You do not have to be a Blockhead

Today I read in Slate some sage advice: Don't Write for Free. Slate buttresses the point with Samuel Johnson's immortal line "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money".

And I agree. Good prose should be paid for. (Poetry, sadly, may have to remain for the moment an amateur sport of devoted hobbyists.) If I had the capital, I'd be buying that prose and publishing it on this very website because my gut instinct is that in the end it'll have value. For now, even with the little dollars at my disposal, I will still intend to start it, though I may have to draft the Missus for start-up help.

Over the past week or so I've considered various models for getting the stories I want. Currently my plan is:

1. Post Gig to Craigslist

2. Review the solicitations of interest

3. Meet with promising candidates

4. Explain the warranties I'll ask for

5. Give assignment

6. Review report

7. Purchase the report

8. Edit the report

9. Post the report

10. Profit

Now, if you've landed at this page, you may wonder what warranty I'm talking about.

It will say:

I, <> promise that this report is true to the best of my knowledge. It is my own work. I have no undisclosed relationship with any venue, promoter, or owner.

Then, after I've read the report, I'll offer to buy it with a contract that reads:

I, <> hereby sell to Fifty Star Owl, for good and valuable consideration of $50 cash, all rights to the report I have made of my review of <> on the date of <> except that I will retain my attribution line and the right to use the published report for my portfolio so long as the use is noted as "By Permission of Fifty Star Owl."

After I own the report, I will review it, edit it as I see fit, attach links with abandon, and then wait.

So all that above is my business plan, more or less.

I should point out though that although I want to make money doing this, I also am eager to learn what people have to say about their nightlife experiences.

As luck had it, last week PhillyChitChat.com went to G Lounge's RAW Natural Born Artists party. For more information about RAW, see the link. It's a great article because it tells me about that the evening was like. That's the kind of information I want to know about.