Outdated Writing Opportunities Should Be Free

People don't pay for these for a reason!

Back in the summer of 2009, I noticed something about Borders inventory of music books.  Without thinking, I picked up coffee table books loaded with vivid color pics of just about every relevant recording artist from the 1950s to present – for less than $10 and weighing about as much as a domestic cat.

I couldn’t quite figure it out at first until I remembered my Library Assistant training years before.  Books that refer to the deceased in present tense must be sold or destroyed immediately.  I was still in shock over MJ’s passing and so badly wanted for him to be chilling on an island somewhere.  The drastically reduced (75% reduction from original list price) book was confirmation this was not going to happen.

So as I’m getting more into freelance writing, I realize that the death of content writing companies, paying guest blog posts and other mediums do not get the same homegoing.  Sometimes, the only way that people know a site is no longer in business is through a discussion forum.  Occasionally, there might be a first-person account about a writer getting stiffed.

However, I’d like to know why I am still paying to find out that Squidoo, Helium and Yahoo Voices are accepting content.  Even worse, is the addition of places like Content Authority that pays something like $0.002 per word and seldom accept submissions?  In other words, things you can find out for free.

Stephen Davies has some good information in his writing books but I got burned (again) last year when he mentioned through his LinkedIn group that his writing book had been updated.  It’s one thing to have limited uploads but to see Suite 101 as a prospect in 2015 is a bit disappointing.

So should this be a rule when selling books that relate to e-commerce?  Some say that things change so fast it’s impossible to keep up.  On the other hand, $5-7 for an e-book can mean a lot to someone on the financial rebound.