How to Avoid the Trap of Writing for Free
It starts with a change in mindset
I want to talk about something that is important to all writers. No, not character, plot, and dialogue.
I mean money.
Specifically, being paid to write.
Kathy Widenhouse acknowledges that charging for one’s work is a bête noire for writers. Why?
[W]riters aren’t big on selling. For one thing, you don’t want to try to sell your writing or your services and then get rejected. For another, that little voice at the back of your mind whispers, “You’re pulling the wool over their eyes. Your writing isn’t worth dollars and cents.”
John Scalzi would disagree with that last assertion. In his view, writers should always value their work.
Which is why they should never do it for free.
Scalzi is a nice guy, the sort you’d sit around and have a beer with. He has written about all sorts of subjects — movies, finance, video games, astronomy.
These days, he is known for science fiction. His novels are bestsellers — Netflix is adapting his best-known one, Old Man’s War— and he has won three Hugo Awards, the genre’s apex accolade. In 2015, he made national news when he signed a 10-year, 13-book deal with Tor worth $3.4 million.
