Amy A: did you know there used to be writers where that was their whole job

did you know there used to be writers where that was their whole job

gotta return to when stupidly wealthy people would just keep their favorite creatives on retainer to churn out art as a status symbol.

This. The wealthy do stupid shit that lasts like a few hours like take trips to space or the Titanic or whatever. That money could put an artist on retainer for a decade or more.

I’m ready for my wealthy patron

It's even worse. Jeff Bezos spent $5.5 billion to go to space for four minutes with William Shatner. He could have, instead, funded 2,750 creative artists for 40 years at a salary of $50,000 each. www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/j....

Jeff Bezos Just Spent $5.5B to Be in Space for 4 Minutes. Here Are 7 Things That Money Could Help Solve.www.globalcitizen.org Jeff Bezos, the richest man on Earth, had his “best day ever” in space. Here’s how he could help others have better days.

Imagine instead the timeline where he commissioned authors to write epic poems about how he is the direct line descendant of a Greek god or something normal.

Well, he used to be married to a novelist, but she clearly knew better than to get roped into that kind of nonsense.

I don't mean to make this worse, but when I started out, not only was it my whole job, but I only had one employer. An actual employer. With benefits.

Next thing you’ll tell me people used to make a living writing occasional short stories for niche magazines How does that create ludicrous shareholder value!?

Like two weeks ago we brought this up and mags that pay like $20 got all snippy about it

My father is a 92 yo retired writer/editor for major newspapers and magazines. Every convo about modern journalism is pretty brutal. I’d feel bad except for how he destroyed, absolutely destroyed, every paper of mine he ever glanced at. Bled red ink.

Can I show up at your dad’s house with a bottle of good Scotch and all my grievances about passive voice in media?

That would def work, and he likes scotch for sure. He worked at the Associated Press in NY in the 60’s - he has some crazy stories.

The spec writer to professional poker player to technical writer to whatever the hell I am now pipeline is real.

Professors, too.

Sometimes, they’d even congregate in offices and write together.

I read about that.

Star Trek writers used to make 35k a week I heard

That sounds like a lot but I could easily make that much by stealing a car every week

😂

Surely you jest.

😢

good times

Soon there’ll be no writers at all since AI will replace them all. Truly sad, but good news is….It won’t last for very long.

I really hope you are right about that.

Once upon a time every house in my town got a newspaper every day, and read it.

impossible.

Like that Shakespeare guy? He was the last one, right?

I’m shocked. Shocked I am.

heard the same rumor about "artists" but i've only ever seen them at the zoo

that sounds preposterous

*deep sigh*

before we as a society decided that profit as the end of all means was preferable

woah just like a steven king novel

I used to write for a living. Freelance.

According to Bookstat, there were 2.6 million books sold online in 2020 and only 268 of them sold more than 100,000 copies, and 96 percent of books sold less than 1,000 copies. Those are not the numbers of a mass medium.

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