Never Sell Your Creative Work for a Pittance

Never sell your creative genius for a pittance has been some of the best  writing advice I have ever received.  Yet sadly, I all too often see freelance job sites with job offers demanding that you do just that.  If you visit many freelance writing sites these days you might see what looks like a wasteland of low paying job with high output demands.  Sometimes I run across jobs that pay fairly and the job sounds like something I can sink my teeth into, and best part is I retain the rights to the creative writing that I do. Most times though, I see things as ludicrous as asking the writer to compose 50 thousand word original stories for $300-$500, all rights to the story forfeited upon delivery to the client.  Extra points to the ones that have the audacity to ask for it in less than a month.

I cannot stress how sad, and how absurd it is to place such demands on a writer.  To not only ask them to while away the hours working on a story, but to tell them they have no rights to earnings from the story once it is delivered--for me that would be like asking me to give up my kid once she was smart enough to be in grade school and never get to see her again.  Before I get any farther, I want to make it clear that this is not meant as a rant against "unfair wages" or whatever the lingo would be.  Just that I wish those putting up the job offers would actually have an iota of reasonableness in their offers.  It is those types of offers that give businesses a bad reputation.  Anywho, I digress.

I am sad when I see this kinda of thing pop up, because often with these freelance writing sites who I am up against when bidding for a job.  The very fact that there are several people who are already applying for these types of jobs just makes me sad.  I privately hope that most of them are brave enough to challenge the exclusive rights demands, even if they ask for only a small portion of any and all profits that are made when the book is sold that would be something.  Now, I think it is important that I make a thing or two about selling your stories and writing before I go any further with this.

When I talk about low paying writing jobs, I'm not talking about the ones where you are writing a short blog about kitchen knives, or the best winter clothing, or a variety of topics on which you may not be an expert but can research for an article.  I've done this myself, I don't get much money for it, but these are not exactly beloved possible masterpieces that I've sold the rights to.  I have what might be best called "no emotional attachment" to those writings.  I think a skill that all of us who write and write well have is the ability to produce quality "product" for clients in need.  You need to sell propane and propane accessories and would like a 500 word article but can only pay eight bucks?  Not a problem, that's grocery money for me and I don't mind doing it.  I would feel no loss in selling that writing and not being able to claim it as my own.  However, that isn't what the people who post the pittance jobs are looking for.  They seem like they could care less about short articles on propane, hiking, or cooking or whatever else.  What they are looking for, in my opinion, is a jackpot.

Those type of jobs seem to crop up for the sole purpose of getting a million dollar story for pennies per word and claiming it as their own.  After all, if some one produces the next Harry Potter, Hunger Games, or Twilight or some other high-selling and popular series; what does it matter that $300 was spent on buying the book?  After all, if you are the buyer in that case you've just captured lightening in bottle and have all the money you spent and more back in the bank.  Maybe it sounds like I'm being too cynical here, but the funny thing is that this thought process doesn't come from cynicism but from hope.

The fact that there are people out there looking for a veritable cash cow within the freelance community, that there are people hoping to get rich quick (at least in my opinion) with some one else's work--to me that means that there is a chance that it could happen and that it could be me who has the opportunity to write something great.  It can happen to someone else as well.  I'm not saying that this can only happen to one person and that there is only one prize to be won, so to speak.  I'm thinking that there is something to be found.  Something to be done.  Multiple possibilities of something awesome just waiting to be discovered.  Maybe it will be me.  Maybe it will be you.

Just please, please, if you get that big break and write something truly awesome and eye-catching that fills a reader with wonder and you think you know it in your heart that it become something--don't trade it away for a pittance.  It might be hard to tell at times what are the winners and what are the ideas that just aren't going to go anywhere, but holding on to the right to claim what is yours is something we as writers need to do more of.  

I know that I have more to say on this, but it will have to wait until another time.  Life is happening around me, so to speak (ie I have my little girl to take care of) and I need to get to that.

Would I move?

So, I had this conversation the other day with person who works for a website that I frequent.

I'd like to think that I have a fairly good online "relationship" with this company, and I love the stuff that they do and the customer service that they offer. I've not only purchased many things from them over the past few years, but I've also gotten a nice amount of positive and critical feedback from the community at large. Heck, I've even joked with my wife that I might actually really enjoy working for them. Here's the thing though, I'd have to move in order to work for them.

Now, I have to say, that I really, really don't like the way my current retail job is going. Oh sure, it pays the bill and the health insurance is bar none absolutely great, it's just that I hate every minute of it. The customers can go from some of the politest people in the world to absolutely nasty jerks who will make it a point to make you feel absolutely miserable. Heck, I remember one time where this guy I was helping just sat there for several minutes balling me out on what a stupid, wretched person until he could see that I was on the verge of tears. (In fact, I did have a manager step in and get me out so I could regain a bit of composure.) Point is, I don't like how it goes there, some of the people I work with are great and I wouldn't mind hanging with them after work, but that doesn't make me feel compelled to stay there. So naturally, I've been on a job search of late.

It was never my plan to stay at my current job forever. I have an English lit degree, and I think it would be great to teach some day at a private school. However, I keep reweighing my options on that. Do I really want to give my time and energy into an industry that, of late, seems to facilitate a hateful attitude to the most basic and intrinsic of my values? Already, as I was going throught the teaching program at my college, it felt as if the whole attitude that pervaded the teaching department was narcassim and cynicism. "If only everyone in the world thought like me, the world would be a better place," and such. And by golly woe be unto those who disagree.

Anyways, school stuff is likely another post entirely. The point I was trying to get at was, would I move? I don't know honestly. If I were blessed and able to get a job at the company in question, it would mean leaving my family, friends, and church behind in favor of the opportunity. My wife and I could sure use this blessing after years of dealing with jobs that don't use our training and my own on going medical issues (that's for another post or two as well). But will what I gain be better than what I leave behind? Will it be worth the initial heartache that I will get to start with? I wish that I knew the future, or at least what it would hold for me if I were to go with either option. Not saying that the job would be a sure thing though. But, it does leave me wondering something. Would I move away from all that is comfortable right now to improve my life?

Part of what keeps me sane right now is the support I get from family, friends, and church. A move for any job would mean leaving that all behind for a world of uncertainties. Am I ready to do that? I don't know yet. I keep thinking about it, but definetly need to spend more time in prayer as well. I hope God let's me know where to go in the future, because I sure as heck don't trust myself to make this call.