Member-only story
Getting paid for your work
I have been a creative bunny rabbit for over 23 years and over that period I have been paid on and off for my work less than I really should have been. At one point I ran the largest stock bank on Deviant Art, which I left in aspic after a decade because my interests moved on. I have worked as a retoucher for Games Workshop, web dev for multiple clients, been paid of my writing, and DJed at clubs in London. All of which is to say that getting paid for my creative output has been part of my artistic life, yet for the vast majority of the time I have given my labour away for free. When I originally signed up to Medium I wanted to keep all my articles free, yet part way through 2023 I decided to move behind a paywall because I needed additional income. It is a complex situation, especially because I want as wide an audience as possible, so why did I do it?
There is a common belief floating around places like Reddit that creative output should be free and accessible to all. This creative commons approach is how much of the internet still works to this day, paid for either by ad revenue or rich owners. Yet as brands and creatives have come to realise offering something for free comes with a constant chase for ad money, which means that the creative output needs to be suitable for those advertisers and their desired audience. Free potentially means more restricted, especially when it comes to a…
