I write 12 horoscopes a week, which takes me about two hours.

I publish a daily astro tidbit every night on Instagram, which takes 15 min.

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I do a live radio interview weekly for 50 minutes.  I prepare at least 10 questions.  It takes me about an hour of prep per show, in addition to the 50 minutes  LIVE on air.  To take the live radio and make it ready for YouTube and IMDB, it usually takes an additional hour of my time editing.  That’s not counting the time, money and effort my co-host Judy Goss puts in to produce the show.

A 12 episode season of my talk show “Horror Talk with Kristin West” usually involves at least 6 hours prep before the taping by multiple producers, plus the cost and expenses of the actual show. Sometimes, we tape under less-than-ideal conditions, which means hours of sitting in the rain, sitting outside, etc.  We tape for at least three hours per taping.  Our editing process takes us about a week per episode.  That’s not counting the podcast version of show on iTunes, Spreaker, et al.

At least twice a month, I put out one 15 min or so episode of “Star Power:  Celebrities & Astrology”, my astrology podcast.  It takes me about an hour to write the show, 30 min to record it and 20 min to edit it and distribute it.

I write several guest columns and blogs.

All of this takes time.  Some of this takes money.

Few things upset me more than to have my IP and my copyright violated.  When I see my content or ideas appropriated, you might as well have stolen my time and money.  The next time you feel like you can just appropriate someone’s work, someone’s video or part of someone’s blog without attribution, stop and consider how you would feel if you were stolen from.  We are so used to having content bombard us, we forget the effort it takes to make the content in the first place.  When someone who’s in the entertainment business does this, it makes me even more indignant, because it’s extremely disrespectful to a fellow creator.

Entertainers and content creators, please familiarize yourself with IP and copyright law.  If you don’t know, ask.  If you’re unsure, ask permission.  Just don’t assume you can take something because you have the ability to rip something.  Just because you’re in something or worked on something, doesn’t mean you OWN that footage.  Respect your fellow creators and hopefully, they’ll respect you too.