A reflection on the Pro vs Hobby argument

Still feeling a little introspective after yesterday I’ve come to a great analogy about the recent dramas in the small press (both the recent case of a writer selling reprinted stories as originals and the plagiarism warning I wrote about Tuesday). I cannot help but notice that these things happened in the hobby/for the luv area of the writing world. In fact, very often they do. Sure you have your Dorchesters but your small press dramas outnumber such things by far. So today I’m offering a parallel, a completely true real life parallel with the names removed to protect the innocent.

A few year ago Jason worked for a completely local company, and had for several months. Eventually it came down that the owner of the store was selling it to a larger chain. He was assured they’d be keeping all the current employees, that that was a condition of the sale, though the new owner was requiring an application and interview for their own records and to introduce the new manager to the old employees. Understandably things were nervous, but these were “decent people” and we thought the sale would be a good thing because it present an opportunity for higher pay, and more hours and possibly even a move to management for Jason.

The store closed on a Tuesday and was set to re open next door in two weeks. Jason came home after his shift (3rd) got a few hours sleep then around noon we headed out to pick up and cash his last check. When we got to the bank, it wasn’t even two p.m. and it was the branch where the store had been having Jason take deposits for as long as he’d worked there. So imagine how surprised we were when we were told they couldn’t cash his paycheck because the owner had closed out and emptied the business account three days before she wrote payroll checks to her employees.

Of course after that we were utterly unsurprised when the manager that was supposed to call and tell Jason his new shift mysteriously never did, and all the old employees found themselves literally locked out of the new store.

Now, fast forward to a few months ago, current job at your average soul-sucking evil big corporation. Jason took spring break off and when he got his check he was horrified to realize they’d just given him the week off, rather than used his vacation days as he’d requested. He called his boss and explained. His boss called HR. Two hours later he had a check for his week of vacation time and was in the line at the bank depositing it.

Are all local businesses rip offs and cheats? Of course not. And not all big businesses are free from bullshit (*coughcoughEnron*). But there are more safeguards set up to protect you at a bigger business. At the very least there’s the fact that they don’t get big without at some point being a good employer. And in the job market businesses cannot compete for the best employees without offering competitive pay. Offering “good” pay (which is subjective based on field) is a sign that the business is serious about itself, it’s role and expects to hire similarly minded employees. Offering insulting low pay has been, in my experience, a sign of a business that wanted nothing more than cheap labor of that they can abuse, manipulate and, at times, even extort. In fact in nearly every single near-abusive job Jason or I have held it was tempered by a boss that reiterated their role as a good boss or a nice person often as a defense against the tactics they took (like the woman who personally reassured every that they’d still have jobs, knowing she was handing out paychecks on a closed account.) “I’m on your side” was the equivalent to “Don’t be mad at me for what I’ve done”.

I’m tired of people reassuring me that they’re on my side, while offering me a pittance and demanding my blood. True, some very professional people are not in a position to pay top dollar for my work. Skullvines, for example cannot give me a big advance and get my books in stores like say, Tor, might be able to. But they make up for it by working with more experimental stories than Tor might and giving me one of the best royalty rates available in publishing today.

A small or hobby press might also be able to give you a customized experience that you simply can’t find in the big press. Or they could be blowing smoke up your ass while submitting your story under their name to other markets, while playing the “Nice/Small guy” card.

I’m not saying avoid the small press, I’m saying know that in many cases the press and people are “small” because they are unable to, or unwilling to put in the time and effort needed to establish themselves and make themselves pros. It’s a sad fact, but one that you, as an editor of a hobby-level zine, or an author scoping out markets, must keep in mind.

Don’t blindly trust the big guy either, but if anything be more cautious about a market or person who plays the nice guy card and yet hasn’t managed to establish themselves as a professional.