By Josi S. Kilpack
Part One: Writing for Free. Why?
I am a writer by trade, and craft, and determination and
while there are other reasons for me to write, if I didn’t make money from my
writing, I wouldn’t do it—or at least I wouldn’t do it the way that I do it
now. As much as I appreciate and respect the idea of writing because I love it or
that money should never be a writer’s motivation—I don’t necessarily agree. I write to pay the
mortgage and orthodontist and to buy cute shoes from time to time. Before I was
making decent money, I was writing so that one day I would.
And yet, I also write for free. Sometimes. But writing for
“free” is actually a little mis-leading because the word “free” makes is sound
as though it’s valueless. And that is certainly not the case and I recommend always, always, always writing for value. While I write
some things without getting a direct monetary kick-back, I only write for free
when I believe that the value, though not in dollars, is worthy of not only the
time I put into the writing, but the time that free-writing takes away from my
paycheck-writing.
There are two main reasons to write for free: Building a
name for yourself and expanding your audience. I have done both and made a lot
of important connections, while also honing my abilities, through blog
posts, articles, and book reviews I wrote when I was a complete newbie. I first
met Annette Lyon through an article I submitted to a magazine. It wasn’t very
good and she told me how to fix it. It was the first article I’d ever done but
led to many other opportunities (The most important opportunity was getting to
know and becoming very close to Annette who has been a very important part
of my journey since then--i.e. value in spades!) Back when I started, I needed people to recognize me, to know
that I was here, I was relevant, and part of this community. It took a
long time for me to get “inside” but it started with writing for free and
making connections.
These days, I write for free chiefly to expand my audience.
I want to capture new readers for my novels and getting my name out there, in
multiple places and venues, helps me find people who will never find me on a
bookstore shelf.
For example, I contribute to the Newport Ladies Book Club
blog that is designed around the series I have done with Julie Wright, AnnetteLyon, and Heather Moore. We each try to post once a month. I don’t get paid for
it, but it supports the series and I believe that the value both in marketing
and networking is well worth the value of the time spent on the blog posts I contribute.
I gauge its effectiveness through comments left on the posts I put up there and
people who mention the posts later. Blogs are interesting because it takes time
to build them up and it takes consistency to keep them in the forefront of the
reader’s minds. I have backed off a great deal on my personal blog that I’ve
had for years because of time and because I lost my focus and started talking
more about me than I did my books. I haven’t quite determined what I want to do
with it, which makes it ineffective, but I’m glad all the posts I’ve written
are still there and available to people if they want to learn more about me.
Maybe I’ll pick it back up again, but maybe I won’t. I’m struggling to see its
‘value’ whereas I feel like the Newport Ladie’s Book Club blog has value in it
already.
I have written free-articles for my local paper, for online magazines,
and for other people’s blogs for the
exposure it gives me to their audience. I try to use a variety of formats (online vs. in print) in order to
capture the readership that can be found in that location. I recently signed up
for a large community of ‘free’ writing opportunities that pays nothing, but
has a good reputation and often has articles picked up by larger venues. It’s
my hope that writing for this company will perhaps help me break out of
local-community type writing.
All that said, I am aware that every hour I spend writing
for free, is an hour I’m taking away from my novels. I have to choose this
carefully but I find when the balance is good, writing short stories or
articles helps me to relax from the longer format works. I suppose it's the equivalent of
taking a walk at lunch everyday for someone who works behind a desk. I get to
explore different skills I’ve developed, learn new things, and challenge myself
in new ways. I’ve found this to be a very important part of my writing and
encourage other writers out there to look around themselves to see what “free”
writing options might be available to them.
Next week I will talk about what to look for in “Free”
opportunities and how to best plan your writing and make it work for you.
Posts
2 comments:
Great advice! I also write for free for certain places and for specific reasons.
I find that when I write for free to support a cause I really believe in, that also comes back with great dividends, often emotional, which help me with my other writing.
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