Comments on: Welcome to The Matrix: You Work for FREE & There IS No Payday

By: Kristen Lamb

Kristen Lamb — Mon, 14 May 2018 12:36:42 +0000

In reply to Thomas Murphy. Most of any generation isn't in the 'genius' category. But the largest group of millionaires are coming out of this generation, so us older folks, if we were as creative and savvy, should be at least rivaling them at least in this area. But too many writers in older generations are busy writing for free/exposure for Huffington and other MEGA MEDIA brands.

By: Thomas Murphy

Thomas Murphy — Sun, 13 May 2018 11:50:05 +0000

As someone who is much, much, much older than a millennial, I’m here to tell you that I knew all of this stuff years ago and have been working around it over the last couple of years with my partner.

Personal experience of millennials suggests to me that most of them are not as smart as you credit them with being. They really, really aren’t.

You make good points – but it really isn’t news to a lot of us older folk.

By: Mike Lawrence

Mike Lawrence — Mon, 30 Oct 2017 23:17:00 +0000

It’s kind of like the “green” thing. I remember the first time I saw one of those cards that said Big Hotel wanted to save the planet by not washing my bedding. Yeah, I put that card on the pillow and wrote on it in black ink: “Wash my $&#^@*&=* sheets.” Save the planet, give me a break. Kind of like how printing my bank statements with my paper and ink instead of the bank’s will somehow cure global warming. (Remember global warming?)

You are dead on with this admonition to writers to quit enslaving their work at the behest of people who are experts at OPM. They’re so good at it, they even do it to their customers!

The problem is our attraction to the notion of fame. Let me tell you, when you drive a truck, you don’t worry about being the best, well-known and famous trucker. Nope. You worry about getting paid that hour and half you waited in the dock while they loaded your truck with bundles of aluminum cans.

What do writers and truck drivers have in common? They both work hard to provide a valuable service. Oddly enough, it’s the truck driver who has a higher expectation of being paid. “But if you give me 2500 miles this week, we’ll write an article about it in the company prospectus. We’ll even pay for the fuel. Hell, we’ll even you sleep in the truck.” Um. No. Pay me my 42 cents per mile.

If we step out of the vapor cloud of methamphetafame, we may realize that working for free really isn’t a plan.

Oh, but wait, I’m doing it right now! By golly, I want sexy gun-totin’ Texas Girl to notice me, wink at me and give me that GenX fist bump. But we’re friends on FB, so it’s OK. Sometimes we really are just talking among friends.

But the rest of the time, yeah, we should probably put it behind a paywall and put a price tag on it. Just ask any screenwriter.

By: The Difference between Building Your Brand and Being Hustled #writerslife #IWSG | Ronel the Mythmaker

Sun, 29 Oct 2017 08:48:25 +0000

[…] first was “Welcome to The Matrix: You Work for FREE & There IS No Payday”. In this post she tells you exactly how the matrix creatives find themselves in works. She […]

By: Link-a-bet Soup – Amy Laurens

Link-a-bet Soup – Amy Laurens — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 00:00:13 +0000

[…] Welcome to The Matrix: You Work for FREE & There IS No Payday – For writers, the first in a series of posts about why working for ‘exposure’ is madness, unless you’re in control of said exposure. Some nuggets in here even for people who think they already have a handle on the concept of exposure. […]

By: Writing EXPOSURE-Gamble or Grift? - Kristen Lamb

Writing EXPOSURE-Gamble or Grift? - Kristen Lamb — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 15:25:28 +0000

[…] twitch. For over a decade, many writers have been killing themselves (and their careers) believing a lie, an illusion, and a flat out SCAM. Countless writers have been giving their best to launch their brand and their career, trusting […]

By: Pay the WRITER 2—Out-Hustle the Hustlers – Kristen Lamb

Pay the WRITER 2—Out-Hustle the Hustlers – Kristen Lamb — Mon, 16 Oct 2017 20:56:44 +0000

[…] That’s what I hopefully did in my post Welcome to the Matrix—You Work for Free and there IS NO Payday. […]

By: Barbara Meyers

Barbara Meyers — Sun, 15 Oct 2017 16:13:17 +0000

Thanks for this. I’ve never believed in giving away my work for free.

By: H Jensen

H Jensen — Sat, 14 Oct 2017 15:56:45 +0000

In reply to Kristen Lamb. Thank you, Kirsten! I've been yelling about this since the demise of Web.1, and trying to get people to realize how amazing the Millennials really are for almost that long...

By: Dominique

Dominique — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 18:48:33 +0000

Kristen!!!! Aka the writer version of Morpheus! My legs are wobbly and you totally just blew my mind…and this helped me find CLARITY on what I should spend my online writing time on. I was ensnared in the idea of writing for the MEGA’s (think about how every person teaching people to blog says to grow the secret is to “guest post” on other people’s blogs, with of course a gig like Huffington being the ultimate, and then you focus on that so much you stop posting on you’re own blog!!) But, now I realize that’s a waste of time and I need to drop the write for ME not for FREE!!!!! On my blog, not someone else’s. Thank you for the red pill!