It’s laughable that the Halifax Media Co-op
issued a call to writers this month under a title that includes the cry “Get
paid!” And how much is the Co-op paying? Between 6.25 and 12.5 cents a word,
for a maximum of $100 for “longer, more complex pieces.”
Writers must submit a pitch that, make no
mistake, will require considerable legwork. They will face “rigorous editing”
and several draft rewrites. Topping off this irresistible deal, writers are
expected to submit photos too, for free. (Unstated is that contributors must eat their expenses.)
This is a gig well worth refusing, but I can
hear the arguments now: “It’s a way to get started.” “It’s a foot in the door.”
Yes it is, but there are other ways and doors where writers are not asked to
work that hard for a pittance, or even at a loss.
Among my first 10 published stories were
three for the Montreal Gazette, at 25 cents/word. In the 1990s that was chintzy, but
manageable. I did interviews. I wrote under the scrutiny of editors. I learned. As soon as I could, however, I moved on to better pay and opportunities. I never
let myself be distracted from the search for fair fees with nonsense money.
An unbroken thread through 21 years of
writing for my daily bread has been a struggle for fair pay. There is glory
writing out there, with glory pay, but few will ever get a taste of it. Expect fees
that are decades out of date and curve balls that add time and subtract money. Good
editors do what they can and try to take care of their best writers, but they
are constrained.
The last thing the trade needs is to be
encouraging magazines to offer amateur-grade change and professional-grade
expectations. It sends the wrong message to accept terms like those the Co-op
is offering and only convinces publishers that it is right to flip penny-wages at
writers.
Literate people consider it their right
to write, in much the same way that everyone wants to play a guitar and sing. But every
time someone who can spell accepts the rattle of a quarter in their tin cup in return for
hard work, a kitten dies and the lives of professional writers become that much
harder.
Copyright © Carroll McCormick 2014
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