WRITING FOR FREE CAN STILL PAY OFF
by Joe Naiman
In the 1990s I needed the bylines, so while I relished any freelance writing opportunity which paid I was also willing to write for no pay to add bylines to my portfolio if the labor demand was feasible. By the time I became a full-time freelance writer I needed the income and rarely wrote on an unpaid basis. There are still, however, a number of instances where my writing is not for direct pay, and sometimes the future considerations or incremental labor factors may merit byline-only writing.
There are, of course, the instances when I expect to get paid for an article and don't. One magazine declared bankruptcy before I could collect my earnings for a couple of stories. The former editor of one local newspaper short-changed at least one other of his freelancers before resigning suddenly. I can mention Jerry Davis and the Mission Valley Voice by name, since Jerry died suddenly and I billed his probate. To this day Jerry's ghost owes me $100.
After 23 years as a freelance writer, including 11 years as a full-time freelance writer, I can claim my by-lines to be in the thousands. But there may still be that opportunity for which a writer is willing to submit a story for free just to open up a door. In 1996 I received a call inquiring if I would like to write an article for the program of a minor league baseball club in the Eastern League. Although I later asked for a copy of the that program - and received it - the opportunity to write at that level was worth writing for free. My eventual goal is to move up to the book and syndicated column level, and earlier this year I received the opportunity to write a column on an unpaid basis for San Diego Karaoke News. As a columnist I rarely need to research my submissions, and I don't sing any more karaoke than I did before I began writing the column, so the minimal additional time along with the ability to move up to the bottom rung of the column ladder made this an acceptable offer.
Returning favors isn't truly writing for free, but there's no monetary exchange. In the early days of the West Coast Hockey League there was a hockey magazine in San Diego called the Blade Runner. It was published by Phil Brents, who is also the sports and entertainment editor of the (Chula Vista) Star-News. Phil has done some favors for me from time to time, and I knew Phil wasn't making a profit on the Blade Runner. I had season press credentials to the Gulls (and to the roller hockey Barracudas the year their existence overlapped that of the Blade Runner), and hanging around the locker room interviewing players after the game gave me a clear shot out of the parking lot so the additional time consisted only of my write-ups.
One of those articles made its way to Just Hockey, a national minor league hockey magazine. This was similar to the minor league baseball experience I had, but in this case it was a reprint which involved no extra work other than picking up a copy of the magazine.
While writing for The Blade Runner for free was a favor to the Phil, I recently submitted a short article to the local Christian paper Good News Etc. on the grand opening of a new church. I don't attend that church, but the pastor is one of my neighbors so what wouldn't even be a likely portfolio article for me would be a favor to Tony.
Community service differs somewhat from favors. While I do hope to make money from the rest of my books, I'm currently finishing a history of Crawford High School baseball and any proceeds from that book will be given to the Crawford High School Foundation. Yes, I could be researching and writing material which would pay me, but there are numerous volunteers who donate hundreds if not thousands of service hours to their former or children's school and don't even end up with a line on their resume. Meanwhile, I can apply my talents to an area where I can likely make a definite difference. While this is on a larger scale than a professional writer volunteering to be the editor of a church or other organization newsletter, it's in reality a contribution utilizing skills which are natural enough for me to be doing at the professional level.
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It should be noted, however, that such community service commitment should not be at the expense of essentials for one's professional writing. At one time I wrote organization newsletters on a volunteer basis, but that was before e-mail attachments. For what I do professionally, WordPerfect is superior to MS-Word, Firefox is superior to Internet Explorer, and Linux is superior to Windows (in fact, DOS is superior to Windows). I will not compromise my professional computer needs in order to work with other organization members who provide information by e-mail attachment. There's a difference between community service and slavery.
Since I write books as well as newspaper and magazine articles, another worthwhile reason to write for free is that of a claim. Using elements of my research for an unpaid article in Grandstand Baseball Annual serves several purposes. One is that I now profess originality to that information in the event of independent identical findings. Another is that I have completed some part of the writing portion of the book project as well as that segment of the research portion. Finally, if anything happens to my computer drive or to my notes, that information is available elsewhere so writing as a claim serves is somewhat of an insurance policy.
The benefits of early unpaid writing for future paid writing may also apply to magazines. When I complete my term as a Toastmasters area governor in June and submit the appropriate paperwork, I will receive my Distinguished Toastmaster certification. My plans for after I receive my DTM include writing articles for The Toastmaster. One of the current division governors is collecting stories on how Toastmasters has helped people outside the Toastmasters meetings, so while I have another task during my year as an area governor that's less work for me when I'm ready to submit those articles to The Toastmaster. Since these stories involve my own experiences, they do not involve research. Unlike my column, I have no regular deadline, so I work on these mostly during nights of insomnia. And since I wasn't going to sleep during that time, the time commitment for this is minimal.
Grandstand Baseball Annual has also been a good source for salvage articles. If I write a baseball article which doesn't appear in a publication, or even one which is split into multiple segments in the paying publication, it may be suitable for a future issue of Grandstand Baseball Annual. Since this is resubmission rather than incremental work, the byline becomes the consolation prize.
I'd like the paid books, columns, and stories to increase, but sometimes writing for free doesn't deter from that. In that case, writing for free may be worthwhile.
 Joe Naiman |
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Joe Naiman was born in Pasadena, CA and moved to San Diego in 1966. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he obtained a double major in Political Science and History. He has been a free-lance writer since 1985. He has writen two books: "Another Chance" and "The San Diego Padres Encyclopedia" co-authored with David Porter. He has been a member of the Society for American Baseball Research since 1980. Joe lives in the San Diego suburb of Lakeside. He has a son and two daughters. |
Here's how to obtain his books:
"Another Chance"
"The San Diego Padres Encyclopedia"
Thanks for the article Joe ... John Wolf
