| A rebuttal to James Haught’s article ‘Low-Pay Writing’ |
By Marianne Willburn
NSNC Member
A bottle of “Writers’ Tears” Irish whiskey has sat unmolested on my desk since it was given to me ten months ago by a friend at Christmas. Though he handed it over insisting that a garden columnist had no need of such a timeworn crutch, he thought it might make clever objet d’art. Little did he realize that a freelance writer’s life – whether acting as pundit on matters political or petunia – is not an easy one. I have eyed that bottle mournfully many times in subsequent months.
Yet, even as I waded through unending contract negotiations with an ambivalent and distant editor this season, marveled at pathetic royalties from my first book, and thanked God my husband had a job that could pay the mortgage and keep the lights on, I did not crack the seal.
Not until yesterday afternoon. Not until I read the words of fellow columnist James Haught in the NSNC newsletter, ostensibly disparaging the digital marketplace for devaluing professional writers, and then throwing his brothers-and-sisters-in-arms under the proverbial bus with an admission that smacks of arrogance and irresponsibility:
“Bottom line: I’m quite happy to write seven days a week for almost no pay, just for kicks. I can afford to do it, because I live on a fat newspaper pension and fat Social Security.”
I cracked the seal, James Joyce and I had a short moment together, and I contemplated my response.
How lovely for this ex-newspaper editor that he can draw on a relic from another era to pay the bills while he makes the situation worse for fellow writers by giving his words away.
Although we work alone, day in, day out, professional writers do not work in a vacuum. How much better for his colleagues if Haught had insisted (like many of us) on being paid; and, if he felt desperate for “a bit of immortality,” only gave his work away on a self-financed website?
I know I am not alone in this sentiment, nor the daily fight to support it.
A writer’s life has never been an easy one, but the situation grows increasingly grim for those trying to make a living in a content-hungry SEO-driven marketplace. Even respected media outlets grow lax in their standards and tight with their budgets, and a freelance writer who needs to finance the cost of well-researched, well-written articles is a liability unless they can find a sure-fire way of making them go viral.
How many times have I been offered “exposure” to put together anything from 150-1,200 words to fill websites desperate for page views? Exposure Bucks don’t pay the mortgage, but I am painfully aware that for every “job” I turn down, there exist thousands of writers who will happily pick it up.
Some of them, like Mr. Haught, are professionals and may write just for kicks, happy to trade an enormous amount of time working on a piece for the ability to see their byline on a flickering screen. Others may hack together something unreadable in a spare hour, sure that a keyboard and a smart mouth can eventually win them immortality.
But they both have something in common: they are sabotaging the integrity of the industry with every keystroke, and, eventually, the literacy of a nation.
Mr. Haught obviously knows this, and quotes the excellent words of Authors’ Guild President James Gleick, “When you impoverish a nation’s authors, you impoverish its readers.” And yet he makes no excuse for his own actions beyond being “a compulsive writer.”
There has always been a low entry-point for inexperienced writers seeking to build their portfolios – most of us have participated at one point in our careers. But it is hoped that with experience, a writer grows in his or her craft and produces a superior product. It is hoped that the marketplace recognizes this and rewards it. Or loses it entirely.
“Well, I don’t know any cure for the pay decline,” bemoans our pensioned pundit near the end of his piece. “Society and technology evolve constantly.”
I do, Mr. Haught. Value your work. Value the work of your colleagues. And don’t. write. for. free.
If it is not made crystal clear that “one gets what one pays for,” there is little hope for professional writers negotiating with their media masters.
And there won’t be enough whiskey to go around once we realize what we’ve lost.
Marianne Willburn is a garden columnist and author in the Mid-Atlantic; find more at www.smalltowngardener.com
