Comments

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  Nancy M. Dickinson October 8, 2011 at 10:38pm

  I actually took several months off when my grandson was killed in January.  It's only been the last two months or so I've tried to get back into it.  The AAA I work with accepts submissions in January for an editorial meeting in April or May.  

  I'm kind of branching off the travel writing for something new, finding myself getting somewhat bored with it.  I'll never walk away entirely from travel writing, I just find myself looking for new ways to fill my time.

  However, and this has to be said, I'm married and my husband supports our family very well, which could explain why I'm not as "hungry" as others might be,
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  Allan Lynch October 8, 2011 at 10:20pm

  Nancy, I guess I'm just pushy. I completed two assignments last week and have 11 more to write and I've established relationships with four new titles in the last five months. I've had work throughout the downturn. And the week before last I had to turn an assignment down (it conflicted with one of my steady markets).

   

  I know that most of the world's economies have declined, but there are stil needs for those businesses that survive.

   

  BTW, I used to write a monthly e-column for a trade title. It was basically aggregating information. It was a day's work and they paid $300.
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  Nancy M. Dickinson October 8, 2011 at 10:10pm

  Edie and Candace - you said what I was inadequately saying - the online world ($15 an article) is killing the industry, to say the least.  

  It really does stick in my craw when there are magazines that CAN afford to pay freelancers but won't.  And if they do pay, it's really low...

  Allan - yes, ad revenue is starting to increase (note the word "starting").  However, it's not what it was three years ago.  A 10% increase now is much smaller than it was then and the magazines are only starting to recover.  Over the last three years, the trend was to use staff writers instead of freelancers due to the decrease in ad revenue.

  Even were contracts flying onto my desk, or not flying onto my desk, I'm always willing to help out a new magazine.
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  Maralyn D Hill October 8, 2011 at 10:10pm

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  Allan Lynch October 8, 2011 at 9:59pm

  Candice, you remind me that one of my fav editors is EIC of two magazines now. But the company she is with have never paid freelancers. She is working to change that and when the budget is developed she says I'm at the top of her list. In the meantime she hasn't asked me to write for her because she knows this is what I do for a living.

   

  Nancy, AAA is certainly a great gig. But when you say magazines are going under all the time, I wonder if that's so? Last Septemver the fashion magazines all hit newsstands with much greater numbers of ad pages. They're publishings canary in the mineshaft. And in March 89 of 150 magazines surveyed reported substantial increases in ad pages. The increases ranged from 17 to 80-something percent increases.

   

  I understand helping a friend. That's different than a stranger and outside the norm for business. But if we're going to write for free, why not develop our own websites/blogs and see where that can go?

   

  I have one travel-related blog that I haven't had time to update in two years. I do however have a newer, non-travel-related blog about a passion of mine to change health care in my province (helphealthcare.ca). I have been getting a lot of attention for it, in newspapers and this week appearing on radio. That forced presidents of health care authorities and the Minister of Health to appear in rebuttal.

   

  This site is so personal it is not about making money, it's about change. But the editor of a regional magazine heard me on radio, went to my blog and wrote asking if I would write a piece for her. It's $1,000. That's a gift. This winter I will be redeveloping my travel site and linking all the domain names I own to it. I feel regardless of the traffic to the site, I can easily sell my own ads - I spent 15 years in newspaper advertising and ad management - and generate at least the revenue equal to what a major magazine feature would pay and that should cover my monthly expenses. But it also leaves me in control.

  http://helphealthcare.ca/
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  Candice Sabatini October 8, 2011 at 9:46pm

  Nancy, Allen,

  I can really see both POV's and mine lies somewhere in the middle.  I have done some free articles for online mags who truly don't have a dime to pay anyone. It's given me exposure and opened a lot of doors. I also don't discuss my pay or non-pay with anyone.  Allen, you've made it clear that you think those people simply should decide to postpone their business venture until they can raise some capital.

   

  My issue is more with the online mags that DO have money, and the greed of people like Huffington and Tyra Banks who make millions and feel justified in not paying their freelance writers,  as well as with print magazines who have to have *some* money in order to put an issue on the newstand. If they can pay everyone else, why should the writers work for free?

  Nancy, in your case, you're doing a favor for a friend and that's an entirely different story. Of course you're going to be at the top of her list when/if she gets enough to pay for writing.  She wouldn't be much of a freind if she didn't.
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  Edie Jarolim October 8, 2011 at 9:31pm

  In answer to Candace: The Writers Union has done some important things -- e.g., Jonathan Tasini won a fair use case against the New York Times -- and the Authors Guild and ASJA fight different battles to many degrees of success.

