Over on Deb Ng’s blog there’s a bit of a discussion going regarding the old free-or-next-to-free payment issue. As you know by now if you’ve been around listening to me whine incessantly about it, working for free is never cool. Well, one exception – working for your mother. You wouldn’t charge your mother, although most mothers would offer money to their babies in order to see them do well. But that’s another story.
Yet it seems a lot of folks posting say they started with freebies. Some claim they weren’t taken seriously until they had clips, and they had to go with freebies in order to gain clips.
Do I believe them? Yes, I’m sure they worked for free. Do I believe it was their only option? Not at all. See, if you’re trying to score a gig and the buyer wants to see clips, it means that person wants proof you can write, so send them to your new website that houses your writing. If that’s not enough, move on to the next gig. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to work for nothing. And there are alternatives. Like writing on spec.
Spec Writing
“On spec” simply means you write something on speculation – the editor may or may not use it. If she does, you get paid. If she doesn’t, you’re free to take that article elsewhere. I can hear you now – “But if she doesn’t buy it, didn’t I just write for free?” Yes, but someone is not profiting from your hard work. And you’ve increased your odds for a sale. Plus you’ve established a contact with a paying market. Oh, and you can now take that “clip” somewhere else and show yet another person that you can write.
I wrote a spec piece when I was first starting out. Sadly, the magazine decided against it. However, I pitched the idea to the competitor and they snapped it up. That article wasn’t a freebie by any stretch of the imagination. It served a purpose – in fact, numerous purposes, as listed above. I made some key contacts at two publications, I got paid, and I got my first national sale.
If you’re hell-bent on working for free, put up a weblog. Post a few times a week on your topic (here’s a good exercise in finding a focus, so have fun with it). Establish other weblog connections. Link to each other. Build a name for yourself in the blogosphere. Then point potential employers to it as proof you can write.
If you’re still going to work for free, be warned. Sometimes, as one poster on Deb’s blog points out, that freebie labels you more of an amateur than not having any clips at all.
Solution: Volunteer writing.
Lori,
There’s one time I think it’s appropriate to write for free. That is to donate your writing services to a church, nonprofit organization, or cause you want to support. Beginning writers can use the writing for clips, but I do it because I want to contribute to my church or other organization. I think that’s far different than writing for free for a business. And I volunteer; they don’t ask me to write for the chance for “exposure.”
You make a good point, Lillie. I volunteered once – for the Alzheimer’s Association. It was a cause near and dear to my heart. Come to think of it, I’m leading the editorial group for the American Communications Association e-textbook project that will bring free books to students and faculty.
The idea is to choose whom you give work away to, not to just accept it in order to gain clips.