Re: Quick interview question?

Thanks for responding, and apologies for the delay in getting back to you. Regarding the nature of my question, that was the answer I was expecting and hoping for, as one of the subjects on which I'm concentrating now involves the failures of the various pre-internet media outlets to compete with the new class of "independent content producers" (for lack of a more exact phrase) in terms of the quality of the content it takes in. There are a couple of structural, which is to say unintentional, reasons for this, involving the inefficient mindsets/perceived career advantages of editors as well as the real and perceived (mostly real) disadvantages of going through the hassle of getting something published. All of this is simply a roundabout way of saying that a lot of editors and publishers are douchebags so fuck them, although the larger dynamic is a bit more fundamental than that and, I think, one of the most important yet unduly-ignored aspects of the very different environment in which we have come to live.

On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 11:15 AM, Randall Munroe <randall@xkcd.com> wrote:

Barrett,

I'm glad to hear you liked my article!

As for why I didn't submit it somewhere, I did briefly consider trying to get a more statistics-heavy version of my results published in some sort of scientific journal, but that seemed like a lot of work just to (ultimately) feed my ego. As far as paying publications, I'm incredibly lucky in that I manage to make an acceptable living with the xkcd store. I've generally found that doing work directly for pay, and the accompanying responsibility to satisfy the editors paying me rather than the readers directly, makes writing/creating more stressful to me than it's worth; I guess I'm pretty spoiled :) And in the end, it brings more people to my site and probably increases the chances that they'll poke around further and buy something from the store, so it's not entirely pro bono.

I guess the bottom line is that I really like what I'm doing, and I'm in an incredibly lucky position wherein I can do stuff like this purely for fun without worrying about any business entanglements, so I'm sticking with that for now. If the t-shirt business falls apart, I might look into 'real' publishing more, but for now I'm happy just doing what I'm doing and getting my work out there without a lot of red tape, deadlines, or obligations, even if it means making less money.

Hope that answers your question!

Best,

Randall

On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 10:20 AM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:

Mr. Munroe-

I'm a freelancer for a number of outlets such as Vanity Fair and Huffington Post and, somewhat more ethically, Skeptic and Skeptical Inquirer. Just read your color survey results and was struck by how much more enjoyable the article was than the two or three short pieces in The Atlantic that I was reading last night.

Actually, lest I somehow lead your response to any significant degree, I'll ask the question first so that if you're inclined to answer it you can do so without the result being too skewed - why did you not submit such a piece as this to one of the better, paying print publications, rather than running it yourself?

I'd be interested in hearing your response; I might also have something interesting to tell you in return.

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Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302

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Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302