To do good writing, read good writing. Here’s the good writing I’ve been reading this week:
Is it ever OK to write for free? It depends on who you ask.
The Columbia Journalism Review fired the latest salvo in the ongoing debate over the value of free freelance work when editor-turned-freelancer Ann Friedman appeared to advocate for it in a piece called “The rules of the freelance game” on her regular RealTalk column on the industry magazine’s website.
In reply to a reader’s question about the best way to break into freelancing, Friedman wrote in part (emphasis is mine):
Write regularly on your personal site and on sites that don’t pay you, and then disseminate those links as widely as you can.
It didn’t take long for other freelancers to spread the word about the piece and come to the Comments section to weigh in with their own opinions. I was one of them. My comment:
Aside from writing for your own website or blog, there’s one other situation where I can see some value in writing for free, and that is writing guest posts on popular blogs or someplace like HuffPost to promote a book or some other new venture. I run guest posts on my blog every week from journalists and authors who are doing just that. Otherwise, there’s no reason to write for free. Even if you’re just starting out. As Harlan Ellison says in this now widely circulated interview: “Pay the writer.”
Writers who sided with Friedman argued that for young writers or people just breaking into freelancing, writing for sites that don’t pay is what it takes today to build up clips and get your name out there, likening it to unpaid internships.
Writers who came down against writing for free – including a number of American Society of Journalists and Authors members – said that even relatively new freelancers can get paid for their writing if they follow freelance fundamentals like having a strong pitch, and treating what they do like the business that it is.
CJR has visited this subject before. A longer piece in the magazine’s July/August issue, titled “Piecemeal Existence,” the story explains the innovative systems some websites are using to pay freelancers.
What’s your opinion: is it ever worthwhile to write for free? Tell me what you think by leaving a comment.
Here are some other good reads for writers I’ve come across this week:
- Reporting Poverty (Guernica) – Reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo discusses the ethical conflicts the come with covering the world’s poor, and her new book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers.
- An Open Letter to Wikipedia (The New Yorker) – When author Philip Roth couldn’t get Wikipedia to correct mistakes in his profile – a representative said the website requires “secondary sources” – he did what any self-respecting writer would do – he wrote about it. Roth’s explanation of the real inspiration for his 2000 novel The Human Stain is as good an examination as any I’ve read about how an author builds fiction from fact.
- How to Write for Any Medium (From a Guy Who’s Written for The New Yorker, Saturday Night Live and Pixar (Fast Company) – And he’s only 28. Not sure whether that makes me want to cheer or cry.
- Cisco tries role as tech news publisher (Digiday) – Further evidence that the times, they are a changin’.
- 2012 International Freelance Industry Report (International Freelancers Day) – Did you know freelancers now have their own special day? It’s Sept. 21. The organization that cooked up the holiday would like you to celebrate by attending a free online conference. Register and check out sessions on their website.
- The Best Reviews Money Can Buy (The New York Times) – If it seems like most of the books on Amazon get five star reviews, it’s because they do, and that’s no mistake.
Writing for free has a persistent place in the writer’s tool box.
Writing strong pitches, in my experience, matters almost nil if you don’t have a track record. When a writer goes after pay markets, it will be critical that they have a track record of working with editors, meeting deadlines, and writing professional copy, and only clips can back that up. I wrote for free extensively when I started out and it was through those clips that I leveraged my way into my first paying gigs.
Once the paying gigs start, certainly one should always prioritize them over non-paying ones, but even after a writer is established, it is smart to keep producing work for non-paying outlets. There are two broad reasons why.
First, the best way to develop and maintain a reputation as a writer is to be published. Outlets that do not pay can do more than advertise a book or a product, they can advertise *you*. In this scenario, the outlet you are writing for, the content of what you are writing, and the anticipated audience are all critical. Strategic choice in free writing assignments, however, enables a writer to burnish a special topic area, or to make contact with a specific audience, or to broaden a clips collection.
Second, the bounds of traditional publishing, writing, and journalism are blurring, and there is an emerging market of cause-based writing. A writer is smart to be involved with organizations that are influential and engaged in topic areas in which he or she specializes. These may be museums, non-profit advocacy groups, political organizations, enthusiast clubs, etcetera…. (These organizations rarely have a budget to pay a writer, and its unrealistic to expect that to change.) Writing for these organizations means building reputation, but also giving back to a community with which the writer regularly engages.
Let’s not confuse things here: a writer’s ultimate goal ought to be to be compensated as well as possible for writing about what he or she loves to write about most. But careful, strategic, selective acceptance of unpaid assignments are at times ways to build and maintain a career. What is important is not to take on too much of this, and to recognize the fine line between opportunity and exploitation.
Alexander:
I agree it with you – to a point. I would argue that there are ways to “burnish a special topic area” and get paid for it. Write for Patch or another hyperlocal site. Last I checked, Portland’s Neighborhood Notes paid .10/word for freelance pieces – not much, but better than nothing.
I agree that the boundaries of traditional publishing and journalism are changing – these days I make a steady income working for custom publishers that run or manage “brand journalism” sites for major corporations. However, I would never attempt to gain experience in a specific beat by volunteering to write about it for a nonprofit cause. The potential for conflict of interest is too great.
That’s not to say that freelancers or prospective freelancers can’t learn from working for nonprofits. During the seven-year sabbatical I took to raise my kids, I did a large amount of volunteer communications work for schools and other nonprofit groups. Was it related to subjects I covered or wanted to cover as a reporter – no. Did it help me keep up my skills – yes.
I still maintain that once a freelancer is established, the only writing they should be doing for free is for their own blog or to promote a book or other new venture.
Michelle R.