What that has to do with anything, Edmund?
As I said, he is an amateur, he does not need to find a new content (accident) every day. You asked if those who are not famous have to give it away, and I provided an example where they don't. He asked, they paid. It is possible that they would pay him even if he didn't ask. I got recently a request to use one of my images they found on Flickr as a double-page spread in a magazine, and they told me in advance, without me asking, how much they pay for it.
So, what exactly we are talking about here? That magazines and publishers are hard to convince to publish something "half-good" (your words) from an unknown (to a broader public) author? Well, duh!!! How's that anything new? It's been like that for centuries. Ask any well-know author how many times publishers rejected them before they were well-known. How many paintings did Van Gough sell in his life (hint: zero or one, depending on source)? Ask anyone who tried to sell something how many times they were rejected. Average success rate for unsolicited offers is a whopping 1-2% (and that if you are really lucky).
So, once again, what exactly are we talking about here?