I’m sure you’ve read it by
now, that letter by Miley Cyrus’s backup dancer who put on a bear costume and performed
on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards. She confessed that all the while, she felt
absolutely “degraded” and “less than human.” Here’s a bit from that Hollis
Jane:
If the little person community continues to do performances like this, it is my belief that we will continue to only receive maybe 2% of the auditions and opportunities of our average sized friends. Society will think we’re OK with being laughed at because we still continue to do things that allow them to laugh at us or look at us as props.
I wanted to connect what
she had to say to writing. While her confession has nothing to do with it, it
has everything to do with upholding your worth—and as a freelancer, I might know
something about that.
As I read her powerful statement, I drew comparisons of her quandary to my own. When I was younger and hungrier, which is not to say was all that long ago, it was so easy for me to say yes to anybody who promised publication for no pay. Because instead of pay, I would get bylines! clippings! exposure! (Yeahh, about that big to-do I made…)
Sure, that stuff was sexy.
Then. Now that most of my earnings come from writing, I realize that doing it for free is 1.) a nosedive into debt, and 2.) deprecating to myself and the craft.
If you’re good at something, don't do it for free. If writing is that something you prefer to call a living rather than a hobby, treat it like a business. Your accountant wouldn’t sift through your tax files for nothing would she, would she?
If you’re good at something, don't do it for free. If writing is that something you prefer to call a living rather than a hobby, treat it like a business. Your accountant wouldn’t sift through your tax files for nothing would she, would she?
Writers have a bad habit
of undervaluing their work. I’ve seen them (*coughs* me) accept crappy
contracts or low- to no-paying gigs even when they know they’re better than that. Much like Hollis Jane was vouching for, if
good writers keep accepting these kinds of gigs, then it just makes it okay for
people to ask us to write 4,000 words in one day for $25.
There is one exception to
writing for free. I would, and do, write for no pay for not-that-profitable publications whose values I stand by, some of which include a commitment to diversity and none to photoshop.
I hate to say that cash is
king, but when it comes to writing stories about the world we live in and telling
readers how those stories bear any relationship to their lives, that’s important
work that deserves to be recognized in an economically viable
manner.
If one should ever forget
that, I’d take a cue from Flannery O’Connor who was the biggest hustler of them
all: “If they don’t
feel I am worth giving more money to and leaving alone, then they should let me
go.” That good woman.