I’ve read scores of blog postings this week both arguing against and defending low-paying, scummy wages (and please read this article to get yourself in the right mood). We’ve tried separately to shake others back into shape, but to no avail. We all know the problem exists. We also know that change comes from within.
I’ve preached it until I’ve turned numerous shades of blue and red. I’ve given cyber shakes and left my anti-nonpayment manifestos plastered all over the Internet. I’ve torn out my now-thin red hair over it. But I’m one person. I can’t change the world by myself, nor can I personally slap upside the head each writer who agrees to less than he’s/she’s worth. So I’m proposing that all of us – all writers who hack it out for a living – band together and do something about it. Time for action. Solitary bitching doesn’t cut it. Let’s do something as a profession.
Let’s set aside this Friday as Writer’s Worth Day. Let’s post in our own separate ways on our very own blogs (and leave comments on forums) the ugly truth about taking low-paying crap jobs, of devaluing yourself and in turn, devaluing all writers. Let’s vow to post encouragement to beginning writers and help them determine how low too low really is. Let’s find a way to be proactive in the push against the pseudo-employers who want nothing more than to get our hard work for next-to-nothing.
Please post this plea around the Internet. Let’s help raise some much-needed awareness of how writers should conduct themselves – as business people who deserve to be paid for specialized services.
Let’s take no more of it. Please leave your commitment to join the fight right here in the comments section. And join us all on Friday as we raise awareness and thus, raise rates.
Count me in! I will work on my post and be there right with ya!
Thanks, Nikki! If we can get folks to post on Friday and/or comment on Friday around the blogosphere, it could mean one less person taking lousy wages and making it tough on all of us.
I’m sooo in!
I agree.
However, I’m at the point where I think we’re giving an awful lot of traffic to the crap employers.
Let crap writers and employers feed off each other, and those of us who are professionals will rise to the top with legitimate, properly-paying companies.
Crap pay gets crap results, and those sites can’t sustain traffic.
The writers can’t make a living and will eventually leave the field and scuttle back to their cubicles, slaving in jobs they hate.
We also shouldn’t send extra traffic to sites who pay crap. Unfortunately, we’re helping them.
I’m in, Lori. I’ll post on Friday.
I like post. Thanks for post.
I agree with your assessment, Devon. It’s why I stopped posting job listings here. I didn’t have the time to really discern among good and bad.
Lori, I’m sorry I didn’t read this in time to join. Unfortunately, we also have people who are so certain they can write because they can string words together and put a period at the end. Because they can’t get paid a decent wage, they accept what they can, a byline for example. There’s not a real way, in my opinion, for some consumers to understand the difference between, say, a typist and a writer. They don’t understand you can’t get a high-performance vehicle for the same price a tricycle costs. They want to pay for that tricycle they have to put together and get the performance of a Jaguar XKR.