How's My Ten Cents Word?

By Marivir R. Montebon
New York City

While power is at the tip of our fingers in this awesome digital age, the writer in the internet, ironically, still remains a pauper.

Although a writer's value in the industry is key to the industry's life (for every writer, there are 30 other industry players and workers who earn from her/his writing output, including editors, lay-out artists, actors, and marketing personnel), she/he is generally paid low or none at all when writing for the internet.

In New York and in many parts of the US, a writer is paid about ten cents per word or $50-$100 for a 500-word story. Most of these fees are arbitrarily determined.

This financial anemia for writers is a stark contrast to the robust accessibility of the public to information. At the outset, because most of the information is free and highly accessible, fees for writers, sadly, have become all time low.

How this can be resolved has to confront a myriad of issues concerning the publishers, writer's name and experience, as well as, advertisers and sponsors.

At noon time on Saturday of October 19, four freelance writers in the auspices of the National Writers Union in mid-Manhattan ignited the discussion on the low wages prevailing in the internet.

[caption id="attachment_2861" align="alignright" width="300"] There is a need to standardize writer's fees - freelance writers[/caption]

"New York on Ten Cents a Word?" was a panel discussion led by David Hill, and composed of Sarah Jaffe, James O’Brien, David Roth, and Maggie Serota of the 3rd Annual Writers Conference of the NWU-New York Chapter with the theme "Writing Success in the Digital Age."  More than 40 writers from the East Coast attended this year's conference.

Maggie Serota, co-host of the music podcast Low Times and contributor for The Onion and Philadelphia Weekly, told the audience that she has "never felt safe as writer."

"I have not made a living from writing. I had other jobs to pay for my bills. Papers are just folding everywhere, and with that I had also lost my writer's fees in several cases," she said.

The three other panelists shared their huge challenges of losing their jobs as writers and how they managed to keep afloat through other sources of income, particularly when local publications were folding up at the height of the 2007 recession.

To be Published For Free

In These Times magazine staff writer Sarah Jaffe noted that there are writers who are willing to write for free, just to be published. As a fresh graduate, Sarah said she preferred to not be paid or be paid lowly for $50-75 per article because she is building her name as a journalist.

She however noted that there are still publishers who are capable of paying writers decently, and these are the stable media institutions who choose to pay the more experienced writer.

Stability for Newly-Opened Media Groups

James O'Brien (an independent writer and author of the Dos and Don'ts of Full-time Freelancing) and David Roth (co-founder of The Classical, a Kickstarter-funded sports website) noted that with the advent of writers becoming publishers themselves in the internet, it became financially burdensome to create a more steady income for these newly established media groups, which much show capability to pay for their writers.

Someone from the audience however, aptly said that instead of becoming an apologist for publishers, free lance writers must instead organize themselves and define the standard fees for internet articles. "Ten cents per word is truly ridiculous," she said.

[caption id="attachment_2862" align="alignright" width="300"] Ten cents per word is ridiculously low[/caption]

The four panelists concurred to the suggestion of defining standards for internet articles. O'Brien particularly expressed optimism that emerging publishers will eventually create ways to earn through the internet, making their media outlets capable to paying writers decently.

WRITING ACROSS BORDERS: An Inspiring Breakthrough by the NWU

By Tim Sheard
Chair
National Writers Union-NY

New York City -- Tears, cheers and laughter filled the room as the speakers in the opening plenary of the WRITING ACROSS BORDERS conference discussed how they write about the immigrant experience. Brought together by the New York chapter of the National Writers Union, Esther Armah, from Ghana & London, looked at the speakers and commented, "This is what a group of writers talking about immigration is supposed to look like: a black woman from Africa, a Mexicano from the American southwest, and a Filipino woman who has been in prison under the dictatorship in her home country. This is the diversity that represents writers who cross borders."

The speakers went on to talk about the dominant narrative about immigrants, which robs them of their individuality and their dignity, and how writers can and must defeat that narrative with story. Sergio Troncoso read a brief selection from his latest collection of essay, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, that brought tears to the eyes, as he described chatting in Spanish with two women sent to make up his room in a fancy hotel.

When the women learned Sergio was a Chicano who had come from a humble background and worked his way up to become a successful writer, they confessed they had to work sixteen hour days and had no time to learn English. Sergio gave them a copy of his book and suggested they ask their children to read it to them so that they would see what is possible for an immigrant who has a dream.

The speakers talked about how publishers, school boards and book reviewers shun books by immigrant writers - even award winning authors - in favor of mainstream, white writers. The biased selection process reflects an exploitative system that uses immigrants for cheap labor, or, as transnational Filipina Ninotchka Rosca pointed out, for the unpaid, dehumanizing labor of trafficked women and domestic workers toiling for years with no political rights and no legal safeguards.

Writers, Esther reminded us, can and must fight to change the social order by changing the dominant narrative. We must write the stories that bring immigrants into the light of individuality and dignity. "There is a morality of description," Sergio pointed out. "If the protagonist is always an educated white male or white woman and the people of color are always crooks or invisible people with no personal lives, that narrative choice is an immoral use of language." Esther agreed.
"Such writers refuse to call a thing what it is: it dehumanizes and de-individualizes a group of people - especially people of color - and the writing supports their exploitation and degradation."

All agreed that when we write about immigrants with honesty and compassion we begin to change the dominant narrative and advance the cause of human rights and social equality.

A lively series of questions continued the discussion, which ran a half hour over the two-hour time limit. No one wanted the discussion to end. But with four more writers waiting to take their turn in the next panel, we closed the plenary with a round of applause for these courageous writers of color.

A video of the session will be posted by the Empire State College, which they will share with the National Writers Union and with the world.