Some of you might have noticed a tip cup (normally known as a tip “jar” but I’m more likely to wind up panhandling with a crumpled, leaky old to-go coffee cup so mine is a tip cup). I am not certain just how many people I address when I say “you”; I do have a traffic meter that records how many unique IP addresses click on my page every day, but it is not always clear who is who or when, given that IP addresses are dynamic for most home users so for all I know I have one reader whose IP address changes every five minutes but ANYway the tip cup is what we in the biz call the “front end” to a paypal donation service by means of which you can toss me a spare coin or two.
Why would you want to do that? Well, you might not, or you might think that blogging should be a brave new world free of commercial ties and monetary concerns, but, especially as a writer in an economy that does not particularly favor writing, especially they kind that I do, I am hoping that if you like what you read you will find it in your heart to leave a small bill in the tip cup, to take the metaphor to its logical conclusion.
I’m not going to take the time in this particular post to explain my relationship to day jobs. I do have them–or I am trying to have them, I should say–but I am not very good at having them. I am good at writing and I am hoping to earn a living at it someday before I am too old to live any longer. As time passes I am feeling more and more compelled to seek my fortune in writing because it is one of the many things I feel passionate about and also feel like I can actually do in such a way as to produce good writing consistently and with a minimum amount of excruciating pain.
A little pain is ok and in fact writing that is not at all painful usually is not very good writing–or at least that has been my experience both in being a writer myself and when grading the writing of those who are nominally paying me to teach them to write. No pain, no gain. But on the other hand, if one truly hates writing, there is no good reason for them to take it up as a career.
But I love writing, and I plan to spend more and more time at it. Because I live in a society that dictates that I find something to sell in order to keep a roof over my head and food on my plate, my writing needs to begin to bring in some dough. And because I am currently limited as to what sorts of advertising I can place on this blog–this will change when I set up my own blog on my own server, but lack of spare time makes this a slowly moving project–I am asking you, my reader(s), to express your appreciation for what you read here (should you appreciate it–if not then I imagine we won’t be seeing much of each other anyway) by placing into the tip cup whatever monetary equivalent of that appreciation you think is appropriate.
If the world were different–and it would be if I were in charge–money would not enter my mind when offering my writing to the internet. But things being the way they are, I am taking the leap into commercial enterprise. If you think that what I do is worthwhile and you can spare a buck or two, please please please please pretty please click on the tip cup and enter some figure that expresses that worth. I will appreciate it, the cats will appreciate it, my landlord will appreciate it, and the myriad people I owe money to will appreciate it.
And then we can all hold hands and sing of our mutual appreciation for each other. Um. Or not. It can just be a quick transfer of cash if you’d prefer.
Thank you for your support.
blog@ eriktrips 