August 19, 2008

No Thank You, Mrs. Editor Lady, I Can't Accept Your Repeated Generous Offer of No Pay

I admit, I got very little sleep last night because I'm excited/anxious about my heavy work load, and I'm probably a little cranky right now.

Maybe that's why I'm extra annoyed that yet another email I got about writing for a blog for no pay has turned into a series of ridiculous emails about writing for a blog for no pay. Let me break it down:

Mrs. Editor Lady: "Dear Elizabeth, we like your blogs. You are a good writer. Would you write for our blog? Here are 6 million reasons why you should."

Me: (Sensing there is no pay involved) "."

(a few days later) Mrs. Editor Lady: "Just following up on our earlier email. We like your blogs. You are a good writer. Would you write for our blog? Here are 6 million reasons why you should."

Me: "Can you give me more information about frequency of posts, topic, style, and pay?"

Mrs. Editor Lady: "Some explanation, also, here are 6 million reasons why you should write for us. Also, there is no pay."

Me: "Thank you for the offer but I don't have the time for another project right now. (Also, seriously? You should pay people for their work.)"

Mrs. Editor Lady: "Even though pay is obviously an issue with you, and we're sort of ridiculous to think we'll attract and retain good writers for no money, and we will never pay you, and maybe I don't even know what dollars are, let me bombard you again with 6 million reasons why you should write for us. Also, did I mention, there is no pay?"

Me: (marking email as spam)

7 comments:

Dan Telfer said...

What these people don't seem to understand is that the second they start their pitch, we can hear all the way back to the horrible meeting that spawned this position:

Exec: Okay, I love this blogging idea. Who normally writes this stuff? Do we have to pay someone?

Pitcher: People blog for free all the time. It's compulsive for some people. But they write about what they care about, and hope one day to be paid to work on something meaningful. We just have to convince them this blog is the new thing they love and want to compulsively write about.

Exec: But... won't they want money eventually?

Pitcher: They're blogs. Blog writers are filth, a dime a dozen, you just have to lure them in with shiny bits of information.

Exec: Won't that make the writing worse? If we lure in filth as opposed to pay staff writers?

Pitcher: Do you want to pay staff writers?

Exec: Filth it is!

Elizabeth McQuern said...

Ugh. Seriously.

Unknown said...

Very funny! Made me chuckle!

Mo said...

"Won't that make the writing worse? If we lure in filth as opposed to pay staff writers?" Heheheh.

Oh, E--I've got this blog, you see, and loads of people love writing for it. You're actually missing out by not writing for me. I'm going to send you a 78-page .pdf of really fantastic reasons why you should consider joining our team! No, really, it's awesome.

Dr Zibbs said...

OK, this is bizzare. I just did a random google blog search for "comedian blog" and noticed that MO made a comment. What is this so odd? Because our blogs link to one another's. I shit you not!

Elizabeth McQuern said...

Mo and I pretty much run the internet, so that only makes sense.

But seriously, that's AWESOME! We are all connected.

AHP said...

Funny story. I might have written for somebody else for free before, but now I would only do that for myself. That's what's great about engineering. They pay you to do work whether you're an intern or a professional. I don't get those other "professions" where it's OK to make people slave away because you're doing them a favor by letting them get experience.