The consensus seems to be yes and no.
It depends on what you want.
I want my writing to pay the bills–in fact my writing does pay the bills. So I can’t see any sense in working for free. After all, no one hires a house painter(even a beginning house painter!)and says “Well, paint the living room for free. If we like it and we decide to paint the rest of the house we’ll talk about paying you.”
When I give talks on writing newbies ask about writing for free to get clips spouting the “advice” they get from editors.
- This free work will give you clips and experience.
- This could lead to a paying position.
- We’re just a poor start-up and can’t afford to pay writers.
Know what I have to say to that?
- Will editors really be impressed by work you did for free? Won’t they just assume that the only qulaifications you needed was a willingness to work for free?
- Why? They would be crazy to pay you when they convince you to work for free. And when you ask for payment won’t they just drop you and “hire” another freebie. After all, we’re all replaceable.
- If they have advertising they have money coming in. If they don’t have advertsinig they should be working on that, not “hiring” writers. And if they’re truly strapped for cash they should be writing their own content. Why should they build their dream on your talent?
So respect yourself and get paid! Come back tomorrow for when workers should work for free.
It makes me sad/angry when I hear an unpublished writer say excitedly, “I didn’t get paid for it, but it’s experience!” If you put the work into it–and no matter how small the piece is, some amount of work went into it–why wouldn’t you want to get something for it? The very first thing I ever had published was an assignment I didn’t get paid for–it was a personal essay that I submitted on a whim and never expected to hear anything–but ever since, you better believe the paying stuff comes first. This is why I have a novel stalled at 15,000 words, another book just started (10 pages in–I just started last week), and a calendar filling up with deadlines for paid stuff. Guess which ones will get done???