In researching markets for Premium-Green, I always come across an alarming amount of markets that solicit writers, but don't pay. Some of them include nice notes like "we hope to pay writers someday!" while others take the opposite route and say, "we offer great exposure," or even, "we don't charge to read your submissions."I'm sorry, but come on! If you have an ezine and are asking for writers, don't you think you should pay them something? You don't have to go all out and spend $1,000 an issue like WOW! does, but there should be some compensation other than "exposure." Why start an ezine then?
Another thing, when a site says they hope to pay writers "someday" do you really think they're going to start doing that? Why should they if they're getting submissions already without having to pay?
It's too bad. I run across a lot of really interesting markets that have great content, or are attractive sites, but I can't include them because they are non-paying. I wish writers would stop feeding the beast of non-paying markets. Most of the ones that say they offer "exposure" don't even have great traffic. So why do freelancers keep submitting to them? Just curious...
I completely agree with you. I also get irritated by those sites that pay writers 'a percentage of advertising clicks based on traffic,' an equal abomination that places the onus on the writer to get traffic to the site, and effectively translates to writing for free. Why DO writers keep volunteering to support sites that aren't willing to pay them? I think that some writers who are trying to get established and gain some clips will write for free. In this day of easy to set-up blogs and Web sites, why not write for yourself for free rather than for someone else? I do wish writers would ban together and refuse to work for free, for the good of writers everywhere.
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