I’m off writing a long way from the internet right now, but just learned I’m being used – for, I’m pretty sure, the first time – as a political football, with Questions Being Asked and everything.
“Ah.”
Well, that seemed fairly simple. They’d already booked a number of other authors. They had the money sitting there and were happy to pay me my rack rate. Either they gave the money to me or it went away – it couldn’t be used for anything else. And, most importantly, the dates worked. Another week and I would have had to say no, as I would have been away writing. But I got in from Chicago that morning. I said yes.
I figure money like that, sort of out-of-the-blue windfall money, is best used for Good Deeds, so I let a couple of small and needy charities (one doing social work, the other library/book based) know that I would be passing the money on to them, after agents had taken their commission, and did not think twice about it.
(I don’t like talking about how much money I make, because I spent enough years as a starving journalist to know what it’s like not to have money, and to envy or resent those who do. But if you’re wondering how I can afford to blithely wave goodbye to a fee like that: I make my money writing. I sell a lot of books, in dozens of countries around the world, every year. I write and occasionally co-produce movies, and I sell the film rights to my books and stories. The Graveyard Book spent over a year on the New York Times Bestseller List. Instructions came out this week, and went straight in at #4. There were months last year when I had four different books on the New York Times Bestseller Lists at the same time. Like I said, I’m a writer, and I get paid for my writing.)
The day was fun, the auditorium, which held about 500 people was full, and it felt a lot more intimate than the Big City events I’d done for 1600 and 1500 people the previous nights. I gave an hour’s talk. I did an hour’s Q&A with the people there. I stuck around for two hours after that, saying hullo to everyone, posing for photos, generally trying to meet everyone who was there, and then, when everyone was done and had gone, I went home.
The Legacy Fund, from which the money to pay me came, is used for Minnesota’s Parks, Museums, Arts, and comes from a sales tax allocation. It is a Big Political Deal. Which meant Paying An Author Lots of Money From That Fund was going to become a Big Political Deal.
I saw a mention of it on the School Library Journal blog, and responded to there:
Obviously I do a lot of speaking for free. The night before I'd done a pro bono 3 hour reading/Q&A as a benefit for the CBLDF in Chicago, in front of 1600 people, who had paid up to $250 a ticket to attend.
Four days before I'd done "An Evening With Neil Gaiman" internet talk with the Jessamine Public Library for nothing, because they asked me to, and because it was National Library Week (although they sent me a wonderful Kentucky nibbles gift basket as a thank you).
In fact most of the talks and appearances I do are for free.
But if you want to hire me to come in and talk, it's expensive.
My speaking fees are high. I keep them that way intentionally. Here's what it says on my website's Frequently asked questions:
"Q. How can I get Neil Gaiman to make an appearance at my school/convention/event?
A. Contact Lisa Bransdorf at the Greater Talent Network. Tell her you want Neil to appear somewhere. Have her tell you how much it costs. Have her say it again in case you misheard it the first time. Tell her you could get Bill Clinton for that money. Have her tell you that you couldn't even get ten minutes of Bill Clinton for that money but it's true, he's not cheap.
On the other hand, I'm really busy, and I ought to be writing, so pricing appearances somewhere between ridiculously high and obscenely high helps to discourage most of the people who want me to come and talk to them. Which I could make a full time profession, if I didn't say 'no' a lot."
For this event, nobody asked my representatives if I would do it for less than a normal speaking fee. (I do sometimes. Normally only for libraries.) I was assured before I agreed to sign on that this money was not coming from the library system, but from the 200 million sales tax Legacy Fund. It was a wonderful afternoon. And yesterday Minnesota Public Radio broadcast the entire one hour talk (although not the Q&A).
And, although I'm not sure that it's anyone's business, when I get money like this, I put it back out again. In this case, 25% of what I get goes to a social/abuse charity, and the other 75% goes to an author/literature/library related charity program.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/blog/1010000101/post/1620054162.html
And I figured that was that.
But since then the story has embiggened. It made it onto the front page of the city section of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. (Nobody from the Star Tribune tried to contact me or my assistant or agent for any quotes on this, which I find a bit depressing, given that they have my email and phone number from dozens of previous interviews.)
How can you justify asking for $45,000 to come and speak?
When you came and talked at our library you charged a lot less than that.
Why wasn’t this money being used to fund a little library somewhere? Or pay a librarian? Or buy books for people? Or Do Good? Aren’t you ripping off libraries by accepting it?
“The money comes from a grant for programs like this. It can't be used to buy books or pay salaries. The money was only allocated in October, 2009 and had to be spent by June, 2010 or it would be taken back. This was a big-ticket, inaugural event to generate interest in the program.”
Yes, but this is public money.
But you only brought in 500 people!
(It's up here at MPR, where there's also some interesting comments: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/news_cut/archive/2010/05/second_takes_on_gaimans_fee.shtml
You’re not even a local author. You live 230 miles away from Stillwater in Green Lake Wisconsin! It says so in the blog that broke the story.
$45,000? For a Sci Fi Author? I’ve never heard of you.
....
Also of interest, Cory Doctorow’s comments on the Boing Boing thread: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/05/10/neil-gaimans-awesome.html#comment-784346
Instructions
Neil Gaiman, illus. by Charles Vess, Harper, $14.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-196030-7"Touch the wooden gate in the wall you never saw before," invites Gaiman's poem, first published in A Wolf at the Door (2000), reborn as a lavishly illustrated small-format picture book. A bipedal, bushy-tailed cat, wearing attire befitting Robin Hood, enters a fairy tale landscape filled with subtle and obvious allusions to familiar characters and stories. A cottage door leads him into a hallway of dramatic arches where a cat with an injured paw becomes his companion ("if any creature tells you that it hungers, feed it. If it tells you that it is dirty, clean it"). The wanderers press on, encountering a castle containing three sequestered princesses ("Do not trust the youngest. Walk on"), a ghostly ferryman, and other creatures. Recalling his work on Gaiman's Blueberry Girl, Vess's compositions are distinguished by elegant, winding lines--gnarled vines, plumes of smoke, dragon tails--and intimate frames that evoke moments of gentle wisdom. Young readers should relish the chimerical vision while older Gaiman fans should grasp the underlying suggestion that the compass used to navigate fairy tales can also guide us in the real world. All ages. (May)
Labels: Instructions, Legacy Fund, stillwater, why it can be dangerous to talk to authors
