Would you write for free?

Bart,

You're already writing for free. Every class assignment and dissertation you turn in, you wrote for free. As a matter of fact, you had to pay them for the privilege of them reading it... On the other hand, you are receiving an education...

Priceless...

I already have written for free.

For me there are many facets to this question. I would like to begin by saying that it is hypothetical. I agree with James, and I would NEVER wish to do anything that might harm the working wage of myself or my fellow writers.

Secondly, I have some very hungry mouths to feed as most of you know. Those babies are more important to me than my rep or my pocketbook. Every penny I earn goes into their bellies or onto their butts. Until I am less worried about that (as in more financially set) I really can only hypothetically answer this, as I will be a greedy little thing and go for the cash. Any parent would.


As an artist, which I have been in many forms for many years, this resonates with me a great deal.

backslashbaby said:

If someone else is making money from my work, I want to get paid. But I'm all for free art. My town is very big on that, and I love it. For the most part, it's the art school and/or art departments/societies doing that, so there is no quality problem.

I can think of several places I'd give my work to for free. I'd be very happy if they accepted it!

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I could not in good faith pursue painting because I didn't wish to sell my art. Maybe that doesn't make sense to some people. I still paint, but I do so to make my friends and family happy and to beautify my world. I work in several mediums and I never charge for my work. I am very generous with it because it is important to me to give back to the community that is so generous to me. This is present in my writing as well to a degree because I hope that every person who reads my work can carry forward the positive aspects and utilize them in their lives, thus touching others as well. Even if I am paid for my work this is something that is spread freely.

aadams73 said:

If it's for charity, sure. But if someone expects to turn a profit because of my hard work, they better pony up the cash.

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I would never, ever do for free something that someone else made money from.

whimsical rabbit said:

If the actual essence of your question is what do I value more (good)reputation/fame or money, I'd most certainly go for the former.

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I think this sums up my feelings precisely. As long as nobody else made money I would take the fame.

It would also be of importance to me to have more control in the presentation of the work, the cover design, and perhaps the editing process itself. I would want it to be absolutely perfect for my name to be on it.

I cannot imagine NOT writing, so I can't say no to this. I mean, I write NOW and don't get paid. I hate to be a snot and say that I would turn down a publisher on some high moral grounds. Yeah, I don't want to get ripped off or cause trouble for others, but really? I'd probably go for it. It's more than what I have. Everything is worth something.

We place a lot of value on money today, but is reputation of so little value? Can you not imagine a way to cash that in?

amyashley said:

Every penny I earn goes into their bellies or onto their butts.

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You know, it would be a lot more efficient - not to mention tasty and warm respectively - if you used those pennies to buy food and clothes for them.

^^ LOL! I know, but they do love to chew on them so. With the little one teething, how can I say no?

I felt that way at one time.

Then I realized that a good portion of an authors sales are due to word-of-mouth, and another good portion is repeat business from someone who read one of your books and would like to read another...but it goes the other way, too. If something goes out with your name on it, you'd better be damn sure that's the work you want people to know you by--because if someone reads it and hates it, they're likely to spread the word. And they're unlikely to read anything by you ever again.

Also, if you go with a small press and sell a dismal amount of copies (even if it's a good amount for that publisher), no big press anywhere is going to be impressed. Some might even hold it against you.

I made the decision that putting out a couple hundred copies of something that didn't represent my best work was a terrible business decision. I wasn't published, but I had dreams of turning my writing into a profession.

I didn't want to be published once. I want to be published repeatedly, for the rest of my life. Waiting for an extra year or so didn't kill me.

PinkAmy said:

So I wonder, would you write for free if it meant being published?

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No.

If all I wanted was to see my manuscripts technically in print, I could put them up on the internet.

If a publisher makes those manuscripts into books, gives them covers, advertises them and distributes them, the publisher's unlikely to be giving away all those copies. So I want a piece of the pie too, considering that none of it would be happening if not for my manuscripts. And any publisher with half a brain would pay me, too, since that would give me incentive to stay with them rather than running off to a competitor or self-publishing.

Do you mean as in not getting an advance but still getting royalties? Or getting nothing from the book at all?

