Like you, due to the current financial debacle, a lit endeavor I was hopeful about has basically been put on hold. I started The Whirligigzine (whirligigzine.com) last year as a place where writers could submit their work and (drumroll please!) actually get paid for it! What a concept, right?

The whole idea that writers just give their stuff away, an idea that most people have (thanks to various ezines, literary quarterlies (why are they called quarterlies, when they can’t even spare a dime?) and many other venues that will remain nameless here) is hurting us all, even including you, dear Mr. Champion. It’s a perception that needs to change; while other craftspersons, artists, etc. on different levels of success “make it” with their work, it is only those writers well above midlist status that can afford to be full-time writers.

Is there a crisis in lit and letters in America right now? Sure, it’s that its writers can’t pay their bills.

It might be cool to maintain a lean and hungry look. But when that look is not a choice, but born of the necessity of cutting back on food purchases, we all have a problem. Perhaps PEN should cast its gaze more around its own land as well as other countries where writers’ rights are abridged. I also look forward to the next president pushing through a plan for writers based on the WPA programs of the 30′s. History doesn’t always have to repeat itself in a negative way.

But I think it must start with writers themselves. Show some gumption and demand pay for your work. The myth of “good exposure” is absurd. Ask a contractor to build you a house for free and tell him it will be “good exposure” for him since people will drive by and look at it every day.

Remember, if you don’t get paid writing is just a hobby. And believe me, most of the time nobody is interested in your hobby but you.

Eh, that, and it’s Q4. Gotta make the year end numbers. Reasonable (or reasonably) or not (and not).