Comments on: Is Freelancing Dying?

By: lwidmer

lwidmer — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:24:00 +0000

Krista, don’t apologize! You’re right – people who justify being treated like slaves are stupid. I’m done with dancing around it myself. If you take a job that pays you less than minimum wage, you’re an idiot. And you’re making it tough on those of us who respect our worth.

By: Devon Ellington

Devon Ellington — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:57:00 +0000

Right on, Krista. If you've got reliable internet, your clients can be anywhere, in any market, and you charge appropriately.

Also, Lori, I've been thinking about this, and I don't think freelancing is dying. I think there's some herd-culling going on -- maybe that's not such a bad thing.

As far as magazines, I've dropped almost all my subscriptions as a reader, because there aren't unique voices anymore. You used to pick up a magazine and have a wealth of intriguing voices from good writers; now, everyone's diluted to sound the same, and so much of the writing is crap. Also, most mags in the same genre run the same articles in the same month.

They wonder why they lose readers -- well, if they don't pay for good writers to sound like themselves, the readers' eyes glaze over after awhile, having read similar articles in similar tones across the board.

Get good, unique content, pay the writers appropriately, let people know about it, and you'll attract readers and make more money.

The quality of marketing personnel has gone way down (as we who've worked with them lately have seen), and it's pulling down our side of the business, too, unfortunately.

By: Krista

Krista — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:42:00 +0000

Oh yeah, to answer your question, it’s totally the fault of writers.

By: Krista

Krista — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:41:00 +0000

@Lori It’s a nice idea, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. Read the comments on deb ng’s site. Every day, there are people on there justifying working for shit because they live in Maine, or Guatemala, or Brazil. Personally, I think they’re extremely stupid (sorry). Yeah, you can live on less, but why wouldn’t you try to get a New York wage?

I live in rural Nova Scotia, Canada. Here, anything over $10/hour is pretty decent. My clients don’t know that, though, and there’s no reason why my rates should reflect that either.

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:35:00 +0000

PERFECT post, Katharine! Couldn’t agree more.

Amanda, so true. Imagine if we as a collective industry refuse to accept anything other than a fair wage (and I’m not saying set a wage and stick to ONLY that wage, but recognize when someone is offering a fair price and not settling for less)…. how long would the $10 jobs last?

By: Katharine Swan

Katharine Swan — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:49:00 +0000

I have a couple of friends who work or have worked on a newspaper’s staff, and you ain’t kidding about the crappy pay. I’m pretty sure both of them are (or were, in one’s case) less than minimum wage by the time you factored in all the unpaid overtime they worked.

As for whether freelancing is lucrative… I think freelancing is unique in that you can make as much as you are willing to put into it. Successful writers have to actually work at being successful, while the ones who complain about not making it usually didn’t dedicate enough time or effort to it. “Successful” and “lucrative” aren’t the same thing as “easy.”

By: Amanda Nicole

Amanda Nicole — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:47:00 +0000

I think this is one instance where we can safely say, Don't hate the game, hate the players.

I don't think freelancing is dying, but rather all those menial jobs that pay a minimum wage that doesn't even cover the necessities are dying.

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:47:00 +0000

Little secret for you all – when I worked on staff at a respected industry magazine, I had to fight to get into the mid-30s for a salary. Most of my coworkers were making similar wages, and the door was always swinging open as talented writers walked out in droves. By the time I hit $40K – and I did for about a week – the death knell was already ringing for me and I knew a month prior to it happening that I’d been targeted for elimination. The raise was some odd little game to keep me from noticing the erosion under my feet, which I saw anyway. They never had any intention of paying me that much. And that’s a crime.

One writer on staff made a whopping $25K. She was enraged when she realized that after five years on staff, she was making less than the newly-hired (male) admin. That company spent (and probably still spends) more money recruiting, hiring, and training staff than they would if they paid them a fair, decent wage.

If magazines and newspapers are dying, I have little sympathy. A degreed employee needs to make enough to pay off the student loans – and they’re requiring degrees for these jobs.

By: Kimberly Ben

Kimberly Ben — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:38:00 +0000

I agree with everyone’s comments here. It’s not that freelancing is dying – with the number of companies outsourcing work their in-house creative departments once took care of, that’s far from the case. It’s a matter of the specialization, experience and quality a writer brings to the table now more than ever, which is what separates thriving freelancers from those willing to give away talent and skill for a pittance.

By: Devon Ellington

Devon Ellington — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:30:00 +0000

It goes back to my constant chant, "You get what you pay for."

They pay crap, they get crap. Even good writers wind up writing crap if they accept crap pay and then have to take on so much work they can't possibly keep up.

You have to find creative ways of landing work. The old, corporate hiring models don't work any more.