A friend posted an article and the following comment on social media this morning:

Ten Things You Shouldn’t Say When Pricing Handmade Items

I have had this discussion often with people selling at the farmer’s market or in our shop.

I commented:

#7. I just enjoy making it, I don’t care how much I get for it
*sigh*
Kind of applies to my blogging. Since I’ve started posting [on SCB Citizen] again, I’ve gotten a lot of positive comments from people about how much they missed my writing. And then there was the comment from a friend last week who said “I don’t pay for news. I can get it online for free.” Writing is seriously devalued these days. A lot of people will write articles for magazines for free, just to get their name in print or to promote their agenda. A lot of content online gets “stolen” by copy-pasters. I’m doubting my sanity for having taken a leap into it as a career on spec. How much of it do I need to do to “advertise” myself and build up my reputation, and when can I start charging for the work I do? Or will it forever be relegated to a hobby?
*sigh*

The discussion reminded me of the uber-valuable website “Who Pays Writers?”

I love this website, because it helps writers overcome asymmetric information, which can lead to failure in the market for writing services. (Yeah, I took some microeconomics classes in grad school.)

The social media conversation continued.

Do you think women are more inclined to undervalue their work or is it a non-gender artisan thing?

Good question! If data on salary negotiations are any indication, I’d say the former.

For info on the above assertion about salary negotiations, see this Forbes article.

Discussion, anyone? Comment section is open!