Saturday, September 25, 2010

Indignity of the Day


On Thursday, my friend alerted me to this flattering post about Fallen Princess on dailyfrontrow.com. It was very gratifying. I felt slightly less irrelevant, for at least an hour. I especially enjoyed it when my husband emailed me the following: "You look hot in that [five-year-old] picture." (Side note: that guy next to me was a something on America's Next Top Model. He was British, so his name was probably Nigel. We were seated together because it was an ELLEgirl fashion show, and I was the editor-in-chief, and one reflexively tries to drum up "celebrities" for these things. As you can tell from our body language, I had nothing to say to him, and he had nothing to say to me. Seated on his other side was my friend Laurie Trott, ELLEgirl fashion director. You can see how interested she was in chatting with Nigel.)

Yesterday, when I was still feeling vaguely buoyed by the dailyfrontrow attention, one of my poker buddies contacted me about writing an online column for a site she is editing. I was a little excited until I found out the fee: $50. Which is roughly the amount I would have to pay a babysitter to keep my kids from killing each other while I poured my rapidly depleting stores of creative energy into said column. I respectfully said I'd have to think about it. She nicely informed me that this was the going rate for the type of work she was talking about. Didn't really make me feel better.

When I graduated college, the standard fee for an article was $1 a word. Now, 27 years later, most of the work that comes my way, which is for the internet, is a fraction of that. Bummer.

10 comments:

  1. Laurie Trott! ELLEgirl. Nigel! Haha, he was "a something." He WAS a something.

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  2. Yeah: the cost/value ratio isn't working in your favor. If it's the going rate then she can get someone else to do it. You're busy.

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  3. Welcome to the online world of writing.

    Don't even think about it. Say no. You are worth so much more.

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  4. Last year a magazine asked me if I wanted to resume writing a column for which I used to get $1500/month. The new fee: $250/month.

    Need a babysitter?

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  5. It's one thing asking an unknown, blogger or otherwise, with little pro experience, to write a column for little or no pay, simply for the exposure or the glory, but asking someone of your stature the same thing is ridiculous. What, other than $50, does she think you'll get out of it?

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  6. Jamie, I don't want to dis my friend. That's the budget she's working with and she was just being nice. I was more lamenting the state of pay for writers these days.

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  7. As a fellow semi-retired writer/full-time mom, I feel your pain. And even though there are always (less experienced) people who will take the $50, you were right to say no. Not only do those kind of rates devalue the profession, as a mom who is being slowly driven crazy by your children (I'm projecting here), it's not mentally healthy to devalue yourself. Fight the power, lady. (And I also don't want to dis your friend -- I also know how much it sucks to be on the other end of this equation, offering writers embarrassing rates).

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  8. At least there was a going rate - although it was much, much lower than what you're worth. I'm just starting out in the writing/blogging industry and currently give all my blog posts to two larger sites for nothing more than the hopes of a bit of exposure.

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  9. Hi. As someone who also inhabits both print and online worlds, I am also shocked by meager web payments. I'm glad to have magazines around to support my blogging habit. :)

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  10. ooo! "noted fashion photographer Nigel Barker"! tyra has burned that phrase into my head these past few years...

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