The Writer Is Worthy Of His Hire

I read an interesting article today titled, "Pay the writer." It had this theme, "Writing has become almost slave labor, with companies offering pennies for large scale jobs. Know what you are worth and how to get writing jobs that will pay off."
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Billy Ritchie explains in his article, "I actually get paid to sit and be creative and write all day, which according to Stephen King, is 'an agreeable thing to be able to do'."
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But truth is, Ritchie isn't so agreeable to the pay some companies want to offer for the written word. He agrees with Harlan Ellison -- the problem is all them dang amateurs! (My words). People who will take anything, any payment, any job -- and thus lower the standards for everyone else.
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Stephen King has discussed his problems at Doubleday. Even when his novels were making them loads of cash, they bound him up in contracts that would take years to pay off. It does bring to mind first Timothy 5:18, which says, "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain," and "The worker deserves his wages ."
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This article actually makes me glad King is well paid for what he does. Why? Because it allows him to keep on doing it! Also, it gives us a glimpse into the deeper life of the person. What a person does with what they have says much more about them then what they say about themselves. What causes a person invests in says volumes about the inner person.
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I won't list King's charitable giving here, but if interested, you should do a search. I think you'll find he has a heart for artist who have fallen on hard times. Also, he did pay the way for a reserve unit to come home for Christmas a couple years ago. There's more, much more, and I would again suggest that a better picture of a persons inner self than a running chronicle of their thoughts or ideas or books. How we handle what we have says something about who we really are.
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http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pay-the-writer.html