Do the crappy wages of the lit sector, from writing to editing to publishing, affect the quality of what reaches readers? I’d say that answer begins, like Hugh Hefner, with a big “depends”. Mostly I expect those who remain in publishing do so because they love it, not because they expect wealth and fame, so I don’t see how this holds. (From Galleycat)

Tiny salaries in the low ranks of publishing are miserable for the young workers, but they’re probably worse for literature (You can insert “movies” for “literature,” if that’s the prism through which you want to read this.) It’s a truism of the industry that most of these jobs are held by people who can afford them—people with some parental support and no student loans. Often they’ve had unpaid internships, that most pernicious example of class privilege. Their superiors are the same people, ten years later. They—we!—are smart, cultured people with good intentions, but it’s easy to see how this narrow range could lead to a blinkered view of literature.