Why be an indie writer, anyway?

And why am I writing a blog when I don't consider myself particularly bloggy? Ah, social media, you got me.

As I write this, independent bloggers in China now will need to get state permission before they can publish, which is, well, pretty crappy. Facebook is freaking out because news publishers in Australia weren't kidding when they said FB couldn't use their content for gratis. In their zeal to block news outlets, they're also blocking government posts and charities. Smooth move, FB.

And, oh, look, a hedge fund is angling to buy the remaining Tribune newspapers. They seem to see some value in owning a source of the news, even if people have been baying from the rooftops for years that media is a losing proposition. Interesting, the kooky things People With Money buy, right?

Well, when I've ever thought about wading into that morass of corporate grasping and lack of any sense of an individual creator's rights in opposition to the Corporation's right to make ever-increasing quantities of money off the work of the little people, well, yeah. Let me publish my own work instead, in my own time. All failures, and successes, will be in my own two hands.

It's not too fancy to ask that, if I do the work, it shouldn't be for a few pennies and a pat on the head from my Corporate Overlord, right?