Remember, writers:

• Beware editors/publishers asking for free content.
• Beware editors/publishers who want you to help them get their publication off the ground (by way of your free labor).
• Beware editors/publishers who try to convince you that they’re doing you a favor or that you need a break to get published.

A call for submissions to a nonpaying magazine market appeared on a Yahoogroups writers’ list I subscribe to. Unfortunately, work-for-no-pay is not terribly uncommon with new, small magazines. Thumb through the Writer’s Market and you’ll find plenty of consumer magazines claiming their budgets are too tight or their businesses too new to pay writers for their work.

You’ll also find that most nonpaying markets have awfully high standards for work they want done for free. What ever happened to “you get what you pay for”? (Kidding — we should always put our best foot forward.) I’m amazed at the arrogance of some of the ads — you’d think that they’d be begging for submissions and kissing writers’ butts.

But they’re not. And that’s because they don’t have to. There seems to be no bottom to the pool of writers willing to give someone else’s business free stuff in exchange for seeing their name in print or pixels. The call for submissions that came through last night was particularly ballsy, though. The editor/publisher wants writers to:

• Blindly submit completed articles of up to 2000 words (who needs that pesky query process?)
• Submit their work by January 5 (the post was written on Dec. 18)
• Accept two annual subscriptions (two subscriptions for one year, not one two-year subscription; $55 total value), a byline and brief bio, and two copies of the issue as “payment” for their professionally written article(s)
• Wait up to six months to find out if the article will be published or rejected
• To “sell” (somehow, without any money exchanging hands) first North American serial rights to the publication

Obviously, the magazine is offering very little in return for someone’s hard work. The burden lies entirely with the writer, while the publication will commit to nothing, not even a quick turn-around on their go/no-go decision. And they don’t seem to value the query process — they expect writers to hurry up, write a long, quality article, submit the work, and then cross their fingers that the article will be accepted and published. All of this for not a single penny.

Plus, the publisher sells subscriptions and ads but has no budget for the only thing that will sell subscriptions and ads: content. Anyone else see a problem with that business plan?

The people running the magazine need to find their own start-up capital and not ask writers to subsidize their business venture. What other business besides publishing (online or paper) so routinely expects other people to work for free because the owners don’t have the money required to actually run the business? If I wanted to open a sporting goods store, would manufacturers give me a store full of free products –- and let me sell everything and keep all the money -– just because I was starting a new business? Would I be able to “hire” employees at the store and not pay them because I have a tight budget, but if they just help me get my business off the ground, I can start paying them at some vague point in the future? Of course not. And neither should a publisher expect writers to provide him/her with free content.

So, what should you do if come across a call for submissions like this one? You can ignore it. Or you can drop the editor/publisher a line and tell them that, while you like the publication, you simply can’t write for free. Who knows — maybe they’ll find a little piggie bank they can break open just for you.

Or, if for some reason you really want to write for this publication, you should query before you start writing. If you’re willing to write for free, then get an agreement in writing (email is fine) that the specific article you’re pitching (a good, detailed query will be necessary) will indeed be published in an upcoming issue. If they’re not paying, the least they can do is show some respect for your time and let you know if they want the article –- before you write it. Then hold them to their promise to publish it.

Otherwise, what’s in it for you? You could spend the holidays working hard and hammering out an article, only to submit it, wait around for up to six months, and then learn that the editor (of a small, essentially unknown magazine) doesn’t think it’s a good fit now or ever. Why would anybody do that to themselves?

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Related posts:
Should You Write for Free? 3 Tips for Freelancers
Breaking in as a Freelance Writer: Have Confidence

Tags: writing for free, querying, nonpaying markets