Ok, I want to know what percentage of companies that need cover art are having these "no pay" contest.  By the way you two are talking is it 90%? 95% of all companies are doing this?   You guys are acting as if the industry is going to go "no pay" soon and all these artsist will be out of paying jobs.

This is not a giant contest. Heck the book itself is done this same way!  Aside from Philip, this book is all amateur articles and stories, and NONE of the are getting money!  This contest is designed for amateurs that most likely won't sell their work on their own any time soon.   Have you  two ever even looked at our side?  We get no buyers for our work, yet we keep trying.  When jobs out there want to see some credits of what we can do we have nothing to show. 

But if somebody is willing to give us a shot, we'll take it.  Basically it is like making a sacrifice to get our foot in the door.   Take a look at Youtube.  They are making money from people giving away their "video art" for free.  Should people who get paid to make TV shows freak out saying "what if every company used free user posted videos? Youtube should be giving some money back to the users."  No. What do the users get?  Exposure.  And I am sure there are many in the business who will agree that a lot of exposure can be more helpful that a little money.