Writers Never Work for Free…

So Basic A Premise…

In the comments on last night’s post, the rant that Harlan did about paying the writers was posted. I guess it is on YouTube and is part of the movie about him.

What that Hollywood agent wanted me to do was work for free, and I basically said, “Hell no!!”

But I got a number of letters and a comment about how that agent might have caught other writers.

So how do you not get caught?

Simple… You draw the line and never work for free.

Period.

Back in the 1990s, when traditional publishers started cutting sale forces and wanted the writers to promote instead, I asked my editor at Pocket how much they were going to pay me to promote. He said “Nothing.” I said, “Then if there is not an agree-upon amount in my contract that is paid to me for promotion, don’t expect me to do any.”

He just nodded and nothing was ever said again. And no contract going forward ever had a clause paying me to promote.

I got paid to write the book. Not sell it. That was the publisher’s part of the job.

Now as an indie writer, I work at promoting my books at times, but I get paid for it in more money from sales and Kickstarters and such. And I am the publisher. Duh…

But work for someone else for free, write something for free for someone else, not a chance. It is a very, very clear line and easy to understand.

So if some Hollywood slime comes slithering up to you and wants you to do a pitch deck or write a synopsis of your book, you simply ask for the WGA rates for such work. And watch them slither away and thus save you more time than you can imagine.

Never write or work for free for anyone else. Ever.

A very clear and simple line.