Go to any writer’s or designer’s blog and you’ll more than likely find at least one post about working for free. Unfortunately, there are quite a few people and businesses out there that think it’s perfectly OK to get art or writing from somebody without giving them anything.
“Sure,” they say, “but it’s good experience.”
But is it really?
Let’s say you get contacted by the local liquor mart and by George Lucas on the same day. Lucky you. The local liquor store wants you to write a banner for their grand opening. George Lucas wants you to write a pilot for a new Star Wars animated series and pitch it to the Sci-Fi channel. Both are unpaid gigs.
Now. Is writing something for that local liquor store REALLY worth the experience?
Of course not. The fact of the matter is, people will always get away with not paying creatives because it’s such a highly competitive field, and there will always be people willing to sacrifice their time for no money and no benefit.
But you can be smart about your unpaid gigs. Before you apply or accept a no-pay job, think about what you’ll get out of it. If you get good contacts, if it’s a project you care deeply about or if there’s some sort of back-end compensation to it, by all means consider it.
But if you get none of those things, what motivation is there for you to do decent work? And if you do hack job work that you don’t care about, you’re not learning or progressing as a creative.
Don’t be afraid to be selective about the work you take. Just because you’re just getting started doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your integrity.
And don’t confuse spec work with unpaid work. As long as you’re creating something for yourself to sell, you’re gold. If someone else asks you to do something else on spec, be wary. They might take your hard work you did to “win them over” and use it anyway without paying you. Best just to steer clear of those situations.
I’d love to hear everyone else’s thoughts on unpaid work.
