Taxes, Dues, and Money

Just finished filing my taxes for 2012. I use TurboTax, so it's fairly easy, except for putting in the information. I also discovered I reviewed fewer books last year than in previous years, but I pretty much knew that. So few that I don't even warrant a 1099 for last year. That is disheartening and a little bit nice. It's not that I like reviewing fewer books. I certainly miss the money; however, I do like having time to read books I want to read rather than have to read to review. After 10 years this August of reviewing for Authorlink, I am disappointed that I don't rate the kinds of books I request to read. The newer, lower paid, reviewers often get what I've chosen from the list, and I think I should have first choice since I am the senior reviewer. Guess not. Money rules even in reviewing.

Speaking of reviewing, I was asked by the owner and managing editor of The Celebrity Cafe if I would take on reviewing CDs and books for them. I seldom listen to music, although that is changing, and don't feel qualified to review new music. I did explain that I wouldn't mind helping out with book reviews if he'd like to send me the list for me to choose from, and then I quoted the price I get for reviewing books from Authorlink. I haven't heard another word since then.

It isn't that I don't appreciate the extra attention from writing for their site, but as a professional I do expect to be paid, especially when the online entertainment magazine is getting all kinds of advertising and the regular staff is paid, and when they even pay interns $500 a month. I should be paid. I'm not some teenager or twenty-something wannabe writer anxious to write for anyone for free just for the experience. I have tons of experience, but I still cannot support myself on writing alone. To borrow a quote, This writer cannot live on exposure and experience alone. My creditors expect real dollars for their goods and services and I'd be out from under this brand new roof it took me 4 years to get in a heartbeat if I paid the rent with anything less than legal tender. I mean, really.

Any going concern lauded for their look, style, and publication that gets paid by advertisers and pays their regular staff can certainly pay me for my contributions, especially when they beg and plead for me to write for them all the time. I have a full time job, a review gig, a writing business, and my own projects I like to get done from time to time, not to mention a house to maintain and a mail carrier to fight with. I don't have the time. It's not like I toss off an article in 15 minutes; I research, write, edit, and add all kinds of little doodads and videos and links, and that takes time.

For instance, I wrote a top ten list of what people were Googling most in 2012, complete with doodads, videos, research, and links. The whole article took about 4 hours of my precious time. I enjoyed doing it and it was in response to a request from one of the paid editors to help fill their pages after the first of the year. They didn't pay me and the article went live after some adjustments on their end (they didn't tell me all they wanted me to do with it) and they benefited from the article since it was the most read piece in the whole magazine during that week. They benefited with advertising dollars, but I didn't benefit from anything by the byline. No pay. No thank you. No nothing -- unless you count them coming back and asking for more. Considering what I put into that article, I don't think so, especially not with everything already on my plate.

Oh, well, c'est la vie -- or in actuality -- telle est la vie d'écriture (such is the life of a writer).

The thing about writing is that there are so many amateurs and wannabes and hacks out there begging to be read that editors and owners of magazines, newspapers, etc. who need content will take advantage of anyone -- often without their permission -- and never pay the writers. That's fine for a kid still being supported by their parents or wannabe and amateur writers willing to work for free to get the experience, but I'm no amateur, wannabe, or hack, and I'm certainly not that anxious for exposure without being paid. I expect to get paid. I've paid my dues, now pay me, especially when you benefit from my hard work and experience. Quid pro quo -- or in more common terms -- Where's my money? Even the garbage man gets paid.

It's one thing to be inched out by lower paid writers at a business that I have worked for since 2003 and another to be used and abused while making money from my toil. I have begun to believe the way Harlan Ellison believes. A writer should be paid. I am a professional writer and I'm tired of editors begging me to write for them for the experience and exposure. At 57 years of age, I have experience and I've been exposed sufficiently for a while.

Well, I didn't mean to turn this into a rant, but it has turned out that way. When writers work for free they undermine the bedrock upon which we all stand. Write for free for magazines that have advertisers and circulation and cost money to get and you undercut the professional writer who expects to be paid for their work. The editors will dress up your words and make them look professional, but you still won't get paid, and you less the chance of professional writers who would have been paid.

Writing for free is the equivalent of corporations and businesses outsourcing jobs, and writing is a job. People who were willing to work for free or break through picket lines are called scabs by unions, and I can't say they're wrong. I understand that people will do anything for virtually nothing if they're hungry and desperate enough, and they don't care about the people who should be paid for their work -- or at least were being paid until management decided to walk away from negotiation tables. Still, I'm not asking for time and a half, cheap health insurance, more vacation and holidays, or even a chicken in my new crockpot. I'm asking for what I deserve and have worked for most of my life -- to be paid for my work. Four hours in the life of a working writer with a full time job (actually 2 full time jobs when you count writing novels), is a lot of time and should be compensated. Honestly, I don't know how The Huffington Post gets away with getting professionals to write for free while Ariana Huffington rakes in the bucks. Something is definitely rotten in Denmark -- and here in America when working professionals cannot get paid.

Well, some working professionals do get paid. Prostitutes always get the money up front.

The Entitlement Perspective

Lately, I've been reading, and commenting, on posts about paid reviews. This seems to be a sore spot with most amateur writers, and maybe even some professional writers. Writers will gratefully and happily, albeit with a wince, depending on their financial situation, pay for editing, critiquing, publishing, book tour travel accommodations and charges, meals with their agent and even publishing, but they don't want to pay for reviews, believing it somehow makes the review suspect. The idea being that, if a review is paid for, it must be a ringer and the reviewer is paid to lie -- or at least fudge the review -- making the book sound better than it is. Not so.

