How Much Is Your Writing Worth?
Today, as always, I picked up a copy of the Chicago Sun-Times. I am one of those people who still likes to read the morning paper. I also open up to page 11 to read Richard Roeper’s column. He had an interesting piece today in which he spoke about writers and how they are perceived. Below is the relevant part of the column. The entire article can be read here.
Recently, a major entertainment conglomerate asked if I’d write a little piece for them. When I inquired about payment, I was told they thought it would be something “fun” for me to to do.
Uh-huh.
I think I’ll try that the next time I need work on a car. Payment? Oh, there’ll be no money, but you’ll get to work on my car! Thought that’d be fun for you, seeing as how you like cars and engines and stuff.
If you can get someone to write for free for your for-profit magazine or Web site, congrats: You’re the 21st version of Tom Sawyer hosting a fence-painting party.
Apparently, that’s the case with the new Huffington Post Chicago. As the Trib’s Phil Rosenthal reported last week, contributors, including some very well-respected professional journalists and some Chicago-centric celebs such as John Cusack, are writing entries for no pay.
I can see Cusack waiving a fee. But just try to get him to appear in your commercial film for free and see what he tells you to do with your offer.
If you’re a professional writer, I suppose you might write something without payment as a way of promoting a book, getting your name out there, something like that. To me, though, once you’ve set your rate at nada, you’ve started down a dangerous Slip ‘n Slide.
I found what Richard said to be dead-on. Across the blogosphere, people are contributing free articles at an alarming rate, and never asking compensation. They are promised by hundreds of other blogs that by doing this, they will build up that traffic and start making real money writing. I bet this happens for 1 in 100 professional bloggers. Most waste a year, make no money, and decide they weren’t good enough and move on.
I have written dozens of what I consider interesting columns and articles on several blogs aside from this one. I have seen little to no money for this work yet consider myself a pretty skilled writer. Why am I wasting my time blogging when I could be marketing my skills in other ways? Is blogging really an effective way to promote your writing?
Sometimes, I wonder if I would be better suiting spending more time looking for a paying gig rather than blogging.
What is your opinion? Keep in mind I am only talking about those who attempt to write professional blogs, not those who just enjoy writing and have a blog.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:07 am
I won’t write for free, period.
And I agree whole-heartedly with Roeper: you can’t pay the bills with “fun.”
I’ve seen an ad in Facebook that tries to entice writers with promises of money because of the “long tail” that will be created over time by writing for them.
I stopped getting excited about receiving bylines, receiving scant pay and “getting my name out there” a long, long time ago.
Show me the money.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:12 am
The only writing I do for free is if I am volunteering. I dislike serving soup, so I am the “Blog Director” for a very cool web 2.0 charity (www.christmasfuture.org). So I write for them for free and that’s one of the ways I can give back.
I don’t write for other blogs or for anything unless there is money involved. I can’t pay my mortgage with publicity. It’s not a business model that makes sense and I think it’s a real fallacy in the business world.
Rhett Soveran’s last blog post..The Variety of Viral Video
August 20th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Having published one book and written some articles for pay, I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that freelancing to earn a living is pretty much dead, unless you’re already very well established, or are at least as good at “marketing” as you are at writing (which I’m not). The prevalence of “free” online writing has contributed greatly to this assessment. Before the advent of online writing, well established freelance writer Charles Bowden was already calling magazine freelancing something akin to “chewing glass” (he used a different metaphor). In terms of blogging, Chris Clarke of Creek Running North called blogging “cheaper than freelancing”.
As for blogging itself, I now write a blog for a conservation organization, the Desert Protective Council (it’s not a full-time blog or a full-time gig). I’ve thought about starting my own blog, but my area of expertise (nature and conservation writing) is such a small niche I don’t see how to make any kind of living off of it. I’ve read that bloggers with tens of thousands of readers are just scraping by. I’ve also seen large media corporations advertise for bloggers offering $5/post - crazy!
So I’d have to say that writing (on salary) for an organization is the way to go, if earning money from your writing is important.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:22 am
What they said. Writing pays my bills. It’s my only marketable skill and I completely agree that for most people that “write for the web” stuff is not a viable business model.
I blog because I enjoy it, but don’t make a dime from it. I have a full-time gig as a marketing writer and occasionally freelance for select clients to augment my income. The only time I write for free is for a very good cause (and those are few and far between) or for a close friend who might need a guest blog in a pinch.
Cara’s last blog post..The last revision
August 20th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I think it depends upon the subject matter and/or the “theme” of your blog.
I believe that, from time-to-time, I write interesting, valuable articles that are very helpful to a great many people. I do it because it helps me as well as the readers. I want to be able to help them navigate a very difficult path with a few less missteps than I had. I can’t put a price tag on the positive feedback I get in that regard.
Do I desire to “make millions on the internet” doing it? Sure, I’d love that.
Does writing my stuff for free mean it has $0 dollar value? Not necessarily. I could give you a Van Gogh for free. Well, I couldn’t really do that, but you probably understand my point.
If your goal or purpose was to blog/write in order to make money and you’re not putting it together in a way to make that happen, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
Mister-M’s last blog post..A Day’s Bad Start (Lovin’ The Landlord)
August 20th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Blogging is an effective way to promote a paid print career, if you are a freelance journalist or a novelist. Writing exclusively online content is only going to pay the bills for a very select few.
There are lots of ways to be paid for writing. Technical writing, working in communications departments of any type of company, doing ad copy, whathaveyou. As the poster said above, the best chance to earn a living is to write as staff with an organization.
As for writing for free, there are some good reasons to do it, if you are just starting out. A few pieces written for author copies or a free subscription will give you some clips to submit once you want to write for places that will pay you. Or, donating time and writing for particular causes, non-profits, or your own enjoyment.
Richard Roeper probably doesn’t need the clips or the exposure, though!
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:54 am
If you want to see a gaggle of con-artists try checking out Craigslist ads. Every other writing ad here in Toronto is for no pay, same goes for video shooting and editing. It’s quite nervy of them actually to ask us to write for free.
So right on! or is it Write on?
newmediaMike’s last blog post..Master of my own domain - update
August 26th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Well I can say writing articles for my blog is much better than writing them for free for others. You make money along the way from ads in your website
Marketing Deviant’s last blog post..Dedication, Organization, Timeliness (DOT)
September 17th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I agree completely with this post. So much so that when I was looking for contributors to my site, I was going to pay (not a lot, heh, but not “links” either). My problem was the quality of submissions were so bad that I couldn’t afford to review them in order to hire someone. So I gave up. I think the amount of amateur writing available has lowered the quality of all the writing on the net.
October 10th, 2008 at 1:43 am
[…] bring this up because it seems to contradict the popular belief that good writing doesn’t come free. Many bloggers and authors have told me and commented on my blog that they will not work for free […]