With a raging debate being rehashed over on dear friend Anne Wayman’s site, I added my thoughts once more on the side of writers valuing their skills enough to demand more than $10-20 an article. The resistance by one poster in particular was so caustic I’ve decided no more. No more will I add my two cents. If you want to work for $10 an article, good luck to you. I’ll not debate you or interact with you on that point. That’s billable time wasted arguing simple math. No thanks. I’ll just be over here making 150 times more per article.
The only reason I took up this banner in the first place was the obvious affects that online-based, low-paying gigs have on those of us with established, higher-paying career backgrounds. But after reading Peter Bowerman’s excellent article on his blog last week regarding the question of the “state” of freelancing, I realized realities create themselves when we buy into them. He’s right – it’s too easy to fall into a victim role and use the impact of this, that, or another thing on the market as to why we’re making too little.
Remember how I went on about not accepting the “recession” as an excuse? Well, I’m about to apply that to all content mills and gawd-awful gig offers. I will no longer look at those as my reason for getting lower-priced offers. No matter how true it may be, I won’t acknowledge it. I’ll simply ask for and expect my rate, outside influences be damned. The clients either pay for the value of what I offer or they don’t. It really is that simple. Oh, it’ll still tick me off royally, but it will end there. I’ve no time for that. I’d much rather be working.
If you write for a content mill, you’re welcome here. In fact, you’ve always been welcome here. You’re the folks I had in mind when I put together all those posts over the last few years about marketing and query writing and building a better business. I don’t agree with your choice, but I’m going back to my old live-and-let-live stand. And I’ll break my neck to help you make a better choice if you’re willing. I won’t hold it against you, but I won’t sympathize if you’re too busy writing 10 articles an hour to break loose and get better clients.
Deb Ng said something on one of the blog posts on Anne’s site that made sense. This issue has managed to divide the writing community, and that’s never a good thing. While each side will always hold very disparate opinions on this topic, I no longer care if writers make that choice. Nor do I care if they wallow in content mill purgatory for twenty years. If you can eke out a living that way, more power to you. I’ll be busy making money my way, which works perfectly for me.
That doesn’t mean I won’t stop having the annual Writers Worth Day. If it helps one writer make smarter choices that improves the career, I’ve done more than I could hope for. But it does mean I will no longer justify my career to strangers, nor will I argue math problems with people who amend figures and dream up ridiculous scenarios to prove their way is the better way. If they are happy working that hard for that little, then keep on smiling.
Debates like this are pointless and tiresome. And because those I’ve encountered from the side of content mills (not all, but some very outspoken people) have taken the name-calling, snide-remark stance, I’m done. Professionals don’t act like that, especially to each other. Which proves my point that these particularly nasty people aren’t professionals, but I digress.
So I say let’s let the wheat separate from the chaff, so to speak. Those who are strong enough and serious enough about their careers will survive no matter what path they take. I won’t change my opinion, but I won’t argue the same old same old ad nauseum. To those of you who disagree, who say we’re jealous or clueless or whatever the argument-du-jour is, I say this: two articles still net me $3K-$5K. Why exactly would I be jealous? The time you’ve spent arguing with me could have been spent marketing for higher-paying work. You are welcome to disagree. You are not welcome to hang assumptions on my opinion. I’ll be more than happy to tell you in detail, no guesswork involved.
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