Recently, Amanda Palmer blogged about feeling shameless about asking her fans to support her so that she can create art. The post created a bit of a kerfluffle, but apparently Miss Manners didn’t see it.
listen.
artists need to make money to eat and to continue to make art.
artists used to rely on middlemen to collect their money on their behalf, thereby rendering themselves innocent of cash-handling in the public eye.
artists will now be coming straight to you (yes YOU, you who want their music, their films, their books) for their paychecks.
please welcome them. please help them. please do not make them feel badly about asking you directly for money.
dead serious: this is the way shit is going to work from now on and it will work best if we all embrace it and don’t fight it.
unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve surely noticed that artists ALL over the place are reaching out directly to their fans for money.
how you do it is a different matter.
maybe i should be more tasteful.
maybe i should not stop my concerts and auction off art.
i do not claim to have figured out the perfect system, not by a long shot.
BUT … i’d rather get the system right gradually and learn from the mistakes and break new ground (with the help of an incredibly responsive and positive fanbase) for other artists who i assume are going to cautiously follow in our footsteps. we are creating the protocol, people, right here and now.
i don’t care if we fuck up. i care THAT we’re doing it.
in fact, i ENJOY being the slightly crass, outspoken, crazy-(naked?)-chick-on-a-soapbox holding out a ukulele case of crumpled dollars asking for your money so that someone else a few steps behind me, perhaps some artist of shy and understated temperament, can feel better and maybe a little less nervous when they quietly step up and hold out their hat, fully clothed.
i am shameless, and fearless, when it comes to money and art.
i can’t help it: i come from a street performance background.
i stood almost motionless on a box in harvard square, painted white, relinquishing my fate and income to the goodwill and honor of the passers-by.
i spent years gradually building up a tolerance to the inbuilt shame that society puts on laying your hat/tipjar on the ground and asking the public to support your art.
i was harassed, jeered at, mocked, ignored, insulted, spit at, hated.
i was also applauded, appreciated, protected, loved….all by strangers passing me in the street.
people threw shit at me.
people also came up to me and told me that i’d changed their lives, brightened their day, made them cry.
some people used to yell “GET A FUCKING JOB” from their cars when they drove by me.
i, of course, could not yell back. i was a fucking statue, statues do not yell.
i did this for 5 years, and i made a living that way.
dollar by dollar.
hour by hour.
it was hard fucking work.
and for the last 10 years, i have been working my ass off in a different way: tirelessly making music, traveling the world, connecting with people, trying to keep my balance, almost never taking a break and, frankly, not making a fortune doing it. i still struggle to pay my rent sometimes. i’m still more or less in debt from my last record. i’ll lay it all out for you in another blog. it’s just math.
[go read the whole thing from start to finish, this is just an excerpt]
Here’s what Miss Manners had to say in response to a letter from a writer. I think that the fact that the writer admits to being a bad money manager is neither here nor there, since Miss Manners response is unequivocal and doesn’t address that aspect of the individual’s situation:
Dear Miss Manners:
I am a moderately successful novelist. Things are a bit dicey for me financially, mostly because I am appallingly incompetent when it comes to money management.
Some friends with whom I discussed this problem were kind enough not to offer unwanted loans, but instead recommended that I put a “Donate” button on the inevitable Web site everyone in my field seems obligated to have.
I wasn’t initially comfortable with the idea of asking my fans to support me beyond buying my books — that ought to be plenty — but I eventually agreed, and it did help. Now, a couple of years later (and in the same financial position, alas), I find that I’m still uncomfortable with asking for help in this way. The discussions with my friends over the subject have become passionate. I would very much appreciate your perspective.
As a novelist, you undoubtedly have a high respect for the correct use of words to reveal truth. And yet Miss Manners fears that you have adopted a euphemism to disguise from yourself the truth of what you have been doing.
“Donations” are given to institutions or charities that do good works. Individuals may earn money, as you do in selling books; they may receive it through grants to do work; they may inherit it; they may be given it in lieu of presents; they may find it on the street.
But the act of asking others to give you money simply because you are needy is called begging. It requires a sacrifice of pride, and therefore self-respecting people resort to it only if they are totally destitute.
It sounds to me as though the novelist is referring to his or her professional website, and thus the appeal for support is going to fans who would like to see this person further his or her art. Granted, if the website was givememoneysoicansitaroundinmyjammies&drinkcocoainsteadofworking.com that would change the equation, but it doesn’t sound like it is.
I can’t help but wonder if the Miss Manners empire, being both vested and invested in the old media economy, isn’t shielded from the realities of the modern artist. Maybe I’ll do a bit of research and see how Miss Manners feels about “piracy” and such. I bet she’s in lockstep with the media establishments about creators being paid through traditional channels. I’m not opposed to artists being paid – but the people screaming most about piracy are generally the lawyers and labels and other folk who’s money comes off the top, not the people who created the art. Not all of them, I’m generalizing a bit more than I should cause I’m kinda cranky today, but it’s not entirely false.
Also, to be very clear – I hate to see artists having to beg. But, as Palmer points out, it’s going to be messy and undignified while we all figure out just what the new economy looks like and how it works. It’s unfortunate, but it’s true and we can’t stick our head in the sand or litigate til the cows come home and hope that we can bend consumer behavior to our personal vision.
(update)I notice that the Copyright Alliance has also noted the Miss Manners column. The wrote:
The next time you tell a creator that you want their work without paying for it, but that they should get with the times and provide a way for you to donate to them if you feel so motivated, please keep in mind that the creator may in fact be schooled in good manners and not feel comfortable creating art in this economic model. Of course, that would require you to be able to see a situation from another’s perspective, and if you insist on having access to their creative work in ways they don’t agree with it’s already clear you are incapable of such perspective.
I’d like to point out that the novelist never mentioned his (or her) financial woes being related to illegal downloading of his or her work. The novelist mentioned being a bad money manager right in the letter. I chose to ignore that element and look at the broader realities of being a “creator” of any kind. From restrictive work for hire contracts to ticketmaster fees – art isn’t a wildly lucrative field for most people. If they don’t find ways to make the economy work for them, no one else is going to do it for me.