I've been a professional (read: paid) reviewer for nearly eight years, not that I can make my rent payments on what I earn, but it comes close some months when I churn out a dozen reviews. I do not know the arrangement Authorlink has with authors requesting reviews, but I do get paid, and I get more than twice what I made starting out eight years ago. Do I give the authors unqualified rave reviews? Not on your tin type. I write balanced and honest reviews -- from my perspective -- and I don't play nice. I play fair and I'm civil, although with a rare snark with major typos and grammatical errors in a traditionally published book that do tend to rub me the wrong way. I mention them in one sentence without enumerating all the wrongs they have done to the printed word, but I'll write about my favorites (the worst examples) in another post. This post is about payment for services rendered, to whit: one book review.

Because there are so many free sites on the Internet, and because many writers starting out, and quite a few who are wealthy best sellers, are basically frugal (I did not say 'cheap'), they see reviews as a sideline that has nothing to do with the dollars and cents (and sense) necessary to get a professional writing career off the ground and keep it flying high. Reviews are important, but who buys a book based on reviews when there are so many other criteria for choosing (writer is a jerk, great advertising campaign, personal friend, relative, employee of writer, and, sometimes, if the author writes the kind of books you enjoy). There are always the bad boys and girls of publishing whose books sell because of the vicarious thrill of buying a bad boy or girl's books, and the burning curiosity to find out if they wrote about their misadventures and nefarious exploits.

Not true.

Okay, some of that is true, mostly about writers being cheap and thinking reviews are not nearly as important as a good editor or professional critique. And there is the rub, the one word that sets a reviewer apart from a reader, the word "professional." And that, my constant reader, is why reviewers shoud be paid. They have mouths to feed and bills to pay and they like to go out to dinner, the theater, or on the occasional vacation once a year.

Book reviewing is a business and businesses run on income, that income, in the reviewer's case, derived from the business of reading and reviewing books. It is an exchange of services. The author writes a book and contracts a professional reviewer to read and write their opinion on said book. This is called a contract and, like most contracts, is sealed with a handshake (often virtual) and an agreement for payment. You wouldn't buy a house and expect the banker to give you the house on your handshake, free and clear, without expecting some money in return. Neither should a reviewer.

"But," say authors, "the reviewer gets a free book worth money. Isn't that payment enough?"

If you've had to unload as many books as I have, you wouldn't see that as payment. I give them away and often donate them to libraries and Goodwill or the Volunteers of America. As far as I am concerned, most of the books I read and review are all right in the main, but not the kind of books I usually keep in my library. I reserve that limited shelf space for authors I follow and collect, although admittedly some authors I've found by having to review their work. That does not mean I don't expect my boss to forget to pay me. I expect payment as part of my contract with Authorlink as an employee.

Does that mean I give everyone a rave review? Not at all. In fact, I lost a friend over one of my reviews when I pointed out some of the problems, repetitions and mistakes in her book. I wasn't being vindictive, just writing what I thought of a book that was all right, but could have been much better. It's how I work.

Take a look at some of my reviews on The Celebrity Cafe or on Authorlink and you will see what I mean. I don't do nice. I don't do dressed up reviews. I don't smile when I have had to read utter crap and I do not ever sandbag my reviews. What I write is what I think and how I feel about the book. The author doesn't come into it at all, unless the book is one of a series I have followed and reviewed in the past, in which case I compare the character and writing to previous books. I am not above telling a writer, who may also be a good friend, that their book needs work and then go on to list the reasons why. Does that make my reviews suspect?

How about the reviews of Michiko Kakutani of the New York TImes or any of the professional reviewers in The New York Review of Books or Kirkus Reviews? Are their reviews suddenly suspect because you now know they are paid? What did you think they did up in their ivory towers, knit? The New York Times, NYRB, and Kirkus pay their employees to write reviews. That is their job. Like editors, book doctors, agents, publishers, and everyone else in the publishing business, or self-publishing business, book reviewers are professionals and should be paid for their services. They may do a book review as a favor for a friend, but you are taking up their time and expecting to make use of their expertise, so it is just business to pay them. Just because a reviewer doesn't work for a newspaper or a recognized review source doesn't mean they don't deserve your respect -- and your money. People work and people get paid. That is just business.

Good reviewers, like any good professional, are worth their weight in gold -- even when they say your book needs work or doesn't quite hit the mark. Not everyone will like every book you write, or even every book they read, but that is to be expected. Paying for a review is like paying someone to critique your work and put it in shape for publication. You may get a kudos and a pat on the back or you may get slammed. You pays for yo' ticket and you takes yo' chances. Nothing in life is guaranteed, as any published author will tell you. Don't ignore the contribution a professional makes to your success -- and that goes for reviewers, too.

You can get free reviews from several web sites, Goodreads, and Amazon, or from any reader at a hundred different book stores, but a professional review is far above what you get with the average reader. It is worth more in terms of proof that you did a good job and in terms of cost. If you want the best, you will have to pay the best. It's that simple.

While the readers count -- and they count a lot towards popularity of an author's work -- it is the professional review that lets you know you have arrived and all your hard work has paid off. A professional reviewer will also tell you where you went wrong and what could have been done better. So will some educated and opinionated readers. A professional review is in essence a mini-critique of your work. Don't get on the bad side of karma. If you want professional, pay for professional. If you want just anyone's opinion of your book, save your money and hope you can entice, cajole and motivate the average reader to write a review of your work that makes sense and highlights your book's good points.

You're entitled to the best; pay for it. Everything else is a crap shoot.