HuffPost: We’d like to publish a story you wrote!
Me: Cool! What do you pay?
HP: Oh, we can’t afford to pay, but EXPOSURE!
Me: How about no.
— Wil SCREAMton (@wilw) October 27, 2015A very nice editor at Huffington Post contacted me yesterday, and asked me if I would be willing to grant permission for the site to republish my post about the seven things I did to reboot my life. Huffington Post has a lot of views, and reaches a pretty big audience, and that post is something I’d love to share with more people, so I told the editor that I was intrigued, and asked what they pay contributors. Well, it turns out that, “Unfortunately, we’re unable to financially compensate our bloggers at this time. Most bloggers find value in the unique platform and reach our site provides, but we completely understand if that makes blogging with us impossible.”
I can relate a similar experience to the one shared by Wil Wheaton. Once upon a time, I was contacted by the Washington Post and the L.A. Times, both of whom were interested in having me write a blog for their publication. As you might imagine, I was both flattered and intrigued…until the subject of compensation arose, at which point both newspapers made it clear they couldn’t pay me (But, hey…wouldn’t the exposure be GREAT??)
In a flash, I went from flattered to offended. It’s no great mystery why- Each news outlet wanted me to provide content for them even though, despite being profitable multi-million dollar businesses, they couldn’t afford to pay me. WTF?? How can you NOT recognize how truly offensive and condescending that is? You value what I do enough to offer me the opportunity to write for you…but not enough to actually PAY me for my work? Let me run an idea by you: How about you deliver your newspaper to me even though I don’t want to pay you for it? Not going to happen, is it? How can you in all seriousness ask me to provide content on a volunteer basis?
I can’t feed the bulldog on “exposure.” I can’t fill my gas tank or take my wife out to dinner and pay for it using “exposure.” That you could even entertain the idea that I’d be willing to work for nothing simply for “exposure,” to “get my name out there to a wider audience” is beyond insulting. You would never for even the briefest of moments entertain a business proposition that held no promise of profit…and yet you have no problem asking me to do exactly that? How is that not the very definition of chutzpah?
I once read an article by one of the few writers able to support himself and his family solely through his art. Addressing the subject of content providers asking writers to work for “exposure,” he was succinct in his disdain. To paraphrase, he said, “If you’re willing to write for “exposure” or “a wider audience,” then #$%& you, because you and those like you are taking food off my family’s table.” Hard to argue with that logic, eh?
Pay the writer…and if you can’t afford to pay for content, you have no business asking for it.
If I’d offered this to Huffington Post for nothing, because I hoped they’d publish it, that would be an entirely different thing, because it was my choice.
I don’t know what the going rate is for something like this. At six cents a word, which is SFWAs lowest professional rate for short fiction (not a perfect comparison, but at least something to reference that’s similar), it would be $210. That’s not nothing, but it’s not house payment money. Maybe I should have just taken their fabulous offer of exposure?
I don’t think so, because it’s the principle of the thing. Huffington Post is valued at well over fifty million dollars, and the company can absolutely afford to pay contributors. The fact that it doesn’t, and can get away with it, is distressing to me.
Like Wheaton, I see no reason why I should expend my time and energy to provide content for nothing for news outlets making substantial profits. If you’re making a profit, you can afford to pay me for my work. Yes, my passion is writing, but giving it away for nothing is tantamount to saying that I don’t believe what I do has value. If you want to publish something I’ve written, I’m honored, but I can’t deposit “exposure,” nor is “a wider audience” legal tender. My work- my art- has value, and if you can’t see that, why are you asking for it?
We live in a culture that consumes vast quantities of art and yet values it so little that it’s virtually impossible for an artist of any persuasion to make a living. Writing is one of the least remunerative endeavors imaginable, even though virtually everyone reads. People want to read good writing, news outlets want to publish and distribute it…but no one seems willing to pay for it. The problem, of course, is that there are far too many writers willing to provide content “for the exposure.” The market is glutted with an oversupply of those who believe they can write. If I’m unwilling to provide my work for nothing, there are untold numbers of other writers who will. How can any of us make any money when so many value their work so little that they’d give it away for free?
Imagine for a moment that you came to my home to provide a service. You’d come fully expecting to be paid for your labors, and you’d be well within reason to do so. If I told you upon arrival that I need the service but can’t pay for it, you’d laugh, pack your equipment, and leave. Why, then, is the expectation different for those who create something artistic? Good writing doesn’t create itself, and like anything else, it has value.
There’s no right to get something for nothing. Where I come from that was accurately referred to as “stealing.”
I may not know much, but there’s one thing I’m certain of. I’m a writer- a very good one, and if there was any justice in this world I’d be able to make a living off my art. That I’m working full-time doing something completely different is in part a commentary on how little society values what I do. I’m not crying in my beer, nor do I feel the world owes me; I’m merely stating a fact. The term “starving artist” is not at all humorous to those of us to whom that appellation can be applied.
This would be a very stark and depressing world without art- whether visual, musical, written, or any other medium. Art adds a dimension of warmth and humanity to this world…and that art doesn’t magically appear out of thin air. It’s created by people with vision, passion, and talent…and who more often than not are barely scraping by- if they’re being paid at all.
If you’re willing to provide content to publications willing to pay you only in “exposure,” then #$%& you, because you and those like you are making it more difficult for artists like myself who believe we deserve to be paid for our work. I’m sorry that you value your work so little, but that directly impacts those of us with talent, skill, and passion and want nothing more than to be able to make a living doing what we love. Because of you, writers are a dime a dozen. Content providers know that if one writer won’t work for “exposure,” there are many others ready and willing to do so. They should be ashamed of themselves for participating in which artists directly contribution to their devaluation.
We really do deserve better.
