Pay the Writer

It's a strange world in which we live that I even have to say this, but pay the damn writer!

I and other writers that I know have often spoke about this at great length, and the fact that it keeps coming up means that it persists.  It's the habit of many different people in many different industries to refuse to pay a writer for his/her work.  Now, I'm not sure exactly what causes this, but I have a few theories.

Reason #1
First, I'll go with Harlan Ellison's theory, that amateurs frequently shoot themselves and the professionals in the foot by offering their work for free.  The vain hopes here are that you will get noticed.  There's that whole notion of, "Yeah, sure, maybe I don't get paid, but at least I get my name out there!  That's gotta mean something!"  Bottom line: No, it means almost nothing.

Short of offering deals here and there for limited time offers, offering what you've done for free only devalues your work, and frequently means that nobody wants it so you have to give it away.  Have you ever tried to give away a seminar for free?  Almost nobody attends it.  Have you ever tried to give away a movie?  Everybody assumes it must suck, so there are no takers.

And if anybody does accept your free offer, guess what?  They expect the next one to be free, too.

So, after you've given some editors and publishers free articles, guess what?  THEY DON'T EXPECT TO PAY YOU FOR THE NEXT ONE!!!  I know, shocking, right?  Not only that, but whenever a real professional comes along and offers them a stellar piece, and the professional writer asks to be paid, the editor looks at you all doe-eyed and goes, "Pay?  But everyone else is doing it for free."  Thus, the pro never gets paid, and neither does the amateur, and it's all the amateur's fault.


Reason #2
Quite simply, most people don't think writing is all that hard.  Despite the fact that NOT ONE of them could write a narrative to save their lives, despite the fact that NOT ONE of them knows exactly what narrative means, and despite the fact that NOT ONE of them cares to even look it up, everyone just assumes writing is easy.  They say to themselves, "Well, I can't do it, but it can't be that hard, right?"

Wrong.  Writing is hard.  If it was so easy...why aren't you doing it?

If you want proof that people think writing is easy, ask any writer how many times a friend or coworker has said to them, "Hey, I've got this great idea for a book.  Now, it's my idea, but you can do all the writing, and we'll split the money 50/50."  I bet I get this offer once every couple of months.  This just goes to show that many people believe (they actually BELIEVE) that writing a book is no more difficult that just having the initial spark of an idea, that 50% of the work is done once you have the idea.

This is just one reason why people don't think twice about not paying a writer.


Reason #3
"We'll just rehash something we've already done."  These are the words of an editor or a publisher that has given up on all original thought, and has decided to just follow what everybody else is doing, and just wants to put out the same old, same old.  Not because it means screwing the writer over (although that doesn't hurt this kind of editor's feelings at all), but because it's just easier than looking for fresh content and finding a market for it.

In short, it's laziness.  Find someone barely making any money as a writer and have him or her just rehash either their own work (if it once made any kind of splash), or the works of others, and pay them a lousy fee because, hey, writers are starving and will take anything.  This limits the number of writers an agency or publisher needs and makes it so that new, up-and-coming writers will try anything to get themselves published--including giving their works away for free for meaningless exposure (see Reason #1 above)--and thus the vicious cycle continues.


Conclusion
If writers want to get paid, they had better start demanding to get paid.  It really is that simple.  The more you work for free, and the more think of free labor as "paying your dues," then the more you're going to be taken advantage of.

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