Harlan Ellison is sci-fi/fantasy writer who penned scripts for everything from the original Star Trek to Babylon 5. I wasn't familiar with him until I saw this...
Wow. Although he's talking about this in the context of writers, his message applies to artists/creators of all kinds. Creative services are incredibly undervalued in the world of business and hungry amateurs on the bottom rung of the ladder of success are always willing to undercut price (and quality) if they smell an opportunity to put a notch in their resume.
I'll admit I've done some work for free over the years, especially early on, but there is a limit to where that makes good sense, and when those opportunities are hurting the trade as a whole. (I was writing album reviews of undiscovered bands for a regional music website, hardly an area where more experienced writers would tread, and the bands were glad to have some press.) But a few weeks ago, while talking with a book publisher in Florida about doing editing and re-writes on two books they were about to release, the price they quoted me for reworking 40,000+ words was so ridiculous that I had to immediately pass. They barely shrugged, confident that they could find someone to do the work—but unphased by the fact that their rates were what had gotten them bad writing to begin with...which is why they now needed someone to clean up the mess.
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