An editor wants me to write on spec. Should I?

That and more in today's Q&A

via Dall-E

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Hello friends! Welcome to the first in a series of Q&A newsletters, in which I’ll pick out a few reader-submitted questions and offer my take. We’ve got a couple of heady topics today, so let’s dive right in.

(Leave a question in a comment on this post or email me at tim@freelancingwithtim.com and I may feature your question in a future edition.)

An editor wants me to write on spec. Should I?

I recently pitched an editor for an online ‘magazine’ that’s really just the content arm of a business. He offered me an assignment, but agreed to pay the fee ($500) “if we agree to move forward after the first draft.”

I’ve been published in some of the bigger names among magazines, newspapers, and websites, and these editors all hire me based on my previous work. I'm not cool with working on spec, and I told him so. He amended the offer to $200 for a draft, and the remainder, again, if he likes it.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Every part of me screams no way; if he can’t do his own reading to vet me, and out of the gate doesn’t value my work, this won’t go well. The bummer is that it’s a place I’d love to write for and a topic I am super passionate about.

Oof, writing on spec, a specter that haunts so many of us freelancers.

If you’re not familiar, writing on spec generally means completing an assignment for a publication without any guarantee that the publication will actually buy the assignment. There are lots of nuances and caveats to that, but it basically just means doing unpaid labor without any promise of payment. A variation of this comes during the pitching process, too: Whether freelancers should submit a full draft of a story along with the initial cold pitch. The answer is (almost) always no: You’re doing unpaid labor on something that may never sell, and the editor wants to work with you to flesh out the idea (it’s their job!). However, there are two exceptions to that: opinion pieces — most opinion editors want to see a draft — and personal essays — some editors want to see a draft. A little different, but not wholly unrelated, to this freelancer’s situation. 

Asking freelancers to write on spec is a pretty awful practice! It backs freelancers into a corner with a super high-risk, possibly low-reward endeavor, it puts all of the power in the assigning editor’s hands, and, if they’re the type of editor who asks for work on spec, they’re probably not going to budge. (Fear the freelancer who takes an editor’s notes on spec; now that is power.)

In most cases, I’d say: Nope, onto the next one. That said …

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But this one is a little more complicated. The writer says, “The bummer is that it’s a place I’d love to write for and a topic I am super passionate about.” That is a bummer! It brings to mind the Pay/Prestige/Passion formula, which I learned about years ago from Wudan Yan of The Writers’ Co-op. In a nutshell, when you’re evaluating whether to take on an assignment it should check off at least two of those three boxes. In this case, the assignment in question ticks off only one, the Passion of it all. Does that give us an answer? No, but it is one of a few things to take into consideration. Plus, the editor did come back with a new offer of $200 for a draft, with the remaining $300 if he wants the story. Not your average writing-on-spec arrangement.

In this case, and only this case, I would say writing the story on spec is prooobably, maybe worth the time and effort, but with some major caveats. In the worst outcome, this writer will still end up with $200, and in the best outcome, $500 total for the story. However, those caveats are indeed major: 1. The writer didn’t specify the word count or scope of the story, which may turn my very apprehensive yes into a full-stop no. (But considering this is the content arm of a business, I would guess the per-word rate is pretty decent, as content work tends to pay better than news writing.) 2. What is the difficulty of the story? If the story would take a day or less to turn around, sure, why not; if it would anything more than that ... that’s gonna be a no.

Where would you land on this one? Leave a comment and let me know!

N.B.: After I asked permission to use this question, the writer added a little bit of the aftermath. She wrote,

I spent a few days trying to find a way to convince myself this was okay, and that I should accept these terms so that I could write a story that's meaningful to me. In the end I just couldn't feel good about it though, no matter how I tried to spin it, especially since his decision on moving forward or not after a draft seemed — at best — nebulous. I'd rather write my own story with my own terms on my Substack (for free!) than take this gamble with an editor who didn't feel that the gamble with me was worth it.

How do I sort out sourcing for a pitch?

When might you need to secure sources (or even conduct interviews) before pitching vs. just noting the “types” of sources you'd want to include or who you plan to reach out to? How many sources should you typically include for different types/lengths of articles? What kind of details/updates on the piece should you offer the sources (if any)?

Great questions all! Thankfully, this one is a little more straightforward.

First, remember that figuring out sourcing for your pitch is all unpaid labor that may never pay off. (See this Thursday’s paid-only newsletter for more details on how much pre-reporting you should do.) As a rule of thumb for pitching, I always say that you should do the absolute minimum amount of pre-reporting required for you to understand the shape, complexities, and nuances of your story, and be able to explain them in the pitch to the editor. Why do more work than is necessary, especially when you have no idea whether it’ll pay off?

Let’s break this question down into four parts:

1. When should I secure access to sources before pitching vs. just noting the “types” of sources I’d want or who you plan to reach out to? 

   In general, it’s usually not necessary to single out specific sources you’d want to include in the story, unless you feel it’s especially germane and/or you know for sure you want to potentially include them. If not, usually just noting the “type” of source you’d reach out to is good enough. For example, when I’m pitching stories about careers, I’ll most often just say I’ll interview a career coach, HR specialist, résumé consultant, and so on, rather than the specific people in those categories I’ll reach out to. (That’s what I do in basically every pitch.) Finding sources to speak with you after you’ve sold the story is rarely a problem (unless it is … more on that in a future newsletter.)

   The exception here is whether the story hinges on a specific person. If you’re pitching, say, a profile, or a story featuring one specific person’s perspective or insight, or an investigation that couldn’t exist without XYZ’s participation, yeah, you wanna secure access before pitching. 

2. Should I interview sources before sending the pitch/getting the commission?

   Not usually, but with exceptions. Most pitches don’t usually require that kind of pre-reporting, but sometimes they do. In those cases, something as simple as a cold email to your source saying something along the lines of, “Hi, I’m researching a story around X topic, and I’m wondering if you might be up for an off-the-record 10-minute phone chat to help me shape my thinking around this topic.” Keep it simple, and keep the stakes low.

3. What is the “right” number of sources for a given story?

   Who knows! There is no right answer to this. All I’ll say is that for a shorter story (say, 1,000 words or less), I’d never publish anything with fewer than three or four sources. On the other hand, it’s common — and usually necessary — for big features and stories to feature dozens and dozens of sources. Basically: Talk with your editor about it.

4. Should I tell the sources what I’m including from them in the story?

   This is a very tricky one, with far more nuance than would allow here, and it truly varies by story. If you’re having this question, absolutely bring it to your editor and get their take. As with all things freelance: It depends. (I feel like that should just be the new tagline for this newsletter.)

That’s all for this week. Remember to leave your questions in a comment below or email them to me. Good luck out there!

Oh, a few other things …

• I am open for one-on-one coaching! Book a 30- or 60-minute Zoom call to cover anything you want, including pitch feedback, writing and/or editing coaching, story development, story editing, social strategy, and anything else. Book a timeslot here.

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• Psst … I’m soft-launching the beta version of the FWT Slack. It’s still very much in the planning and iteration process, but I would love for you to join and start participating! Click here to join. (And I’d love any and all feedback you might have!)

Bye ily!
Tim❤️