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Help NOT Wanted II; The Mistake!

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Written by Thom Ring

When I recently wrote the "Help NOT Wanted blog", I was inspired by my very own avocation.

The fact that I forgot to include "writer" among the crafts disappearing as real vocations is a further indication that my memory also appears to be disappearing. No matter. Let's consider it now, because it's one I believe is particularly sad, and not just because its disappearance affects me personally.

Many people will claim that the internet has created more opportunities for writers than there ever has been. But that's like saying there are more opportunities for chefs than ever and use as an example that more people are cooking for themselves. Yes, I agree that blogs and forums provide wonderful opportunities for people to express themselves, opportunities that once didn't exist. But the craft of writing, as practiced by those who tried to understand and employ its subtleties and use them carefully to maximum affect, no longer is rewarded at anywhere close to a degree that any writers can earn even a meager living doing it.

I still own a copy of the annual publication the Writers' Market. The version I have was published in 1990. If I look up - say - the listing of magazines covering auto racing, a onetime specialty of mine, I see more than a page of titles in the category. Almost every one of those magazines is gone. And even every major title in that category is history save for one. This exception-that-proves-the-rule accepts virtually no outside contributions. The rare exceptions seem to be stories supposedly by famous drivers in the biz. Of course, they didn't write the pieces under their bylines, but the truth hardly is important when there's a market to create and feed.

The same thing has happened to newspapers. I contributed to a half-dozen newspapers over the course of the last 20 years. None of them buy any freelance work anymore. The fact is, there is virtually no place for freelance writers to contribute anymore and barely any staff positions, as even that last major magazine depends on only a couple of guys, apparently working in a closet somewhere in California.

I don't mean to moan and whine. I appreciate the opportunity I have to blog for you right here on Roadside Online. Yet you do realize that Roadside once was a very fine little magazine. Try to find a little magazine in business anymore. Of course, finding anything little is my mission here. I'll get back to it now.

If we're going to call this a blog - well - you folks have to blog! What crafts no longer support their practitioners - if they even still exist?