Friday, June 22, 2007

What Does "Free" Really Mean, Anyway?

Imagine that you are an up and coming music writer. Music writing is your dream, and you've had a little success. You're writing music reviews for a few websites and a regional magazine, perhaps, making anywhere from $10 to $100/review, depending on the market.

One day, without ever really entertaining the thought that it might be accepted, you pop off a query to Rolling Stone. Much to your surprise, you get a call almost immediately--the magazine loves your proposal, and they're willing to run it as a cover story. But for whatever reason (this being wildly hypothetical), they can't pay you for the story. Do you write it?


It seems to me that there are only two possible answers to this question:

1. Yes, of course, because once I've written a Rolling Stone cover story I'll have hundreds of markets available to me at good rates that might have been out of reach only yesterday.

2. No, I never really wanted to make it in the music writing business anyway. Better $10 from Ralph's Obscure Newsletter of Indy CDs than nothing from Rolling Stone!

For as long as I can remember, a debate has raged in the writing community about "writing for free". Many writers say, "Never write for free!" while others (myself included) can point to lucrative opportunities that came about as the direct result of something written for "free". It suddenly occurred to me today that we've been asking the wrong question and debating the wrong issue all along. The question isn't whether or not we should write for free. Of course we shouldn't. The question is what "free" means in the context of writing and publishing.

The world is full of publications proclaiming that the only "payment" they offer is the opportunity to "see your work in print" or offer a link to your website. If all you want is to see your work in "print", start a blog. Publications with low quality work and low readership don't provide clips that are going to be of much use to you in advancing your writing career. But what about that link to your website? Is that payment?

The answer is that it depends entirely on where that link will be placed. If the link is on a site with no page rank and 50 visitors a day, it's not likely to benefit you in any meaningful way. If you're a music writer and the link is on Billboard's official site, it's worth a heck of a lot more than the $10 or $100 you might have gotten for a paid article on a lesser site. For one thing, it's likely to bring a lot of relevant traffic to your website. Just as important, it's a link that screams "important music resource this way!" to Google and the other search engines.

People and businesses shell out hundreds of dollars per month to have a single link on a relevant, highly-ranked, high traffic website. So you might not be getting a paycheck, but you may be getting something of much greater value in return.

Sometimes, the "payment" for your work can be even further removed from an editor cutting a check; sometimes, the value truly is in the clip. In the Rolling Stone example above, they "payment" for your "free" story might well be skipping over another two or three years of writing for indy newspapers and regional magazines and moving into the big leagues. It might be commanding much more respect and higher rates that the publications you're already working with. For some, it might simply be the fulfillment of a lifelong dream to write a Rolling Stone cover story.

The right question, it seems to me, is the same one I was suggesting back when we were all asking the wrong one: What's in it for me? There are many, many, many opportunities for "free" writing that not only won't help you or your writing career, but might do it some harm. But the question to ask in making that determination isn't, "Are they going to cut me a check?" but "Is there a tangible benefit in this for me.?" Very often, I think, the answer is yes.

7 comments:

TrueMirage said...

absolutely the right way to think about it - and not just for writing.

Candace April said...

In your theoretical situation, yest of course...but the thing is that most legitimate publications will pay you for your writing. If they are making money, you should too.

The web and non-profits are two exceptions, but I think as a general rule it is safe to say don't write for free.

I mention these two exceptions in this tip list I wrote: http://mamasaga.blogspot.com/2007/06/15-tips-for-freelance-writing-success.html

Tiffany said...

Everyone's mileage varies. My hypothetical situation is just that, but it stems from my experience and that of a number of my colleagues. In my case, one piece that I wrote for free led directly to a book contract, and another led to a full-time, salaried writing job. Made me glad I didn't hold out for a $30 check in place of those opportunities!

The key, of course, is being able to recognize where there ARE opportunities, where there truly is a benefit beyond the oft-stated (usually inaccurately) "get your work out there".

Candace April said...

Thanks for coming to visit my blog and leaving a comment on there.

As I mentioned on my blog, there are two major caveats...and with almost any rule, there are exceptions. However, 99 times out of 100, if someone has a legitimate print publication and can afford to pay you and they value your writing, they'll pay you.

Hanley Family said...

I enjoyed this post...thanks! My first bit of published work was actually purely for the joy of being published and showing my friends a book with my name on one of the stories included in it. And a copy of the book which was worth what I ever would have expected to get paid for such a little story anyway!

But I have been looking at writer's guidelines for a variety of publications and one of them bothered me. It said "freely we have received, freely we give." Now, if they had simply stated "We do not pay for articles at this time," or if they were a nonprofit I wouldn't have minded. But that bothered me. Yes, I have freely received, but give freely so that someone else can make a profit? That seems a bit twisted!

Anonymous said...

Very interesting post and hypothetical question.

While it's always great to get paid, as you pointed out the "payment" isn't always, nor does it have to be, dollars and cents. I think it's fine to write for "free" when there is an opportunity there.

If Rolling Stone asks me to do a cover story for free, heck yeah, I'm there. If a local free publication asked me to write for free, I think I'd probably politely decline even though I do love writing.

I'm not that hungry to see my name in print. I'm more hungry for a career and paycheck than the thrill of being published in a place where it would be virtually unseen and be of no benefit, to me anyway.

So, as you pointed out, I guess it depends on who's asking and what the situation is.

Anonymous said...

Well said! I really like your way of thinking.