL, we never would have met. I love having stranger all over the world knowing all of my deepest, darkest secrets! It really is fun! LOL!!
On a serious note, your blog was one of my first favorites when I started and it still is on of my favorites! Loved hearing from you!
Sleep well!
Hugs!!
Right on! I'm really behind on reading blogs while I adjust to my job, and I am missing you (and everyone else) so much. Blogs are vital.
Oh, and the worst snobs in my MFA programs are the ones that react like I just put rat poison in their coffee when they hear me talking about blogging, so that just shows how awesome blogging is. Hurray, democracy!
How sad it would be if once I had made a quilt for money, which I have done, I decided not to make any quilts for my own enjoyment or to enrich the lives of others - because that would be "giving my work away for free."
Awww, you complete me too.
I also love the community and the things I learn from everyone I meet.
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