  I think the internet has muddied the waters when it comes to pay. I will not write for a print publication for free but have guest blogged on sites that I know make money (not the Huffington post on principle) because I think they will be good for my business. But when prestigious print publications that I've written for  ask me to relegate an idea to their website -- read: free content -- I say no.

  Similarly, I'll look at articles for friends as a favor sometimes. My friends who are successful would never ask me to read a book manuscript for free anymore, however, because I work as an editor.

  It's a slippery slope. We all have to figure out how far down it we want to go. But I figure if someone is setting up a business, which a magazine is, they need backers, not writers to subsidize them unless those writers are getting shares in the business.
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  Nancy M. Dickinson October 8, 2011 at 9:11pm

  Okay, I do see your points - however...

  I also have a friend who owns a magazine.  Right now it's a smaller, regional magazine but she hopes to take it national someday.  She's in the very early stages and I don't mind helping her out.  She's a wonderful person and has a quality magazine.  If my occasional freebie helps her gain readers, thus increasing her ad revenue, putting her in the eventual position of paying writers instead of offering a byline and some copies, I'm really okay with that.

  When the time comes for her to offer pay to her writers, I'll probably be at the top of the list.

  I also write for AAA.  They do pay.  That's what's giving me street cred.  The other stuff I do is for more altruistic measures.  Magazines are going under every day.  If I can do something to help them stay afloat, I'm happy to do it.

  Not that I consider myself comparable to a doctor, I remember a few lines out of "Doc Hollywood" where he is being razzed for going into plastic surgery rather than "real surgery".  His response was that, yes, he will make a lot of money as a plastic surgeon but that lots of money from the 10% of his work makes it possible for him to do the 90% of the work he really dreams of, helping those who are less fortunate and can't afford him as a norm.

  None of us are starving.  I'll ask again - what's wrong with helping out a smaller, new magazine?  They need the help instead of the scorn.  Why are we not encouraging them to succeed in a difficult market?  A year down the road (and being located where they are the ad revenues are MUCH higher) they could be one of the best paying gigs around.  Editors have long memories and I don't want to alienate a single one of them, if I can help it.  You never know if you burn the bridge whether or not you'll need it later until you need it later.

  Just my two cents...
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  Candice Sabatini October 8, 2011 at 9:01pm

  I always kind of wonder if there was not a strong union like the screen actors guild, if the big Hollywood filmmakers would ask unknown up-and-coming actors to act in their films for free because it would "give them great exposure".  Instead, even the unknowns are paid well for their days work.

  I'm friends with the EIC of a glossy who rarely uses freelancers, but will on a rare occasion and has a few she regularly works with.  She's never given me an assignment and I think it's because of our friendship and other friends involved, so I'm fine with that.  However a couple of years ago she needed a last minute beauty piece,but there was no money in the budget to pay for the work. In an email she was hinting and indirectly asking that if I would do it.  I pretended not to get her drift and suggested that perhaps one of her regular paid freelancers might do her a favor and give her one freebie.  She danced around that one and indicated that they wouldn't nor could she possibly ask any of them.  Yet me, because she knew that I've done the occassional free story, she politely hinted that perhaps I could do  it. So right to your point Allan, since she knew I did some favors for others, she felt ok hinting at a favor from me and on the other hand wouldn't ask her paid writers for a favor.  She ended up having to work late all week and on the weekend and write it herself.
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  Allan Lynch October 8, 2011 at 8:52pm

  Nancy, you've misunderstood me. I don't write for free. I can't afford to. The conversation keeps coming up with editors over drinks or in a conference situation.

  In June one writer put up her hand and asked the panel of four editors from top titles what they thought of clips/links from certain sites. The editors said first the look at the quality of the writing, then they said the looked to see if it was a paying site. The writer who asked the question said she was torn when a new editor asked her if the links were to paid-for articles? She said I didn't want to lie and is it any of your business? The response was yes, if you don't expect payment from them, why am I special?

   

  I'm very close friends with a couple of other editors and when we're emailing back and forth or out to dinner, they will ask me my opinion on certain people because they have an issue - sometimes it's just a feeling, but how do they manage to be on so many sites? Then it comes out they're writing for free.

   

  I think what you're missing is that when an editor - at least for a major magazine - is going to trust you with an assignment and their magazine's reputation, they do some legwork and check into a lot of things. They'll contact editors you've worked with to see if you are on time, if your copy is decent, if there are problems. And editors when they leave a time, leave files on all their freelancers and what your pros and cons are and anything else they think is helpful to the next editor.

   

  I'm not out there playing pay cop, I'm saying that this has become so prevelant that editors are on guard.