http://meanjin.com.au/spike-the-meanjin-blog/post/lit-prizes-hiding-in-plain-sight/

Thanks for the blog love, but just wanted to say that the questions I answer are real – not made up! I have never posted a made-up question (although I have suspected that the occasional question isn’t sincere).

Thanks again,
Agent Sydney

As for the debate about unpaid work, I always try to look at it like this: one can be ‘paid’ in many different ways for work, it doesn’t always have to be financial reward, so if I’m not receiving any cold hard cash for something that I’m doing, I won’t do it unless I’m being paid in some other way. As you mentioned, unpaid work can be a legitimate way of learning and developing, not to mention making contacts, all of which, to me at least, is some form of payment.

My brother, who’s doing an environmental science degree, often talks about the hidden costs of certain industrial (or whatever — he’s got the enviro jargon but I don’t remember it) practices, and how we as a society can end up spending far more than we were able to calculate just looking at the financial cost. While that’s definitely a debate that should probably occur elsewhere at this point, I think the principle is the same.

I, like you, “would rather see a million young writers working for free than a handful of writers dominating the industry because the market found a way to pay for their time.” That said, it’s obviously important that financial payment isn’t withheld to the point where young writers can’t actually eat or pay their rent. A difficult balance to get right, I guess.

I got bored and unfriended you. Because you repeatedly tried to friend me again I blocked you. Along with the unwanted emails, I call that stalking.

Time to move on…