Hamas War

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Are We Bloggers Guilty?

Has the success of blogging killed off, or severely crippled free-lance writing?

Some people are making lots of money off of the internet, but there are many of us giving our talents away for nothing.

I don't really have any control over what happens to my articles. If I'm lucky, they keep my byline.

A couple of years ago, my parents gave me a newsletter to read, from PNAI--Parents of North Americans in Israel. It was nice until an article seemed familiar. I checked the author, and I read further. Strange. It was one of my articles under a different byline. I was livid. What happened? Had the other person stolen my article? She's on my mailing list. I didn't know what to do and wouldn't be near my computer for another day.

The next morning I was a guest at a large brunch a friend was hosting. Guess who was there and sat down next to me. Yes, the writer whose name was on my article! That's what's called siyata d'shmaya, the hand of G-d. I took a deep breath to do it calmly. I told her what I had seen and asked her how it happened. She was shocked and insisted she hadn't removed my byline.

Afterwards she contacted me to say that she complained to the editor, and they were supposed to publish a correction. I have no idea if they did.

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