Hello friends! Welcome to another edition of FWT’s Q&A series, in which I pick out a reader-submitted question or two and offer my take. We’ve got a heady one today, so let’s dive right in.

(Got a question about freelancing or the wider world of journalism? Let’s hear it, and I may feature it in a future Q&A newsletter! Leave a comment on this post or fill out this form with your question(s).)

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.
— Anonymous

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 it. 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, as most Opinion editors want to see a draft; and personal essays, as 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 almost all cases, I’d say: Nope, on to the next one. That said … 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: 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 checks off only one, the Passion of it all. Does that give us a final answer? No, but it is one of a few things to take into consideration. And on top of all that, 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 in only this case, I would say writing the story on spec is prooobably, maybe worth the time and effort, but with a major caveat. In the worst outcome, this writer will still end up with $200, and in the best outcome, $500 total for the story. Not the worst deal I’ve seen. However, my caveat is indeed major: The writer didn’t specify the word count or scope of the story. Depending on that, my apprehensive yes could turn into a full-stop no if the assignment is enormous and will take significant time and energy to draft up. If the story would take a day or less to turn around, sure, why not; if it would anything more than that … that’s probably gonna be a no from me.

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