If you say “we currently do not have a budget to pay writers,” then I currently do not have time to write for you.
Writing is my job. Okay, it’s my second job. I’m still chained to the desk at the day job until I can figure out how to make retirement pay more than the daily nine to five.
I’m not there yet. Ask me again in a few months.
Truth is, writing is one of my second jobs. Along with acting, directing, producing, and graphic design.
No, I can’t get it all done. That’s not the point of this post.
The point of this post is that, if you want me to write for you, you’re going to have to pay me.
We can negotiate the amount.
There are “companies” out there that will pay “writers” to produce web content for ten cents an “article.”
The quotation marks are intentional, please don’t make me explain why.
Those companies make it difficult for those of us who really are writers.
Then there are the companies who think you should work for free. The phrase “we currently do not have a budget to pay writers” was from an actual call for writers.
Come write for the exposure.
Been there. Done that.
Couldn’t afford the t-shirt because you didn’t pay me for my work.
Bite me.
Sorry. Was that my outside voice?
In the early days of the Interwebz, I wrote a lot for exposure. We were all learning how this thing works. I wrote political posts that garnered a lot of attention back when a lot of us in Virginia were all blogging together as part of a coalition of blogs. I wrote Examiner articles that paid…a little. For a while I wrote for Themestream, an interesting concept that paid a penny every time someone read your article. A couple of mine got some national attention and I made a few thousand before the company folded for obvious reasons.
Really, I’ve been exposed. Don’t insult me otherwise.
There are things I do for the passion of doing them. Much of my theater work is like that. Although I certainly don’t snark at the paid opportunities, the unpaid opportunities have to be for a project that I really want to do.
I may not be the best of the writers out there. I’m certainly not the best at acquiring new writing jobs. Although I am working on that.
But spare me the nonsense that writing for you will give me the exposure I need.
Exposure won’t pay my bills. Or pad my retirement fund.
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