How to get paid for your writing? Don't give it away.
The name of my blog may be The Pen Whore, but that doesn't mean I'm giving away *anything* for free.
I've recently read several articles (Wil Wheaton's, Chuck Wendig's, KJ Charles', Kristen Lamb's) about Huffington Post's policy of not paying the people that write some of their content. Actual HuffPo employees, that work in their office, get paid. That's good. But they also host content by other bloggers looking to widen their audience on a particular subject. That's good too, but unless these people are getting a salary from whatever news organization or company they may work for, they aren't being compensated for their time and effort. Lots of writers for HuffPo who freely share their content end up going out of pocket for expenses related to the production of their articles, and still don't get paid.
By writing pro bono for these sites, a writer is presumably afforded the oppportunity to hone their skills and gain a readership. Plenty of people do it. But, let's be honest here, when reading these articles, how often do we check the name of the author and think to ourselves, "Wow, this is GOOD. I need to look up other articles by this person."? And then actually *do* look up that person's other contributions? Show of hands? That's what I thought, because I'm guilty of the same thing. According to HuffPo (and other news hubs) this 'exposure' is compensation enough.
Not for me, it's not.
I write fiction, so unless HuffPo starts serializing fiction, I don't have much of a horse in this race. But, as a writer, it brings me to the thought that what I do isn't valued as a skill by the general population. Granted, I'm not performing heart surgery, feeding the homeless, or discovering a free, clean energy source that will change mankind and cure the world's ills. But the fact remains that what I do requires skill, it requires a level of intelligence and a sense of style. I like to think that I have that. People tell me my writing is good. I respect their opinions, so by extension, I must be a good writer.
Writing is a kind of magic. You let people have peek into your brain, and all it takes is sitting down and writing words. It's that easy and that hard, to paraphrase Neil Gaiman. What I do has the potential to introduce new thoughts to another person, and as such can influence that person to generate new thoughts, based on the information I have provided. Again, not as likely to happen since I write fiction, but for the thousands of people out there who do write less frivolous content, they should be fairly compensated. Just as I expect someone to pay for an ebook or hard copy of my novels (and not scam them from a 'free ebooks'site), articles written on news and issues should be paid for by the entity publishing the content. Artists and musicians should be paid for their time and effort, for their talent. Don't we practically worship some of these people? Why not show them how much we care by helping them pay the friggin' light bill once in awhile?
I don't condemn writers who write for HuffPo for free. Some people use it to their advantage, gaining readership for their own content and it works for them. But it seems like a lot of effort for not a lot of return. I don't know about you, but I need all the return I can get. Maybe I'm trying to skip'paying my dues'. But I'd rather stay true to myself and my writing than get screwed without even getting dinner or a drink out of the deal.
