You get what you pay for

I've mentioned this website before www.aboutfreelancewriting.com. It's a forum for freelance writers to discuss all kinds of issues.

A poster there just vented about an ad he saw for a freelance writer. He applied and received an email admonishing him (in advance) about the quality they wanted, their high standards and so forth. Then the pay is like $2 an article.

It struck me (and surprisingly for the first time) that prospective clients who offer such low pay are actually attracting the types of writers they don't want. Who would work for pay that insultingly low except someone who is really not a professional writer?

It's easy to claim you're writer. It's even easier to think of yourself as a writer. In fact, many writing coaches encourage that. "You write, you're a writer." But it isn't that simple.

If I sit down at my computer and type this as a story:

I saw the car. I went to the car. I opened the door and got in the car. Then I sat down and got out the key. I didn't have the right key so I goes back inside my house, after getting out of the car, ...

And then claim I'm a writer, is that accurate? Someone may think that's profound; but, I don't. I don't really consider it writing until, and unless, someone pays me for it. That makes me a professional.

Sitting at a coffee house and sipping tea and writing in a journal may help you mentally with the process. In a sense, you are a writer if you write. But I would like to add something:

To consider yourself a writer, you should think of yourself as a craftsman -- learning and always striving to become better. Otherwise, you're as much a writer as a person who sits behind the wheel of a car and steers to the left is a racing car driver. OK, so you go fast, too. What will that get you but a ticket?

So, one more time, if you are looking to hire a writer and the responses you get do not live up to your standards, maybe the problem is what you are offering as compensation. Think about this, would you work for $2?

A professional writer won't because he or she can't afford to work for that little. A well written article includes research, interviews, writing and rewrites. In my day job, I write a weekly column of about 500 words. Because it's my column, I can write whatever I want and about whatever I want.

Because it needs to make sense and there's a minimum length, it has taken me DAYS to write. Days of reading the news, observing things in my life, thinking, writing, rewriting, realizations that the particular subject does not inpire me 500-words worth, so beginning all over again.

For a 400-word article, I may have to do research and interviews as well as writing and rewriting.
Trust me, every writer rewrites. There is nothing that can't be improved. Good enough isn't good enough for a professional writer.

All of this is time-consuming and creates angst and ulcers. And you want me to accept $2 for that?