Excellent advice. I give the same version of it to journalism students I often speak to. Write for anywhere that will have you and edit you. Worry about the money later. Take side jobs, hustle, live with your parents if you have to for a bit. You need the experience before you can demand the pay.
I started my career publishing in poetry magazines that people stapled together on their kitchen tables. Thirty-six years ago, the small Hanging Loose Magazine were the first to ever accept and publish one of my poems. Next year, I'll publish my 8th book with them.
Totally agree with Leigh and--if its any consolation--almost every profession "writes for free' in order to get future paying clients and to showcase their expertise and talents.
Investment bankers, lawyers, interior decorators (etc etc) all provide free consultations, write informative articles for free, give tips, provide gratis hard-to-find data, in the hopes there will be a future pay-off.
THAT SAID, editors at these non-paying journals should state *up-front* that they dont pay to avoid confusion and to spare them an endless stream of "share the rate" emails
The event with Iris Blasi was such a creative (and useful) build on Zoom meetups. Thank you. To your point on rates, a while back, I found this wonderful quote from David Roberts on his Sparks from Culture Substack:
“To a writer, there’s no such thing as a free subscriber. Subscribers devote some portion of your most precious resource – your time – to reading my posts…”
"Writing is a crime that doesn't pay," is what BUST's editors wrote contributors back in their zine days, and it became my mantra. Thanks, Leigh, for adding good arguments to my ruling principle!
Perhaps it goes without saying that I totally agree with you, Leigh. I believe authors "should" get paid to write, but we are also in a highly saturated and competitive writing environment and there are plenty of people who write for exposure, who write for reasons other than money. I also think there's a long arc. For instance, I have a friend who used to write for free—a lot. But now he's more established, and he doesn't want to do that anymore. That's his prerogative, and he knows where he lands on this conversation. I'm a publisher who's living in a space where writers invest, so I'm not impartial on this topic, but I do get tweaked when people suggest that somehow we're being exploitative of writers, especially when there's a mosaic of opportunities and reverberations that writers need to consider. For instance, you have to be prolific to really make it, and it's a hustle. Anyway—appreciate your perspective, always—which is why I just became a paid subscriber to your Substack! ❤️
Thank you Brooke! I remember that meme “write for exposure? people die of exposure!” and thinking it was clever at the time but now that I have a longer view, I can definitely think of moments when I benefited more from exposure than from the…say $300… I was paid to write an article
Thank you for this. This is getting at something related that I've been thinking about. Sure, I write for free (or love or fun or Quixotic-ness) for the online journals—flash fiction and whatnot. Happy to do so. But my reluctance comes out for Meta. I stopped creating content on Insta cause I feel like why should I help to enrich another corporate behemoth? Also, do I really want to monetize relationships with my friends?
I hear you! It’s tricky and I totally respect the choice to avoid Meta platforms. I think my social and professional lives have been online for so long I can’t imagine where else I would be/what else I would be doing?
Excellent advice. I give the same version of it to journalism students I often speak to. Write for anywhere that will have you and edit you. Worry about the money later. Take side jobs, hustle, live with your parents if you have to for a bit. You need the experience before you can demand the pay.
well said!
I started my career publishing in poetry magazines that people stapled together on their kitchen tables. Thirty-six years ago, the small Hanging Loose Magazine were the first to ever accept and publish one of my poems. Next year, I'll publish my 8th book with them.
full circle!
I think I messed up that sentence. Hanging Loose has published 8 of my books!
Totally agree with Leigh and--if its any consolation--almost every profession "writes for free' in order to get future paying clients and to showcase their expertise and talents.
Investment bankers, lawyers, interior decorators (etc etc) all provide free consultations, write informative articles for free, give tips, provide gratis hard-to-find data, in the hopes there will be a future pay-off.
THAT SAID, editors at these non-paying journals should state *up-front* that they dont pay to avoid confusion and to spare them an endless stream of "share the rate" emails
In a previous draft of this post, I had a section that was like:
Leigh will you blurb my debut novel? (can you share the rate?)
Leigh can you speak to my interns about publishing? (can you share the rate?)
Leigh will you be on my podcast (can you share the rate?)
But I felt like I was getting off-topic so I deleted! :)
The event with Iris Blasi was such a creative (and useful) build on Zoom meetups. Thank you. To your point on rates, a while back, I found this wonderful quote from David Roberts on his Sparks from Culture Substack:
“To a writer, there’s no such thing as a free subscriber. Subscribers devote some portion of your most precious resource – your time – to reading my posts…”
love that framing!
"Writing is a crime that doesn't pay," is what BUST's editors wrote contributors back in their zine days, and it became my mantra. Thanks, Leigh, for adding good arguments to my ruling principle!
!!!
Perhaps it goes without saying that I totally agree with you, Leigh. I believe authors "should" get paid to write, but we are also in a highly saturated and competitive writing environment and there are plenty of people who write for exposure, who write for reasons other than money. I also think there's a long arc. For instance, I have a friend who used to write for free—a lot. But now he's more established, and he doesn't want to do that anymore. That's his prerogative, and he knows where he lands on this conversation. I'm a publisher who's living in a space where writers invest, so I'm not impartial on this topic, but I do get tweaked when people suggest that somehow we're being exploitative of writers, especially when there's a mosaic of opportunities and reverberations that writers need to consider. For instance, you have to be prolific to really make it, and it's a hustle. Anyway—appreciate your perspective, always—which is why I just became a paid subscriber to your Substack! ❤️
Thank you Brooke! I remember that meme “write for exposure? people die of exposure!” and thinking it was clever at the time but now that I have a longer view, I can definitely think of moments when I benefited more from exposure than from the…say $300… I was paid to write an article
Makes perfect sense, Leigh. The Dear Sugar example says it all. Thanks for this!
Thank you for this. This is getting at something related that I've been thinking about. Sure, I write for free (or love or fun or Quixotic-ness) for the online journals—flash fiction and whatnot. Happy to do so. But my reluctance comes out for Meta. I stopped creating content on Insta cause I feel like why should I help to enrich another corporate behemoth? Also, do I really want to monetize relationships with my friends?
I hear you! It’s tricky and I totally respect the choice to avoid Meta platforms. I think my social and professional lives have been online for so long I can’t imagine where else I would be/what else I would be doing?