Wednesday, May 21: Tune It or Die!
GIVING IT AWAY
by Robert Lopresti
When I first started peddling my little masterpieces to paying magazines, I swore a mighty oath never to write for free. I believe that certain documents were signed in blood and goats sacrificed, but that could just be the flashbacks.
Anyway, I have stayed true to my pledge so far. This may come as a surprise to those of you who have been reading my prattling in this space for over a year. He gets paid to do this? By WHOM?
Well, nobody. And while we’re on the subject, the main reason my second novel is so far behind schedule (oh, you didn’t notice?) is that I am spending hundreds of hours working on a nonfiction project which some scholarly journal will, if I am very lucky, agree to publish for nothing if I sign the copyright over to them.
(It could be worse, by the way. In some scholarly fields authors are expected to pay a per-page fee to be published, and that’s not vanity press; but after making it through a grim peer review process. But the assumption is that the grant that paid for the research pays the page fee. Which means that in many cases your tax dollars are paying for the research, then for the publication, and finally, in the case of public universities, for the library to purchase the results in a journal. So keep paying your taxes! The publishers need the money. But I digress.)
But my oath is intact because I only meant that I wouldn’t write fiction for free. And I have stuck to that. Oh, I have been paid embarrassingly little for some of my stories, and have never received a fee that tempted me to drop the day job. But damn it, I’ve always received something for the fiction.
I know not everyone feels that way. There are lots of magazines and ezines out there whose editors say “We’re doing it out of love. We don’t get paid either.” And I say “I wish you luck I’ll come back when your fortunes improve.” Sometimes they say their magazine gives good exposure. In the folk music world the proper reply to that is: “People die of exposure.”
On the Amazon
Not long ago in the comments section at Criminal Brief Dick Stodghill talked about publishing one of his stories on Amazon Shorts. (In case you aren’t familiar with the program, Amazon.com offers short stories for 49 cents.)
While I think it’s a great idea, when the program first started I asked on various writing lists if anyone had sold enough stories on Amazon.com to actually receive a payment. I think about a year passed before someone finally said yes, they had. Perhaps the bestselling novelists can sell enough short stories this way to make money, but what about the rest of us?
I’m tempted anyway, because there are a few short stories I’ve written that may never see the light of day in a magazine. One is about my character Shanks, who has a few fans who might appreciate reading another story about him, even if the magazine editors turned it down.
On the other hand, if I’m not going to sell enough copies to make any money maybe I should put it on my own site for free and let even the cheapskates enjoy it.
Fortunately the subject is academic at the moment because Amazon is not taking any new stories right now.
Pro bono?
There is another possible exception to my might oath against freebies. If someone asked me to write one for charity I would consider it. But so far no one has. Oh, there have been a few general requests to the writing world, but I can easily ignore those. A personal plea might be different.
I’d be interested to hear from the other writers out there: Under what circumstances do you write for free? Whim? Gunpoint? Somewhere in between?
Let me know. No goats need be harmed.
I get paid to write screenplays, but it was my “free” short stories – for various online publications and “blog projects” that eventually landing me paying gigs in a couple of anthologies.
The editor would not have hired me, despite my television resume, had he not read my free shorts on the web.
Also, I know of more than a couple of cases where writers had their work up on their own site for free, someone saw it, and optioned the rights.
All that being said, I generally agree with you and your position. As an established writer of a particular form I understand not giving it away. I don’t write TV pilots unless someone writes a check first.
But when it comes to breaking into a certain form or industry, maybe there are some circumstances when giving it away might help down the road. Example, I’m currently writing a big, broad comedy feature film script. On spec – meaning, doing it for free in the hopes that someone buys it when I’m done. But there is no guarantee. It’s almost akin to buying a lottery ticket. I have zero creds in the feature film comedy world, and thus, will never be hired to write something unless I first prove I’m capable.
But I understand that the dysfunctional world of Hollywood is different than the pub world.
Did someone say pub world? I think it’s time for a pint.
If you can land a job with AudioFile Magazine to review audiobooks, they pay $10 per review. My database files show that I’ve read 1,632 audiobooks for a total of 14,848 hours. That works out to an average of 9.1 hours per audiobook. Figuring it takes an hour to write a review, that’s ten hours for $10. When I started as a freshman at the University of Washington in 1961, my first job as a telephone operator on the dormitory switchboard paid $1 per hour. So 47 years and 12 years of post-high school education later, my salary still hasn’t improved.
I’m planning to call my mother and tell her there’s serious doubt about my becoming a writer.
Since I started out getting paid for my writing I don’t know if I could now write for nothing. (I’m still waiting for my check from JLW.)
There are so few venues especially for the short story, I think the e-mags do offer exposure for new writers starting out. As Guyot said, he is an example.
My wife says she has noticed that my longer stories tend to get submitted to places that pay by the word, and my shorter ones get submitted to those that pay a flat rate.
Guilty as charged.
I’m still waiting for my check from JLW.
It’s in the mail. Honest.
Hi Rob,
I am the newest of newbies.
I was fortunate enough to have my first story accepted by an anthology and I was paid a tiny, but legitimate fee. That story was followed by two rejections. Then a while back, Dave Zeltserman announced that he was closing down his e-zine Hardluck Stories. He was aiming to put out a final issue this summer and the story guidelines required submissions to be 30’s pulp noir. Not my area of expertise, but, the guest editor for the issue is Ed Gorman, who I just praised to the skies in a response to Melodie’s last post. So, I took a shot. Pulp noir is a huge stretch for me as a writer and I struggled. When I was satisfied with the story, I submitted because of the possibility that Ed Gorman would edit my work.
The email from Dave saying that he and Ed enjoyed the story and wanted to put it in the final issue of Hardluck Stories was one of the nicest Mother’s Day presents I’ve ever received. Money never entered my mind.
So I guess that there are a lot of things besides money that can influence where we submit.
And, again, I’m new.
Terrie