Modern Author Showcase

If you let other people know that you’re a writer, the chances are excellent that they will a) want free writing lessons, b) want you to write their life story, c) want you to collaborate on a book, d) will want you to write some nonfiction.

In many cases, such people actually have the resources to hire you outright, but you won’t know that unless you do a little digging. So you need to let the potential employer know that you’re a professional who gets paid.

Yet all too often, new writers are afraid to say, "So why don’t you write me a check?"

I think that the reason for this is that when you become a writer, you do it by degrees. You study, you practice, you gain some notoriety. But in those early days, no one puts a sticker on your head and says, "Now you’re a real writer."

Instead, we’re often left to feel like we’re pretenders. Here are some things to think about if you feel insecure asking for money:

1) A writer is a skilled professional. In order to become a writer, I went to college and studied writing, editing, and literature for several years. I practiced writing and editing for years beyond that, and went on to enter and win contests, gain awards, and become an international bestselling author. It takes the average writer about seven years to perfect his or her craft to the point that he or she sells. It takes another seven years for the typical author to become a bestseller (if you make it that far). On average, to become a bestselling writer takes a little more time than it does to become a neurosurgeon. So if you’re somewhere along that career path, don’t sell your skills at a wage commensurate with a starting employee at McDonald’s.

2) You can find some fairly established guidelines for what you should ask for a job in just about any industry given your level of expertise. Not all jobs are equal. When I’m presented with an offer, I look at how much it pays, whether I think the job would be fun, how much work it will take, how much notoriety it might bring, and so on. There’s no real formula to follow. I just go with my gut feeling. This year I took a job writing a screenplay in China. The money was okay, but the travel, the experience, and the fun made it worthwhile for me. On the other hand, I turned down a job writing a huge video game because the time obligations would have been a killer.

As a writer, it’s easy to justify the position that you deserve to be paid like a professional. Once you establish that, you need to create a contract.

The contract should have the following elements:

1) Create a contract in which your business partner states that they wish to retain your services as a writer. This contract should name both parties and give their addresses.

2) The second paragraph of the contract should state what the job is to be and when it should be done. For example, I might say, "Wolverton will write a 120-page user’s manual/with illustrations and screen shots, and will perform two rewrites based upon editing suggestions, with the work to be completed no later than December 1, 2010."

3) The third paragraph should state when you will be paid. Normally, this would be 50 percent down, and 50 percent upon approval, with a deadline date added in case your employer gets bogged down in the approval process. However, it’s also common to work for an hourly rate, and normally I would simply present a bill for hours worked and expect payment within a week or two after presenting the bill.

4) Last, there should always be an exit strategy. If the company decides that they don’t want the work done after all for some reason, or if you as the writer decide that you can’t work with them, you need to provide mutual terms that let you both off the hook gracefully.

5) At that point, you sign and date the contract.

In most cases, your work-for-hire contracts don’t need to be elaborate affairs. I try to keep them under a page. I think that my old contracts for work with Lucasfilm for Star Wars were my longest. They ran two pages, but that was because they wanted to make sure that I knew that they were getting all rights to the property. When I worked on some Mummy novels, the contracts were only a page.

So when someone finds out that you’re a writer and begins to prod to see if you want to work with them, be a professional. Tell them that you’d love to talk with them, and let them know that you’ll want to learn the scope of the project and set up a contract. Those who aren’t in a position to hire you will quickly bow out of the conversation, but ultimately you can have some fun and make a little money.

###