Comment from Deborah Ng
December 12th, 2006 by WellwrittenwordsHere’s a fresh comment from Deborah Ng of Freelance Writing Jobs. My comment is below.
Like you, I believe changes need to be made though I’m not sure the Norma Rae approach is the right way to go about it. That’s not to say I disagree with what you’re doing, however. I believe talented writers should be paid what they’re worth but I don’t know if it’s realistic to set a rate. What happens when the $150 per hour copywriter is told he’s now being paid $25 per hour because that’s all the union says he has to be paid? Education is key. New writers should be taught to value their work and not settle for a $2 content job.
But then there’s another problem. How much should the cut and pasters or “rewriters” earn. Notice I don’t call them writers? That’s because what they’re doing isn’t writing, it’s borderline plagiarism. Should they be paid the same amount as those who write quality articles? For changes to be made for the writers, changes have to be made in the content. Standards have to be set. Instead of hiring a $1 per article cut and paster, why not go for quality and offer a professional writer $20 or more per hour or per article? Instead of placing poorly written keyword articles all over the Internet, why not set some standards for content? How to do this? The only way to get through to the purveyors of cheap content is to hit them in the pocketbook. Advertisers need to jump in and refuse to allow their ads to be placed on poorly written sites.
I’m not an expert and I don’t have all of the answers but it seems to me this low paying content craze started because webmasters were raking in the ad revenue. If advertisers saw some of the places their ads were placed, I’m sure they’d be appalled. Set standards for the content and everyone wins.
Good luck to you and your endeavor,
Deb, this isn’t what we’re intending at all. I get paid a lot more than $25.00 an hour myself, and wouldn’t have it any other way! All we’re saying is that there should be a lower limit below which writers won’t consider working. And what tends to happen, when you create some sort of a minimum wage is that prices go up across the board. That’s life. When businesses improve their profitability considerably from the services of a good writer, why shouldn’t the writer get paid well anyway. As you know, writing is a very tiring emotional process. Sometimes you can only work a couple of hours a day. It’s not like filling in forms or adding to a database at all.
Posted in Freelance Writers Manifesto |
December 12th, 2006 at 11:35 am
Deb (and others), thanks for your comments.
I come at this from a slightly different place than Patricia, though we agree on the simple (but powerful) statement that working writers should be offered serious wages. And by serious wages, I mean a living wage.
My position is less about numbers and more about being taken seriously. That’s a double-edged sword, calling on employers to offer a decent wage (and again, what I mean by that is a living wage) and freelancers ourselves to not accept gigs that are ridiculously low-paying. All of us have found ourselves in the position where we’ve had to take that very low-paying job … but by valuing ourselves, we can raise our own standards of living!
I also want to take this opportunity to publicly thank Patricia, because she’s been the main force behind the Manifesto. My role in it was basically a Craigslist posting in which I recounted an email exchange with a very low-paying would-be employer. Patricia wrote to me, and she’s run with this Manifesto. Go Patricia — thanks for adding to the discourse!