Reporter's Notebook: Will write for byline

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By Sam Boykin

As a former full-time freelance writer, I related to some of the concerns expressed by the folks in my stories about the challenges of business ownership. Prior to working here, I was essentially a sole proprietor for about five years. While I didn’t have employees or a business license, I was responsible for marketing myself, finding customers (in my case, finicky editors) and delivering quality products (spellbinding stories!).

Tom Bixby’s remarks in “Second Calling” rang true for me when he commented about the risks of being an entrepreneur: “Sometimes you’re going to get paid and sometimes you’re not.”

Freelance writers are often on the bottom of the list when editors and publishers are figuring out how to divvy up the company’s money. Even when I was fortunate enough to land writing assignments, getting paid for them was always a waiting game.

Most magazines and newspapers pay freelancers “on acceptance” or “on publication.” On acceptance means that once an editor gives the article a thumbs-up, you submit an invoice and a check usually arrives in a few weeks. But some of the larger publications I wrote for paid on publication. And since most magazines work several months in advance, it wasn’t unusual for me to turn in a story and get paid four, five and sometimes even six months later.

And there were dozens of times when, after a check was past due, I’d check with the editors only to find out there was an accounting glitch or they’d lost my invoice. Of course, this required that the whole bureaucratic process start all over, and once again I’d spend weeks anxiously checking the mail, wondering if today was going to be my lucky day.

These types of problems only got worse as the recession hit and newspapers and magazines, already feeling the crunch from declining ad sales, delayed paying freelancers as long as possible. In fact, I’m still waiting on freelance checks for stories I wrote back in September.

Ask any freelance writer and they’ll probably give you the same hard luck story. But now there’s a whole new complication with a growing number of Internet sites and blogs publishing the work of hacks who gladly write for just the benefit of a byline. This certainly doesn’t bode well for college graduates trying to get a foot in the door with a job in journalism. It’s both insulting to the profession of journalism and degrades the quality of “news” available on the Internet.

I like what sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison said recently on YouTube about the concept of a writer working free of charge: “By what right would you call me and ask me to work for nothing? Do you get a paycheck? Does your boss get a paycheck? Do you pay the teamsters?!”