05/03/17

No matter how much I write because you love it and that is exactly what you want to do, at some point, you want more than just a personal satisfaction, commendations and all those spirit-fulfilling moments that such a satisfaction brings. You would like to get some material reward, or to be less euphemistic, money.

Since there is always some music I bring in into these, skip anything to do directly with money. That is not the precise point today. Anyway, musicians that  sang were and are the ones that got it. A lot. Pink Floyd, Abba, even The Beatles, adopting the early Motown hit, that brought in money itself.

More in tune today you’d have to go with Price. If you are classically inclined you can go with the fabulous Leontyne Price, but I’m more thinking of Alan Price, the former Animals keyboard player (his keyboards on their version of “House of The Rising Sun”, helped bring  in a nice bundle of cash), but also quite a solo performer.

It is his version of “I Put A Spell On You”, I had more in mind - quite a winding road to get to the price of your work as a freelance writer.

Why connect the Screaming’ Jay Hawkins voodoo stuff with the price. Very simple, like the price of stocks, its basically guesswork. On both sides, the writer’s and the one that requests or has to pay for his work.  Even the the supposed litmus test of “it is worth how much somebody is willing to pay and how much you are willing to accept” doesn’t really work. I guess that is why some writing agencies pay cash (not a lot) to writers to have them fill out polls on what they think on the subject, no matter that pages and pages  as well as tons of pricing guides have been written and set on the matter.

To put it simply, it is a guessing game. You can’t underprice your work, and you can’t overprice it either. From the writer’s pint of view, the latter is better, if you are given a chance and wish to correct it. In essence, the side that puts on a better spell on the other gets a better deal.

As a writer, as if gauging the current state of stocks, you have to take into consideration all the objective, but also subjective elements - how much do you need a certain job at that moment, particularly financially, how much real effort it will take to do it, but also how much will it satisfy you personally. Like all writers, there are certain things I’ll write about even if I do not get a financial reward, no matter how tight the money is.

Again, you have to know your price of the moment. Can you be consistent? You can try, but I’m not sure it is going to work, particularly for you personally. If in doubt, you might consult that Price. Alan Price. Maybe you can develop your own spell that works.