Minnesota House Majority Douchbag Leader Matt Dean hates the hell out of Neil Gaiman. No, really. In an recent session in which the House was discussing state funding for the arts, Dean called Gaiman a:
“pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota.”
Dean is referring to a public appearance that Gaiman made to the Stillwater Library in Minnesota back in 2010 in which the author was paid $40,000 for his time. This caused a bit of controversy, but Gaiman issued the following level-headed statement on the matter over at his blog to clear up the matter:
Obviously I do a lot of speaking for free. The night before I’d done a pro bono 3 hour reading/Q&A as a benefit for the CBLDF in Chicago, in front of 1600 people, who had paid up to $250 a ticket to attend.Four days before I’d done “An Evening With Neil Gaiman” internet talk with the Jessamine Public Library for nothing, because they asked me to, and because it was National Library Week (although they sent me a wonderful Kentucky nibbles gift basket as a thank you).
In fact most of the talks and appearances I do are for free.
But if you want to hire me to come in and talk, it’s expensive.
My speaking fees are high. I keep them that way intentionally. Here’s what it says on my website’s Frequently asked questions:
“Q. How can I get Neil Gaiman to make an appearance at my school/convention/event?
A. Contact Lisa Bransdorf at the Greater Talent Network. Tell her you want Neil to appear somewhere. Have her tell you how much it costs. Have her say it again in case you misheard it the first time. Tell her you could get Bill Clinton for that money. Have her tell you that you couldn’t even get ten minutes of Bill Clinton for that money but it’s true, he’s not cheap.
On the other hand, I’m really busy, and I ought to be writing, so pricing appearances somewhere between ridiculously high and obscenely high helps to discourage most of the people who want me to come and talk to them. Which I could make a full time profession, if I didn’t say ‘no’ a lot.”
For this event, nobody asked my representatives if I would do it for less than a normal speaking fee. (I do sometimes. Normally only for libraries.) I was assured before I agreed to sign on that this money was not coming from the library system, but from the 200 million sales tax Legacy Fund. It was a wonderful afternoon. And yesterday Minnesota Public Radio broadcast the entire one hour talk (although not the Q&A).
And, although I’m not sure that it’s anyone’s business, when I get money like this, I put it back out again. In this case, 25% of what I get goes to a social/abuse charity, and the other 75% goes to an author/literature/library related charity program.
So, it sounds like to me that not only did the library not ask for the educator discount he often grants, but that they willingly found the money from someplace outside library budget. As a library programmer I can tell you that we pay pretty much every speaker that we get to come out. Sometimes it’s just travel expenses, sometimes it’s more. At the end of the day it’s the organization’s decision whether or not to bring the speaker to their library. Also he puts that price out there for the world to see to discourage the requests in the first place. It’s not like they asked him to come and then he slapped them with a bill after he got there.
Way to go, Matt Dean. You just made adulthood feel like high school.
[Source] Blastr
