Like a zombie, free/spec work keeps rising from the dead to eat the brains of today’s freelancers. Don’t get eaten.
Some freelancers simply can’t do enough work for free, and while that may satisfy their inner desire to be loved and accepted, it doesn’t pay the bills.
Astonishingly, spec work (free work) is actually encouraged in parts of the copywriting blogosphere, though happily, when it pops up the reaction from other freelancers is usually negative.
On the Freelance Switch site (they should know better), a magazine editor lamented the unwillingness of a designer to complete a free project over the weekend in pursuit of a part-time job:
In fact, there was one woman who the team really liked. She showed us some great samples of her work, she had a flexible schedule, and looked like she would be the perfect hire to join our team.
Our art director gave her a take home assignment on a Friday, hoping to see something on Monday. She gave this woman a logo, some copy, and a specific ad size to see what she could come up with in a specific amount of time. We never heard back from her.
Disappointed? Yeah! We were hoping this woman would knock our socks off. But she never sent in her graphics test. This led us to two conclusions: that she didn’t really want the job after all or she was creatively unable to do the work we needed her to do.
Several comments suggested a third conclusion; the behavior of the magazine drove the designer away (the article’s writer was the editor of the magazine).
Simply put, no.
If a prospect asked me to write for free over a weekend, I wouldn’t just raise the red flag, I’d be tempted to beat them with it.
This is not complicated. Freelancers should not bear the brunt of an organization’s indecision about a freelancer (or group of them), especially when a portfolio with “great samples” already exists. If a copywriter can’t write an ad, they probably won’t do any better on blog post.
Still, if the client has a decision making disorder and absolutely needs to see a tailored copy sample, then they should create a freelance project.
A paid freelance project.
(A course which was never once suggested in the original article.)
My Embarrassing Story
Every freelancer is asked for spec work.
My response — assuming I’m interested and the suggestion of spec hasn’t already frightened me off the gig — is to offer a cheaper rate for one small job.
My thinking? It’s only fair the organization and the freelancer share the investment.
Those times I did cave have seen less-than-spectacular results. About a decade ago, I wrote on spec for a catalog client; I badly wanted back into the catalog market, and the client looked like an up and comer. My vision for the tone was slightly different from the client’s, and I wanted their response to it.
So I wrote two pieces of copy for their flagship product.
They loved the samples. I thought we were off to the races.
Because I mentioned prior experience tuning catalog and landing pages, they also asked for landing page copy, an evaluation and a free thumbnail layout.
On spec.
I’m a slow learner, but I’m not dense, so I said I’d do the additional work on a paid basis — just as soon as they signed the copy work order. Tellingly, the prospect wouldn’t sign without “proof I could do the job” — even though the “job” had nothing to do with designing their landing pages.
I bailed, yet the prospect bizarrely insisted I complete the free work as if I owed it to him. The lesson? For some people, getting free work from others is more about power than copy.
In another instance, an ad agency asked me to develop three loose spec ad concepts for a specific company so I could demonstrate my ability to pitch their creative staff. Creating a spec campaign is time consuming work (the target wasn’t an agency client, but I later learned they wanted it to be). When I asked about compensation, I was told “Freelancer X was willing to do it for free.”
I suggested they hire Freelancer X.
Two weeks later their senior designer called back and asked for another meeting, but this horse had already bolted that particular agency barn.
More than two years later, I ran into Freelancer X, who told me she’d also refused to do the creative on spec. Instead, she suggested using some of the agency’s existing creative work to pass their pitch test.
It was a fair compromise, yet the agency declined.
Surprise, surprise. Guess who was looking for free creative for their own pitch?
Your Auto Mechanic Doesn’t Work For Free
Posts like Freelance Switch’s are symptomatic of a plague among freelancers, who in a difficult economy and glutted markets seem to feel they have little of value to offer, so they accept spec/free work arrangements.
Consider yourself an undifferentiated commodity and so will your client, a reality which — and trust me on this one — is not a recipe for a long, mutually satisfying relationship.
If a client is willing to ask you to write for free, they’re probably also willing to ask you to write extra work for free.
Or write on unreasonable deadlines.
Or handle revisions beyond the scope of the original brief (and payment).
Or to help out on that new client pitch, which they’re not getting paid for, so you won’t either.
In short, once you’ve defined yourself as a “good sport” (which in the freelance world translates to “willing victim”), you’ll continue to be that victim.
Last I checked, the only well-paid victims on the planet were actors playing those roles in movies and television.
Some Thoughts
All too often, freelancers justify spec work on the grounds they’ll become the proud owners of a writing sample, which is akin to a car mechanic agreeing to rebuild an engine because he’d “never overhauled a six-cylinder Toyota before.”
If a prospect (or existing client) asks you to write on spec:
- Tell them you’ll happily consider a freelance assignment
- Instead of a fake project, ask them to pay you to work in parallel on a real project, so they receive value for their money
- If you’re in a cranky mood, ask them how they’d respond if their HR Director wandered in and said they weren’t getting paid for showing up next week
If your book doesn’t include the right samples (you want catalog work, but don’t have samples), then take a page from screenwriters — write your own samples for existing products.
I freely admit I’ve written free/spec work in the distant past, and I know how tempting it can be. I also know how rarely it works out to the freelancer’s benefit, and that it’s become more common over the last five years, not less.
A bad trend, one worth reversing.
Keep writing (but not for free), Tom Chandler.
