The last few days, I’ve seen a few too many ads posted online looking for writers where the client wants to pay something in other than legal tender. Being rather passionate about what I do and feeling a bit crusty today besides, I decided to share a few thoughts with you on this matter.
Here’s a few examples of the “offers” I’ve been recently where employers are offering writers the chance to write for :
- Credit
- The Joy of Seeing Your Name in Print
- Exposure
- Good Karma
Now, I can use good karma as much as the next person, but as far as payment is concerned, that doesn’t really cut it. When the day comes that I can buy groceries or pay my bills in “karma” or by showing someone my name in print, we can talk. Until then, I am a professional writer and I deserve to be paid for what I do. And if I want “exposure,” I’ll give Hugh Hefner a call…
I appreciate that a business owner must keep an eye on outgoing expenses and that not all clients have deep pockets. The excuse that you have a startup and can’t afford to pay doesn’t fly with me. If you can plan for and find funding for other expenses involved in running a biz, then either you budget for writers or you do the work yourself until you can afford to hire someone.
I am not into suffering for my art. I work hard and I deserve to be paid like anyone else who works and offers a service. That doesn’t mean that I can’t be flexible and I won’t try to work within a client’s budget. I can and I do.
Now, there is always more than one side to a story and I have to wonder if writers are not contributing to this problem, too. Are some of us so desperate to get our names “out there” that we are willing to give our work away? To my mind, an employer wouldn’t be offering these kinds of terms if on some level they didn’t think it was OK.
Being a good writer is both a skill and an art. If writers want to be treated like skilled professionals with a valuable service to offer, then we need to start seeing ourselves in that way first. Then it will be much easier to say “No” to someone who wants us to give our talents away.
@ John: Good point about seeing your name in print on a check!
@ Amy: Thanks! And good point how having your stuff appear on some obscure site not really counting as “exposure.”
Jodee, I totally agree about not writing for free. But how on earth can you then justify posting those ads for “500 words for $10?” It’s not free, but it’s darn close, and just as belittling. You aren’t helping anyone by giving credence to those ads. You are only helping to drive down rates even more.
Please raise your standards.
@ Cathy D: “My” standards are not the issue here. Deb, who owns FWJ, has set a minimum of $10 for jobs posted here. If you read through the leads that I post, I post what I find that is above that level. Is $10 on the low side? Maybe for some people it is. The rate that someone will find acceptable is a personal decision.
From the number of comments and e-mails I get from people thanking me for all that I do to help the freelance writing community, I would have to disagree with your comment that I don’t help anyone.
Thank you for sharing.
Here’s a question: What do you do when you have submitted an assigned article to a magazine that’s published your work before, then wait months and months for payment, contact the editor by e-mail a few times inquiring about it, then discover quite by accident while on the Internet that the magazine has ceased publication? According to the web site my work was published, but I’ve never seen an actual copy of the magazine. Do I have any legal recourse, or am I out the money that was promised me? It isn’t a huge amount by publishing terms, but several hundred dollars makes a difference to my budget. Any advice? Anyone else had this problem?
@ Sue: I would say the first thing you need to do is to find out who was publishing the magazine and contact them. Explain that your work was accepted and that you never received payment. Give them a chance to pay you what you are owed. If they refuse, then you will need to look at other options, but it doesn’t hurt to ask first.