Do you value yourself as a writer?
Posted by Teresa | Under Some of my thoughts Thursday Jun 25, 2009This morning, I came across an interesting discussion in one of the forums I am a part of on LinkedIn called Freelance Success. One of the members, George Angus, shared a link to his blog post titled, The reason why freelance writing is in piss-poor shape.
In the post George writes about how he finally “broke down” and decided to sign up for a bidding site to find writing jobs. He quickly was not happy about many of the providers offered writing jobs for such low rates. He would bid on jobs, however, someone else would receive the jobs because they required less payment for the jobs. He expresses his concern for the future of freelance writers if some are willing to get pennies for their writing.
Well, this topic was pretty hot because he already has received over 30 comments on his blog and over 50 on the LinkedIn forum.
Some people chimed in and said they wouldn’t mind working for a little bit of money in order to get their name out there. Others wrote it is distasteful to the writing community to be willing to receive pennies for hard work.
I had written back on both the forum and George’s blog because I can see a bit on both sides. And in the end here are a few things I took away from my participation:
1) Do what is best for you. In the forum one of the members, Allia, shared a video with us. The video makes some great points. If you feel you want to take on a few pro bono clients, then do so. However, don’t allow this to become your measurement for jobs.
2) Don’t allow negative conversations to get to you. Don’t allow yourself to become absorbed in the negativity. Be the positive influence in your conversations.
3) If you don’t value yourself as a writer, how do you expect someone else to value your writing? You love writing and you have the knowledge and passion to write. Not everyone has the desire and skills to write well. Don’t allow others to place a value on your writing for less than you deserve.
So do you value yourself as a writer? I invite you to share your thoughts with me.