I'd potentially go for the latter (I'd rather have money, though), but seriously I wouldn't want my book published if I wasn't going to see a penny from it. Essentially, that would mean other people were profiting from my hard work, and I wasn't seeing any of it. It seems unjust to me.

I must admit, I turned down compensation for a larger audience. It was a short story and, I felt, for a short people would never pay what a pub estimtaed it would seel for. I chose to be pubbed for free by a HUGE name ezine. Too new to pay, but had a growing audience.

Now my book that's coming out I'm doing for free. Kind of. 100% of proceeds are going to charity. So I'm not making a dime. The fam thinks I'm stupid but it really isn't about money to me.

Now I would do something like donate proceeds to charity. But that's different, I think.

I already write for free.

kaitie said:

Now I would do something like donate proceeds to charity. But that's different, I think.

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Yeah, the fam says I'm stupid. Due to a disability I'm unable to work so the hus pulls down two jobs.

My charity is the Toledo Children's hospital in Toledo, Ohio. They take care of my nephew who has leukemia. So as you can see, totally worth it to me

I'm not sure that counts as "for free." You're getting to direct where the cash goes, and you're not directing it into your own wallet, but you just as well could be.

I would write under those circumstances. No prob.

I write because I have no idea how not to write. That entails a whole heck of a lot of writing without monetary compensation. I think that's true for most people, too.

- Joe

Well, of course a lot of us write without compensation. I've never been paid for it. But I think the idea is more if you were told your book would be published but you would have to do it for free, would you do it just for the sake of having it published.

Well, technically if you're an unpublished writer you're writing for free, and we've all done that, so clearly it means more to us than just the money (or it does to me, anyway). But there's more to being published for me than just "being published." I want to be taken seriously--this is my passion, and a valid full-time endeavor. I have goals for it, and those goals include making it a profession. It's not something I play at. Seriouse writers get paid, seriously. For me, professional payment means I've produced professional quality work--and knowing that's what I'm capable of is priceless.

Even if I never end up published or get money, I know I'd still write. It's like I can't not write.
But of course, never give in to a scam and let someone else make money off of your work. I think, though I'm not sure, it was JRR Tolkein who sold all the rights of his books for only 5,000 dollars. Obviously LOTR is worth much more than 5,000 dollars.

Yeah, why not. I write for fun anyway.

I wouldn't allow one of my novels to be published for free. I'd rather turn it into an e-book myself if I absolutely couldn't sell it but felt it was truly ready for the world (athough this is not my preferred route).

I'd take some non-paying short story sales right about now to help build my writing credits, though.

No.

Perhaps I should have read the OP before I voted.

Right now, being unpublished, I'm writing for free. I'll keep doing it whether I ever get published or not.

But, if someone were to publish something I wrote and not pay me, that's a different story, and I suppose it depends on what that something was.

For example, if I wrote a short story that was published in a magazine, and it was my first published anything ever, I'd be okay not being paid because at least it gets my name out there.

But if it were the 5th short story, and I still wasn't paid, we'd have a problem.

Yes. I love to write. Getting paid for it is just the cherry on top.

I do. I serialise my work, and have no intention of changing that. I've released three full novels this ways (and the fourth is close to being finished), as well as short stories. I plan on writing in this 'verse until my fingers drop off/someone finds me dead at my keyboard.

I voted no, but technically, I have. I entered a short story contest where the prize was being in the free anthology. The contest host was AllRomance,which is one of the bigger retailers of the stuff I write under this pen name.

BUT! It was a strategic thing. I would not have done it if I didn't have two books for sale. I've been posting here awhile, and lurking here for longer, and I've observed that buying ads is not nearly as effective as offering a free download. I figured if I could get into the anthology, the fans of the other writers would see my work. Heck, all the people who would download the anthology because it was free would see my work.

I wouldn't have done it just for the exposure, though - in this context, the exposure came with direct links to my work for sale.

And now I have a fun freebie for readers that I didn't have to do any work to format or upload

Edit to add: Also, at this point in my career I am no one from nothingville. The right sort of exposure (see above about linked to my profit-making work) still has value. In the glorious future where I'm even moderately someone, I won't do anything for the exposure at all.