A New York Times Book Review essay latches onto Bailoutmania with a humor piece focused on a mythical writer’s bailout, and like most humor, brushes up against a few bruised areas along the way. Still, it’s a humor piece, so we’ll start with writer Paul Greenberg’s lead joke:
A little while back my daughter told me the following depressing joke:
Woman: What do you do?
Man: Me? Oh, I write books.
Woman: How interesting! Have you sold anything recently?
Man: Why, yes. My couch, my car and my flat-screen television.
A snarkier writer-father might have added, “and I sold those things to pay for your private school tuition!” But instead it got me thinking that there was a real problem here. Not just a small problem involving issues of respect between one writer and one teenager, but rather a national problem of respect where being a writer has become so widely associated with being a loser that we have become the stuff of common jokes.
The rest of the wittily written piece similarly amuses, though like most humor, the knife cuts close to home, including in this graph about “overcapacity” in the writing universe – a real (if little talked about) issue, even in copywriting:
Overcapacity has been something generally acknowledged across the writing industry for at least 10 years. In a 2002 essay in The New York Times, the onetime best-selling novelist and story writer Ann Beattie mourned the situation of the modern writer, living in a world where people are more interested in “being a writer” than in writing itself. “There are too many of us, and M.F.A. programs graduate more every year, causing publishers to suffer snow-blindness, which has resulted in everyone getting lost,” she lamented. That Ann Beattie must now compete on Amazon with a self-published author named Ann Rothrock Beattie is proof of how enormous the blizzard has become.
It’s not true that everyone who can type claims writerhood, but a quick survey of the many writer’s forums, sites and blogs suggests significant growth in the writer population, and not always among those capable of adding to the craft.
In many ways, the copywriter’s recession began years ago if downward trends in fees paid for lower-end projects are any indication.
While Greenburg’s essay is generally hilarious – his farm-billish plan to subsidize half the working writers to not write is golden – he taps into a larger populist resentment about the financial and car company bailouts, where greed and failure are simultaneously reviled and rewarded by the same congress.
We’re at the tail end of a period where no corporate subsidy seemed too big or too outrageous – and find ourselves in the midst of a financial meltdown where “too big to fail” leaves individual workers clutching an empty bag and a large debt about to come due. Populist resentment isn’t just to be expected, it’s probably demanded (at least that’s my understanding of democracy).
Still, this is humor, and Greenburg finishes on a properly literate note, wrapping his words around a Graham Greene quote (an Underground fav):
The economy slips deeper and deeper into its trench, and yet the workspace for writers seems to get more crowded by the day as refugees from other professions take cover behind what they hope will be the respectability of the writing life. The other day, as I looked down on the field of cubicles from the “resting area” on the balcony, I felt an urge to read aloud from a Graham Greene story I had disregarded in my 20s: “Are you prepared for the years of effort, ‘the long defeat of doing nothing well’? As the years pass writing will not become any easier, the daily effort will grow harder to endure, those ‘powers of observation’ will become enfeebled; you will be judged, when you reach your 40s, by performance and not by promise.” Harsh stuff. But don’t take Greene’s word for it, or mine. I’m a writer. Maybe I’m just trying to clear a little more room for myself at the workspace.
I’ve pitched blogs to several business clients. And just closed a deal (finally) for an advocacy blog/microsite.
It’s not easy. Businesses don’t necessarily believe a freelance writer can write coherently about their business or their industry.
And then there’s the question of money. Blogging often pays poorly, and businesses have a lot of marketing options.
Still, it’s being done. And today’s copywriter is ideally positioned to handle the whole project (instead of letting some agency rake off all but a pittance).
The company brainstorms “hot topics” to blog about with its clients and then its search-marketing-experts-slash-copywriters write “keyword rich” posts on those topics, says Danielle Leitch, executive vice president. The ghostwriter also embeds relevant links in the posts and lets clients review the posts before they’re published.
MoreVisibility charges clients about $500 a month for one weekly post to about $2,000 a month for daily posts. It also charges a one-time fee starting at $2,000 for setting up the blog. The company manages blogs for about 20 businesses, Ms. Leitch adds.
Want to bet their “search-marketing-experts-slash-copywriters” are working for peanuts?
If you’re already blogging – and you’re good at it – then why not scale your revenues by offering businesses a Blog in a Box? (Because I’m a friend to all copywriters, I’m giving that idea away free.)
Basically, make it as easy as possible – the client’s only decisions should revolve around “how much” and “how do you want to pay me?”
Blogging is hardly the highest-paying gig in copywriting, but there is something to be said for that steady, reliable stream of money – especially if you’re new to the game.
Years ago — when I was a little less diligent about the business side of copywriting — I wrote a healthy chunk of catalog copy for a high-tech company. I loved the gig. I loved it so much that I basically ruined the job.
What do you do when your workload goes up, but revenues don’t?
I wasn’t careful about “Project Creep” — that deadly malady where you do more work, yet don’t get paid for it.
At first, the client leaned on me for product research. Then I was asked to submit the copy in a specific database format. Not hard, but it was time consuming.
They were a great client, and I was happy to accommodate them. Yet, three catalog cycles down the road, I noticed my time on the project was up 30% (yes, I used to track my time).
The added workload started to grate a little.
For two more months I waffled. Then the client resolved the issue for me — a larger company bought them and brought the catalog in-house.
Whew! Problemsolved, right?
Sadly, you can’t rely on your clients to get acquired when youreally need them to.
It might have been better if I had simply faced up to the problem.
What To Do?
Don’t let these things fester. Something as simple as “I enjoy the product research and I’m glad I can streamline your process with the database, but both consume a fair amount of time. Is there any way I can help that’s not as time consuming, or should I just add $XXX to each invoice?”
(Hint: Don’t ever complain; state the problem and offer alternatives that work for you. Remember — you don’t create problems for your client, you solve them.)
The Renegade Writer Gets It
I was getting ready to post this article when I saw the following challenge from the Renegade Writer blog. It made me smile:
Go ahead, I dare you: This week, ask at least one editor for a raise.
If you’ve been working with a magazine for a while, it may be time to ask for more money. I usually say something like, “I’ve written articles for your last six issues, and you and your readers seem to like my work. Can we talk about bumping up my payrate?” In many cases, your editor will go to bat for you with whoever it is that controls the money. The worst that can happen is they say no, but the best that can happen is that you walk away with more money in your pocket!
We’re coming to the end of 2007, and if you’ve been writing a project for more than a few months (or even a few years), maybe it’s time to ask for a raise.
That’s especially true if you’re doing more work. And not getting paid for it.
Done any free work lately? Or seen that work used in multiple places — without ever receiving a dime for the additional uses?
The never-demur Harlan Ellison — a successful, outspoken and abrasive writer — tells it like it is in this short interview. Great stuff — I would have laughed more if so much of it hadn’t been painfully on target.
Ellison still writes on a manual typewriter, and successfully sued movie producer James Cameron after noticing the original Terminator script bore a striking resemblance to two of his own short stories.
He’s fought (viciously) for writer’s rights since the early 1960s, and serves as an excellent counterpoint in the current times, where intellectual property and creator’s rights seem to be going to the way of the Dodo bird.
Bookmark this video, and when you feel yourself edging towards a giveaway — when you’re about to apply a value of “zero” to your work — give it another viewing.
And then read Michel Fortin’s latest “Olympic” pricing post. I wouldn’t apply his approach on all my jobs, but it’s a good example of thinking through the pricing process — namely, what are you really getting paid for, and what does your client know about the process?
