Writing for free
A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Linda Jones, a subscriber to my E-Writer newsletter, on the subject of 'writing for free'. The interview was for a website article she was writing. I thought readers of my blog might be interested to see an edited version of this.
Linda asked me if I had ever written for free in my earlier career, perhaps to help get my name known, build up cuttings, develop a specialism or market my services more widely. She also asked whether I wouldn’t even consider this now, or if I might still do the odd ‘freebie’, depending on what it could lead to. This was my reply:
In general I've always tried to avoid this. I believe that writers should be paid a fair wage for their efforts, and writers who routinely work for free are effectively undermining those of us who depend on writing for our livelihood.
There are exceptions, though. For example, recently I was asked to take on a job writing descriptions of antique beds for a company selling them on eBay. It was an unusual job and I wasn't sure exactly what the company expected from me or what to charge them. So I suggested that I do one free write-up for them, so they could assess my style and I could assess what the job would involve. Once I had done that, I was able to give them a quote for future work.
That was OK because it was quite a small job, but I wouldn't adopt this approach for anything more substantial. However, I might be willing to accept a lower than usual fee for writing, say, a test article, if I genuinely believed it was going to lead on to better things. I would definitely expect some payment if the job was going to take me more than half a day or so.
Linda then asked what advice I would give anyone starting out who was considering writing for free, and in particular what such a person should do if an editor asks them to write something ‘on spec’ to judge their writing. My reply was:
Obviously you need to judge the offer carefully. If it's just a small job to test your skills, and you're confident it could lead on to regular work, I'd say go for it. But if it's more substantial, I would think carefully. A little bit of negotiation may be required here. Point out to the editor that the job will involve a fair bit of work, and as a professional writer (even if you're still only part-time) you will expect some recompense for this. If they are reasonable people, they should understand and accept this. If not, you are probably better off not working for them anyway.
Finally, Linda asked me whether I thought the Web offered writers more opportunities to build a portfolio, without necessarily boosting their bank balance. My reply was:
This may have been the case in the past, but increasingly I find that professional web publishers are willing to pay proper fees to get good-quality copy for their websites. Personally I charge clients the same rate (hourly or per 1000 words) whether it's for the web or a printed publication. But it's true as well that there are lots of people out there running websites on a shoe-string who are more than happy to pay writers peanuts. If you want to write for such publishers to build up your portfolio, I'd be the last to say you shouldn't, but be sure you use it only as a stepping stone to better things.
I hope the above may be of interest, and that Linda doesn't mind me reproducing part of the interview here!
Linda asked me if I had ever written for free in my earlier career, perhaps to help get my name known, build up cuttings, develop a specialism or market my services more widely. She also asked whether I wouldn’t even consider this now, or if I might still do the odd ‘freebie’, depending on what it could lead to. This was my reply:
In general I've always tried to avoid this. I believe that writers should be paid a fair wage for their efforts, and writers who routinely work for free are effectively undermining those of us who depend on writing for our livelihood.
There are exceptions, though. For example, recently I was asked to take on a job writing descriptions of antique beds for a company selling them on eBay. It was an unusual job and I wasn't sure exactly what the company expected from me or what to charge them. So I suggested that I do one free write-up for them, so they could assess my style and I could assess what the job would involve. Once I had done that, I was able to give them a quote for future work.
That was OK because it was quite a small job, but I wouldn't adopt this approach for anything more substantial. However, I might be willing to accept a lower than usual fee for writing, say, a test article, if I genuinely believed it was going to lead on to better things. I would definitely expect some payment if the job was going to take me more than half a day or so.
Linda then asked what advice I would give anyone starting out who was considering writing for free, and in particular what such a person should do if an editor asks them to write something ‘on spec’ to judge their writing. My reply was:
Obviously you need to judge the offer carefully. If it's just a small job to test your skills, and you're confident it could lead on to regular work, I'd say go for it. But if it's more substantial, I would think carefully. A little bit of negotiation may be required here. Point out to the editor that the job will involve a fair bit of work, and as a professional writer (even if you're still only part-time) you will expect some recompense for this. If they are reasonable people, they should understand and accept this. If not, you are probably better off not working for them anyway.
Finally, Linda asked me whether I thought the Web offered writers more opportunities to build a portfolio, without necessarily boosting their bank balance. My reply was:
This may have been the case in the past, but increasingly I find that professional web publishers are willing to pay proper fees to get good-quality copy for their websites. Personally I charge clients the same rate (hourly or per 1000 words) whether it's for the web or a printed publication. But it's true as well that there are lots of people out there running websites on a shoe-string who are more than happy to pay writers peanuts. If you want to write for such publishers to build up your portfolio, I'd be the last to say you shouldn't, but be sure you use it only as a stepping stone to better things.
I hope the above may be of interest, and that Linda doesn't mind me reproducing part of the interview here!
Nick at 9:29 AM 
1 Comments:
Excellent advice.
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