The Worth of Writing

Sometime ago before I stopped writing for years I had done some research to see how I could get credit for my writing so that I could build my writing resume.  This topic came to mind as I recently had to write a resume.  This is something that I hadn't done in more than 15 years because of a career path I undertook in a particular work sector.  Long time ago there was a saying that "the pen is mightier than the sword".  I wonder even now what happened to the high value placed on the mite of words in the freelance writing industry.

I remembered taking all kinds of time formulating a resume on Elance, Craig's List and Daily Variety.  I also had access to jobs that were posted by entities who paid for freelance writing.  This was no easy task.  It took lots of time and research in looking at what the job entailed and finding out the history of the entity who requested the work. When I felt that a job request was one that I could fulfill proficiently I would post my bid for  the job.  I did this although not consistently or diligently for about 6 months.  It seemed that when I thought that I gave a bid that was a reasonable one for the job at hand I would always be outbid by what I would consider a consortium.  I gathered that there were organized groups that were quite successful in getting the jobs and doing the work for almost peanuts.  That is my estimation as I believe I valued my writing appropriately and I was not willing to value it less just to get an assignment.  It seems that there was a very large contingency of requests for jobs and because of the bidding process they were very happy to have pay for extensive writings with very precise requirements for next to nothing.

This was an eyeopener and it was a very valuable learning experience.  As a writer I had to know how much my writing was worth.  I believe I possess the talents and the abilities to give a well written product.  I believe I have high standards and would expect that anyone I worked for would have the same.  Note that some of the job requests did entail finishing unfinished projects or redoing work that was done poorly.  I believe there is a saying that "you get what you pay for".  I don't envision giving my writing away for free even though there were people bold enough to submit requests with a caveat that there was no money available to compensate the writer.  I am quite happy to wait until I can find a writing project that will offer compensation commensurate to the requirements of the requester.  We all must know how much our writing is worth.   Let's not sell ourselves short.  Let's value our writing assets appropriately.