You
don’t have to be an expert to write about something. Academics are trained to
learn a lot about a fairly narrow topic and then write about it over and over
for a very long time. You might assume you can only write on a familiar topic.
But
that isn’t true. I’m not an "expert" on teen television, rape
culture, immigration, children’s literature, clothing. Early on, you may feel
uncomfortable straying too far from your discipline or sub field but eventually
that won’t seem like such a big deal. Straying could give you valuable new
perspectives on your work in your field.
If
you agree to write for no pay, know what you signed up for. I won’t say
"don’t ever write for free." But it pays off in many other ways: It
ends up attracting hundreds of thousands of page views and garnering responses
ranging from beautiful to terrifying.
But
by writing for no pay essentially lowers the value of written work for both yourself
and other writers. Even if writing isn’t your main source of income, remember
that it is for many people. So by accepting low or no pay you are enabling
publications to get away with not paying writers for their work.
To
be clear, I’m not really talking about writing for your friend’s tiny website
or for your favorite nonprofit’s blog. I’m talking about writing for for-profit
media companies that shouldn’t be allowed to get away with paying you nothing
except for the "prestige" of being published on their pages.
My
advice is twofold on this front: (1) Be careful about agreeing to work without
compensation, and (2) Ask for the fee you deserve. If you don’t know how much
you deserve, you can find guidance on sites like “Who Pays Writers” and “Study
Hall”. Your well wishers might be supportive and impressed — or not.
Or, they might think you are distracting yourself from what’s important: your main
work. Lots of academics look down on journalism. Lots of them get mad when
their area of research is the subject of mainstream articles written by non academics
or non experts. Lots of academic still think the only route through life and
respectability is scholarly conferences, a good dissertation, and peer-reviewed
articles.
But
you have to decide on your own priorities. If writing for general magazines and
web sites is something you really want to do, prioritize it — even if your well
wishers see it as unimportant. It is your career and your life.
Writing
for magazines, blogs, and newspapers isn’t better or worse than writing for
academic audiences. Don’t think you are doing community service — reaching an
imagined public for your work out of good will. Just do good work because you
like to both write and get paid for it.
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