Today, as always, I picked up a copy of the Chicago Sun-Times. I am one of those people who still likes to read the morning paper. I also open up to page 11 to read Richard Roeper’s column. He had an interesting piece today in which he spoke about writers and how they are perceived. Below is the relevant part of the column. The entire article can be read here.
Recently, a major entertainment conglomerate asked if I’d write a little piece for them. When I inquired about payment, I was told they thought it would be something “fun” for me to to do.
Uh-huh.
I think I’ll try that the next time I need work on a car. Payment? Oh, there’ll be no money, but you’ll get to work on my car! Thought that’d be fun for you, seeing as how you like cars and engines and stuff.
If you can get someone to write for free for your for-profit magazine or Web site, congrats: You’re the 21st version of Tom Sawyer hosting a fence-painting party.
Apparently, that’s the case with the new Huffington Post Chicago. As the Trib’s Phil Rosenthal reported last week, contributors, including some very well-respected professional journalists and some Chicago-centric celebs such as John Cusack, are writing entries for no pay.
I can see Cusack waiving a fee. But just try to get him to appear in your commercial film for free and see what he tells you to do with your offer.
If you’re a professional writer, I suppose you might write something without payment as a way of promoting a book, getting your name out there, something like that. To me, though, once you’ve set your rate at nada, you’ve started down a dangerous Slip ‘n Slide.
I found what Richard said to be dead-on. Across the blogosphere, people are contributing free articles at an alarming rate, and never asking compensation. They are promised by hundreds of other blogs that by doing this, they will build up that traffic and start making real money writing. I bet this happens for 1 in 100 professional bloggers. Most waste a year, make no money, and decide they weren’t good enough and move on.
I have written dozens of what I consider interesting columns and articles on several blogs aside from this one. I have seen little to no money for this work yet consider myself a pretty skilled writer. Why am I wasting my time blogging when I could be marketing my skills in other ways? Is blogging really an effective way to promote your writing?
Sometimes, I wonder if I would be better suiting spending more time looking for a paying gig rather than blogging.
What is your opinion? Keep in mind I am only talking about those who attempt to write professional blogs, not those who just enjoy writing and have a blog.
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