It’s Time to Get Paid for Your Writing

Take a leap of faith with me into 2021

Photo by Amador Loureiro on Unsplash

Writing can be its own reward, but the workman is worthy of a wage. If you write, and you’re getting good at it, you should find a way to be paid for your work. Finding an outlet that pays for well-crafted, creative work, even a little, is something we all deserve in 2021. I have been looking for such an outlet. I couldn’t find exactly the right publication I was looking for, so I decided to make one: The Mudsill, with our first issue premiering on January 1, 2021.

Now, if you’ve followed me across various platforms on the internet, you know I’ve been writing on here for a while — for about ten years, now, as a matter of fact. And, like a lot of people, I’ve mostly been writing for free. I have been one of those people who write for the pleasure of putting words out into the world that, like Noah’s dove, find a landing place in the heart of even one reader.

That’s not quite how I started.

At first I blogged simply as a way of keeping my sanity while working on my dissertation. Writing begets writing; blogging for readers unknown helped me figure out how to write for the committee of readers I did know. Then my online writing became a way of contributing to my field, U.S. intellectual history, and then, via Twitter, a way of joining…