Peer Approval Won’t Pay Your Bills

There’s a lot of conversation right now about how difficult it is to be an artist in today’s market, and I’m not going to dismiss that. It is competitive. The landscape has changed. But I want to introduce a perspective that gets lost in those conversations because I’ve seen it firsthand.
I’ve had individuals turn down page rates and cover rates from the Rippaverse that are higher than what the major publishers would pay them. More money for the same work — and they turned it down. Not because the rate wasn’t good. Not because the project wasn’t interesting. But because they were concerned about how their peers would perceive them for working with us, or because they felt it might jeopardize their standing with the major publishers they want to work for in the future.
I want to be clear — nobody is under any obligation to accept every gig that comes their way. You’re free to take the work you want and pass on the work you don’t. That’s your right. But if the reason you’re turning down well-paying work is because you’re afraid of how your peers will react, or because you think it’ll put you out of favor with mega-corporations you’d like to work for someday, that is an unhealthy way to operate as a creative professional.
Think about what that actually means. You’re leaving money on the table — money that could sustain your career, support your family, and keep you working in the field you love — because you’re prioritizing the approval of people who may never hire you anyway. Meanwhile, those same peers will talk about how hard it is to make a living as an artist. The opportunities are right there. Some people are choosing to walk away from them because the social cost feels too high.
This happens more than people realize, and it’s not exclusive to the Rippaverse. There are other publishers and other clients who face the same dynamic. Artists turning down good paying work because the client is perceived as being on the wrong side of whatever line the industry has drawn. That’s a choice people are making, and they’re entitled to make it. But when those same people talk about how difficult the market is, a little perspective is needed. The market might be difficult — but some of that difficulty is self-imposed.