Let’s Talk
June 6, 2007 by Deborah Ng
Filed under Entertainment
I know this isn’t from Craigslist, but every now and then I find a treasure from another site and find it worth sharing. Let’s take this, for example:
“I’m a freelance writer seeking work and will start immediately. I’m willing to write for any specific project although my specialties are devotionals, articles, and short stories. Deadlines are not a problem as I’m currently a writer/editor for an online newspaper, and any amount of payment is reasonable.”
No. Any amount of payment is not reasonable. What if someone contacts you about writing 100 articles at .25 an article and needs it in two days. The topic is small machinery maintenance and you’ll have to give repair tips for lawn mowers and weed whackers. Is this reasonable?
What if someone contacts you about writing a dozen articles for five dollars and said articles take you a week to produce. Is this worth your time? Girlfriend, choose your wording carefully or be careful what you wish for.
That is all.
Oooh…very bad! This reminds me of something that happened at a local bar where my band plays. The bar didn’t pay much to start with, but then a band that REALLY wanted to play called them and said, “We’ll play for free.” Not surprisingly, they suddenly were booked there several times while everyone else was out money.
The other bad part about this is, if the person doing the hiring thinks they can get something for nothing, then they start to expect that in every situation. If you sell yourself cheap at the start, don’t expect it to be easy to work your way up later. Freelance writing is a lot like playing in a band – the employer is very happy to have you for cheap a few times, and extremely reticent to ever raise the pay afterward. Like never.
I heard about a case just yesterday where the editor of a prominent newspaper was hired to edit some student essays. My friend said that must have set you back and the employer said, “We don’t need to pay her–she has a full-time job.”