This week, I was offered a regular writing gig for a website owned by a major FTSE brand. It all seemed very interesting until the company told me that, ‘for the time being at least’, the work would be unpaid. But, hey, I’d get a link for my troubles.
Personally, then, I don’t consider they were offering me
work. They were inviting me to make writing into my hobby. I have hobbies,
thanks – and none of them involve sitting at a computer, writing stuff. That’s
what I do for a living, in fact.
Writing for free is a tricky issue when you’re starting out, though. There’s a view in some media circles that people should serve their time, learn the ropes, get their foot in the door by doing an internship or similar. An internship where you learn the ropes of a job for a short time is a very different proposition to writing for free, though.
For starters, an intern is identified as someone new – you’re there to learn how to do stuff. Writing for free means doing exactly the same job as the people being paid – you’re just cheaper. Sure, it’s a personal choice, but I would always advise a new writer against writing for free for three reasons:
First, in agreeing to write for free, you’re telling an editor or client that you’re desperate. That you think what you do has little or no value.
Second, when exactly do you think that editor is going to
start paying you? Do you think after a month or two they will be so amazed by
your talent that they say, ‘Hey, Jane, you know that article I was getting for
free? This month I’d like to pay you £500 for it. Have a great day!’ Never
gonna happen.
Third, when you write for free for a company or publication
that usually pays people, you’re making it that much harder for me, and people
like me, to earn a living. You are under-cutting your colleagues and becoming
part of a movement that is pushing down rates for writers.
You might not think
it’s important now, but put yourself five years in the future – do you want to
be earning a living as a writer? Well, stop doing it for free now, then.
If you genuinely cannot get commissions and clips from paying magazines, then there are many online start-ups and community-led publications that don’t pay anyone for their time. If you choose to write for free for those titles, surely that’s a better option?
