CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

On Saturday, I found David Gaughran on Twitter, and I followed him, and he voiced a bunch of things that concern me – and that should concern every writer. And David is not alone. He’s not barking mad. He’s not some starry-eyed idealist. He just cares. He cares that new authors are coming into an industry that does not have their best interests at heart, an industry that will squeeze that author for every drop of profit, and then not care if they can pay their bills or not. But that’s the way things are. DavidGaughran is not alone. Joe Konrath , Kristine Kathryn Rusch , and Dean WesleySmith are among a host of established authors who are writing about the rights and wrongs of the industry, who warn of agents who represent their own interests and not the author’s, who warn of publishing companies – and we are talking respected publishing companies, who used to at least appear to look after their writers, not just a fly-by-night scammers; no, we are talking established pillar...

So, some dude at Huffington Post believes that pieces written for free are more authentic than those written for money - and so he is very proud that Huffington Post does not pay its writers . Needless to say, this has created a bit of a furor from a whole stack of writers... but it's something that's been going on for a while, now - this whole not-paying or not-paying-a-fair-rate to writers, so all I can say is it's about time. Mind you, this attitide isn't confined to the editor-in-chief - yes, that was the 'some dude' - it's also held by at least one staffer holding a salaried position, who believes that writing for free means that, as a writer, you don't have daily hours, deadlines, or need to work on weekends and that the 'exposure' is worth doing something for nothing. Both these guys delicately avoid the point that they make money off the content they provide, including any content they seek to be allowed to use from other bloggers...

I don’t usually write posts like this, but there’s been this debate raging over the Hugos, the manipulation of how entries are voted in (not illegal, and not really out of the spirit or somesuch), the valuations placed on literary over entertainment works, on those written by the young, the gendered or transgendered, the white or the not-white, the female or the male or the whatever—and it’s gotten a lot of people, writers and non-writers, all bent out of shape. To be honest, I don’t know how to feel about it, but it is having an adverse effect on some writers, who find it diminishes the enjoyment they have in their craft, and that actually does bother me. So, it got me thinking—why do I only feel sad? Why am I not outraged? Why don’t I want to get an opinion out there and defend it to the max? Why am I afraid at the thought of being nominated as opposed to never being nominated? And I realised that it’s because awards are nice, and amazing and all that, but that they’re not worth...