Just as the atom bomb was the weapon that was supposed to render war
obsolete, the Internet seems like capitalism’s ultimate feat of
self-destructive genius, an economic doomsday device rendering it
impossible for anyone to ever make a profit off anything again. It’s
especially hopeless for those whose work is easily digitized and
accessed free of charge. I now contribute to some of the most
prestigious online publications in the English-speaking world, for which
I am paid the same amount as, if not less than, I was paid by my local
alternative weekly when I sold my first piece of writing for print in
1989. More recently, I had the essay equivalent of a hit single —
endlessly linked to, forwarded and reposted. A friend of mine joked,
wistfully, “If you had a dime for every time someone posted that ...”
Calculating the theoretical sum of those dimes, it didn’t seem all that
funny.
- Tim Kreider
(Comment: "With every new book I write, the publicist of the moment earnestly
advises me that the best way to get publicity is to do lots of free
blogging and tweeting. Then she sends me a bill.")
descensus Averno facilis est