The reality is, if the buyer has decided to settle for subpar work, we have little choice but to educate him or settle for a smaller premium.
I'm out of work right now. The jobs I'm looking at pay much less than I'm used to getting, in part because in many sectors, the technical writing field no longer has much to do with superior writing; it has more to do with mastery of software. I could wring my hands, or I could decide it's better to be employed at 30 percent less than to be unemployed. I'm applying to several Federal jobs at the GS-13 level. I'm going out of my way to urge them to give me an onsite test so I can prove I'm as good as I say. Whenever I'm tested against other writers, I'm able to prove I'm as good as I say and worth what I'm asking. Perhaps professional photographers could do the same: Compare their portfolio side by side against amateur shots, and show people what they're missing. I know one out-of-work tech writer who was getting $75 an hour as a contractor in Redmond, Washington, and can't bring herself to settle for half that here in the other Washington (DC), where $50 an hour is the 98th percentile for a tech-writing contractor. In Microsoftland, the cost of a manual can be amortized over millions of copies. Of course they can afford to pay a king's ransom for good writing! Here, we write manuals that will be used by only hundreds of clients. Given such a small customer base, it's much more difficult to persuade an employer to pay extra for great writing skills. When my wife and I were planning our small wedding (12 guests), we asked a professional wedding photographer how much he would charge About three thousand dollars! And no, we wouldn't get our hands on the negatives, but we could buy them three years later for $75. No thanks: We found a woman who worked in a mall studio who agreed to shoot our wedding for $200 plus costs, using 35mm gear. And after presenting us with the proofs, she was glad to let us take the negatives to a pro lab of our choice and order as many, of whatever size, as we pleased. Was she as good? Of course not. Was he worth ten times her fee? Not to this buyer. Paul Franklin Stregevsky Paul Franklin Stregevsky 13 Selby Court Poolesville, Maryland 20837-2410 [EMAIL PROTECTED] H (301) 349-5243 - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
