by Barbara Florio Graham
I received the first payment for my writing at age nine. Humpty Dumpty magazine paid me $5 and a free year’s subscription for a poem. Two years later I sold a short article to Jack & Jill magazine, which paid $10 and a free subscription.
So, I decided at age eleven that I wanted to become a writer, and for many decades have been paid for my work.
But that doesn’t mean I’ve never written for free.
Over the years I’ve learned when and how to do pro bono work. Here are a few guidelines:
1. If you believe in a cause or support a nonprofit organization.
You may want to contribute to their newsletter, write press releases on their behalf, or do similar writing for them. But it’s important to ensure they aren’t taking advantage of you.
Ask if others are getting paid, and if the organization is obtaining discounts from their suppliers. Find out if some people are being paid, but you’re expected to work for free because they don’t think writing is as valuable as holding meetings, keeping the books, delivering flyers, or attending events.
Consider asking for something in lieu of money for your services. How about the ability to use their printer for your own work? Or taking home some supplies so you don’t have to buy paper, envelopes, folders, staples, etc. Maybe you can use their postage meter or mail things from the office.
One organization, whose newsletter I contributed to for more than a decade, made me a life member, which meant I not only didn’t pay annual dues, but received other benefits of membership, including free copies of books they published. They also sent me a very nice gift when I passed the 10-year mark as a contributor.
Use your pro bono work as a way to promote your books, website, or services. This means you add a full paragraph of credits, not just a single line.
2. Set a time limit.
Support a specific campaign, a specific political candidate, a specific charity event.
3. Replace a donation with pro bono work.
I’m very concerned about climate change, so I provide a pro bono clipping service to a company working toward a sustainable economy.
Instead of making an annual donation to Barnard College, my alma mater, I serve as a class officer and write class notes for the quarterly magazine.
When I could no longer remain a donor to a local nonprofit theater company, I joined their publicity committee.
4. Don’t fall victim to the “poor me” scam.
This includes authors who want others to subsidize their books through a GoFundMe page, or by contributing to an anthology or nonfiction book without sharing in the profits with writers. If the person doesn’t think the book will sell enough to pay contributors, that’s not your problem.
A variation of this is the promise that the book you’re contributing to will become a bestseller, so your free contribution will help you attain fame. I learned about this the hard way when I replied to a request for humorous contributions to a book about dieting. I agreed to a payment of just $50 for all rights, which I soon regretted as the book began to climb the New York Times list.
Ironically, my piece was the only one selected by a national magazine to be reprinted. McCall’s renamed it “Thin People Don’t,” and it appeared in the June 1983 issue. Of course they paid me nothing. Click here to read the entire story.
Holding onto the rights for a short story I sold to a Canadian textbook has really paid off. Nelson Bros. paid $250 for “A Christmas Story,” buying only Canadian rights. They published the story in their grade seven anthology in 1981. A few years later I received a letter from a Swedish textbook publisher asking to reprint the story for $250. Then they wanted rights for another textbook, and a few years later a textbook company in Norway paid another $250 for the same story. In 2010 that company contacted me yet again to pay $250 more to use the story in a new textbook. That 750-word piece has earned more than $1,200, and I still hold the rights for many other countries.
5. Be careful about contests.
Some held by reputable magazines, which attract entrants with low or no entry fees, but take all rights to all submissions. Read the fine print! It’s a good idea never to write something original and new for a specific contest. Instead, look for those who accept previously published work. Or consider something you’ve already written but haven’t found a home for.
6. Don’t let your eagerness for your work to be seen cloud your judgment.
Many newspapers and magazines that used to pay now expect freelancers to write for free. Not only does this undermine the entire freelance community, but these publications often also take all rights to your work!
7. The key is holding onto your rights.
You never know if something you write for a nonprofit organization when you’re donating your time might lend itself to a bit of tweaking, which will allow you to recycle it to a paying market. My articles on writing are usually sold to a paying market that buys only first rights. I’m then able to share them with non-paying newsletters (like this one!) published by organizations I support.
Barbara Florio Graham has won awards for fiction, nonfiction, humor, and poetry, and has written for magazines and newspapers across North America. The author of three books, Five Fast Steps to Better Writing, Five Fast Steps to Low-Cost Publicity, and Mewsings/Musings, she served as managing editor for Prose to Go: Tales from a Private List. Her popular website contains resources for writers and other useful information.