When People Expect You to Give Your Writing Away to Them for Free
Most of us who write expect to be paid for the work we do. After all, who in their right mind would work and not expect to be paid when it’s payday? Is a writer somehow different? Are we actually expected to just give our work away for free? Sure, some write articles for websites and newsletters, in exchange for a ‘resource box’ containing their name and usually a website URL, usually to help promote or advertise. That’s nothing new. But for someone to actually be offended that you will not just hand over your work to them, free of charge, is too funny for words.
This happened to me, just this week. I received an email from a woman who wanted to use some of my material she found on one of my websites for her newsletter. She offered me a byline and a link back to my site. Bylines and links back to my site are nice but they don’t pay the bills. I don’t think that if I tell my mortgage company that I will give them a byline and a link to their site that they would let me out of this month’s house note.
So I emailed her back, gave her a quote for the reprint and usage, and she emails me back, offended and angry that I would have the audacity to actually want to be paid for my own work. After all, how dare I actually want money for something that I wrote and she wants to use. She called me unprofessional and a child. After me refusing to give her my work for free, she even told me that I am not a nice person. Imagine that, not nice because I refused to give my work away to her for free. But had I told her that she may use my material free of charge and not expected pay for it, I would have been a nice person in her book.
She told me that my attitude is unbecoming and unprofessional as a writer. According to her, because I expect to be paid for what I write, my attitude is unbecoming.
After all of this transpired, I was left wondering how many writers are approached in this manner, and how many are trashed for actually expecting to be paid to write. Why is it that someone gets offended and angry when they want your work for nothing, and when you refuse to hand it over to them, they blame you for actually having the nerve to ask for payment for your work? I think they need a mirror!
There is nothing wrong if one writes for exposure with a resource box IF that is what the writer wants to do and they are not interested in being paid for what they do. There’s nothing wrong with a person going to work for 40 hours a week and turning down a paycheck at the end of the week IF they don’t want to be paid for their work. (I suspect that the woman who emailed me wouldn’t work for free although she expected me to do so.)
It’s a pretty well known fact that print publications, in general, pay more than online publications pay. Print publications usually have much more advertising revenue thereby allowing a higher pay for the writer. Online publications generally have far less advertising which is why they pay much less than their print counterparts. Yet, most online publications still pay something. And for those that offer a resource box for the writer, it’s understood ahead of time so that no one is upset or had hard feelings about not getting a check.
So why would someone ask for your work for their newsletter, and when you tell them you don’t give away your work that you charge for it, they get mad? Who is the unprofessional one when they tell you they have been a writer and editor for years, yet they become angry and offended at the writer wanting to be paid?
When did exposure and a link to your site pay the bills or put food on the table? If I go to the store and get to the checkout line and my tab is $150, will the cashier take a byline and link back to her site as payment for the groceries? Should I be offended when she won’t accept that? When it’s time for her to draw her paycheck, should she be offended and angry when the boss hands her a paper with his name and a link to his site instead of a paycheck?
No one in their right mind would do that. Yet for some reason, some people expect a writer to work for free, to write for free, to hand over articles and reprints for free, etc.
I write because that’s what I love to do. I write because it pays the bills and feeds my kids. I write because it’s my job. I don’t write to get called a child, unprofessional, or not nice because I expect to be paid for what I do.
