Why I Write for Free

February 28, 2013

A few months ago, I was cogitating on my upcoming appearance as a panelist at IACP where a bunch of us will be talking honestly about making money as food writers and I realized that to be totally honest, I will have to admit that sometimes I write for free. This is what spawned the writing of what is, for me, a very difficult and scary piece at Avidly.

Unless they’re independently wealthy, I don’t believe anyone should work for free. However, I will admit that I have written for free. And I continue to do so somewhat compulsively.

You see, there’s this huge rush that comes with finishing a piece that thrills you to the pit of your writer’s core.

Fair Warning: None of what I say here should used by sites or publications who should pay as an excuse to not pay. If you get millions of pageviews and sell ads and are owned by a corporation, you should pay your writers, and shame on you if you don’t. All I’m trying to do here is be honest about the reasons why I don’t always get paid for what I write.

First off, I don’t write for free perpetually. I happily took money for my book, which I would not have written for free, and I continue to write for various paper and online publications for pay. Secondly, I will never write an assigned piece for free.

Starting with basics and the obvious, with a few exceptions, everything I write on my own site is something I’ve written for free, or am republishing from those paying venues– Bay Area Bites, BlogHer– for which I write. I don’t have ads at Grub Report — mostly because I find the entire process with brokers and income tax issues to be choked with red tape and confusion — and I don’t take paid endorsements. (I’m not being precious about paid endorsements, I’ve simply never been offered them so I can’t say whether I’d do them or not.)

The other main sticking point in my personal writing-for-free debate is that I don’t always consider writing "work."

Sometimes writing just happens...

Read the rest of Why I Write for Free at Avidly.