Writers Should Not Be Asked For Free Work
Exposure doesn’t pay the bills.
Why do people try to take advantage of artists? Before anyone starts telling me that they don’t, let me tell you that you’re wrong. Here’s why: no other profession gets asked to work for free in return for nothing. You could argue interns but that doesn’t ring true for me, especially since most internships that I’ve seen are paid and the person gets college credits. In this piece, I am talking about “professional” people asking writers, actors, singers, etc to work their ass off and in return they get exposure. I don’t know about your part of the world but in mine, exposure does not pay the bills or buy the vodka.
Where is this coming from? I am so glad that you asked me. I was on a professional networking app (no, not LinkedIn) and having a conversation with a gentleman. We talked about his website and my goal of doing more article work and pushing away from my current job. There was some venting about the frustration I felt that a lot of the opportunities I came across wanted the work done for free. He readily agreed that it was ridiculous to think that someone should work for nothing.
Sample Me A Job
So far so good. We seem to be in agreement about things, and then he offhandedly said that he was looking for some content creators on his website. Being the responsible pseudo-Journalist that I am, I went to his website and poked around for a little bit. I wasn’t 100% sure that I would be a great fit but figured I would let him be the deciding factor. After all many people tell me that I am too hard on myself and they love my writing style. Which is lovely and makes me happy but my style is very light and easily digestible and his site was very hard-hitting news. You see where the conflict can come in.
Without hesitation, I sent him a sample and he seemed pleased with what he read. My initial thought was that maybe he was hoping to lighten the tone of the website. Some of the articles I have written have been because the owner/publisher wanted a lighter tone or a different take on hot topics. Then the real conflict popped up: the position was “non-paid.” What? Immediately I asked what he meant since he had told me that he would never ask a writer to work for free. His response made my blood boil so much that I had to turn off the heat in my room. “Well, you’ll get exposure. More exposure than you’ve ever had before!”
No Pay Not Okay
Ok, let me tell you a little something about exposure. Fuck exposure. If I won’t submit material to the Entertainment Weekly (my favorite publication) blogs because they don’t pay, what hope does a no-name website have? Not to be nasty about it but EW has millions of readers every day, even if 10% of that read my work I would be exposed to more people than ever before. On top of that benefit, I would get to write about anything that I wanted to in the entertainment industry. This dude wanted to assign me stories.
Someone is bound to scream that if I worked for a publication I would be assigned work, and yes they would be correct. Here’s the difference though, a publication would be paying me in money and exposure. See the thing that I think gets forgotten more often than not is that while I love writing and am grateful that I make my living doing what I love, I still have to pay the bills. If I tried to pay my landlord in exposure he would take me to housing court and have me evicted. The store only accepts cash or credit, I asked them about exposure and was escorted off the property with a stern warning from the security guard to not return to that store.
You Work For Free First
This goes to prove my point to him, you cannot buy Doritos and Titos with exposure. And yes, maybe some writers could use the exposure and maybe some of them might even be willing to write for free for a period of time, eventually, it becomes very disheartening to think that the only reason why you’re allowed to write for a publication is that they are getting free content from you. Furthermore, you have to take on another job that actually pays you in order to survive.
As I said in a Facebook status about this situation, if you think an artist should work for free (or exposure, however you spin it) then go to your boss. Tell him you will work for nothing for weeks on end. You will do his bidding and not expect any sort of compensation for it. Let me know how you feel about doing that afterward.
Until that is done, keep your exposure, I prefer cash.
