The economy remains in the toilet. For people like myself -- a professional writer by trade -- a double whammy is at work. The analog-to-digital transition has resulted in a massive shift of publishing from print to the Internet. The poor economy has accelerated this transition.
An interesting side effect of this transition are all the Internet sites claiming to hire writers. Sadly, they offer to pay virtually nothing. Blogging is the biggest joke, with fees ranging from $5 to $15 for a 250 word article. One Florida-based publisher, claiming to pay the going rate, is attempting to find writers for 60,000-word books for a flat fee of under $1500.
Of course, the biggest scam is the "intern" worker. Everyone wants interns who will work for free. Supposedly it's for the "experience," which will most certainly be very bad. Fools seem to never learn.
Some who hire writers don't even know how to spell the word. More than once I've seen it spelled "writter." Now there's someone who admires the craft and will certainly pay fairly for quality writing services!
As one who has spent his entire life writing and being paid well for it, the whole scene today is very disturbing. We are seeing more bad writing than ever and few even care or know the difference. Writing on the Internet is generally poor for a reason. Many books are barely researched, abysmally written and certainly not worth publishing.
Where it will end remains a major question mark.
