THE EDITOR’S DESK: The Part About Writing For Free
I followed some links this morning that brought me to this, Why I Write For Free, which is kind of an indictment of this, by Benjamin Kunkel, which is kind of an indictment of reading and writing for free online. And there’s this, from Gawker, equating writing for free with slave labor, and this approving tumblr post about turning down a no-pay writing gig and then getting paid to write an article about The Mets.
At the same time, the tumblr blogger says she, “doesn’t write for free,” but of course she does. She has a blog.
Emily Magazine goes on to say that by their own logic, without unpaid contributions nplusonemag.com, This Recording, and The Awl, would not exist. And the author tries to think of a meaningful way that “writing for free for these sites, w/r/t whether it devalues all online writing, is distinct from writing for free for the Huffington Post, and I sort of can’t.” But later she says, “I write for free because there seems to me to be no meaningful relationship between whether a publication pays me and whether it’s worthwhile for me to write for them.”
I think it’s worth pointing out that people have always written for free for literary publications, or close enough to free that there’s not really a difference. If you spend months on a short story, say six months on three short stories, and one of them gets picked up by McSweeney’s and they give you $500, you’re basically writing for free anyway. And if you’re publishing in The Alaska Quarterly, or Zyzzyva, you’re getting $50, or nothing.
So that’s the thing about writing for free. And the difference in writing for free for a good online publication and writing for free for The Huffington Post is that The Huffngton Post is a lower quality version of People Magazine. And nobody would write for People Magazine for free.
I went through a period of publishing for free, and then a period of being insulted that people wanted my work for free, and then back into a period of writing for free. And then I started The Rumpus. But that middle part, where you think people owe you something for your art, is very uncomfortable. And the woman that wrote about The Mets, I think, is missing something. You’re supposed to get paid for writing what other people want you to write, for being able to plug in and push out content, for widgeting. To only write what you want is a luxury.
There is also something else, that Richard Nash talks about a lot, the free economy, where people give each other art and performance to be part of something cool.
This goes back to earlier arguments I’ve made, that creative writers are confusing themselves with journalists and getting involved in arguments about making money that have nothing to do with them, when in reality the key to making a living as a creative writer is doing something else.
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:02 pm
First of all, the Gawker comparison of writing for free to slavery is a tremendously stupid one, and for the very reason Huffington said–no one forces you to write for free (and those pictures you have of me and the two goats are on 4chan now anyway so you don’t have that on me anymore either).
And you’re absolutely right about writing for literary publications. I’ve been paid once for poems in a magazine, and never for a review–every other time I’ve published I’ve gotten copies at best, so financially, there’s no impetus for me to write (or edit). And as more and more journals succumb to the financial realities of shaky funding and go online, payment for literary work will become less and less common.
I figure I get something else out of this gig. It’s not quite an alternative revenue stream, but I’ve met lots of people, read lots of new books, and been exposed to a far wider readership than I’d have gotten on my own. So maybe that’s the hippy-dippy way of looking at this thing–I’m a poet, not a capitalist.
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Artists whose medium is words often forget they’re artists. They call themselves “writers” (which could mean anything — they write ads? instructions? news channel crawls?), and forget they are artists, forget that they do what they do because they have to, love to, need to, and because they are bringing beauty and meaning to the world.
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:32 pm
You know, I am one of those writers who cares about whether she gets paid… mostly because I want to do it full time, and I can’t afford to do that if I can’t make it pay. And yet, I do a lot of writing for free.
I think one of the things the “don’t write for free” crowd is overlooking is that (a) everyone’s still figuring out how to make online publishing pay (and I do mean everyone, from writers to publishers); and (b) publishing is nonetheless clearly switching over from print to online. So getting in on the online publishing action can be a smart idea, even if it doesn’t pay right away. For one thing, (c), free writing often works as publicity.
Let me put it this way. Before I started blogging, I was making maybe a couple thousand a year as a writer. Since blogging, I gross in the high four/ low five figures a year. Not a full time living… but a lot more than P.B. (Pre Blogging). Blogging, and letting my blogging get reprinted for free, has been the main way I’ve gotten my work out in the world, so publishers who do pay can find it.
Besides, it’s just cool and fun. I’m a far better writer now that I’m writing publicly almost every day, and getting feedback on my work. And having a forum to publish whatever the hell I want to say, regardless of what any editor thinks about it, is more fun than a barrel of vibrators.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Is this the part where I get paid? I was told I would receive money for reading this.
June 24th, 2009 at 12:12 am
To only write what you want is a luxury.
absolutely. to get paid for writing fiction is like getting paid for masturbating.
June 24th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
With one difference, Darby: writing won’t get you so sore so soon.
June 25th, 2009 at 7:48 am
This is the most thoughtful piece I’ve read on this topic. Really nice.
August 23rd, 2009 at 3:25 pm
We all do something for our daily bread. People will fish, farm, have sex, work as a forest ranger, write, or a myriad of other things in order to make money. Meanwhile, people will also fish, garden, have sex, hike in the woods, and write for free because that’s what they enjoy when they’re not working.
June 20th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
I teach because I love to write. Teaching pays the bills (and nourishes my soul in one regard), but I write for free because…because the words are important.