I’m back after a long, unexpected break. I got busy and the blog was pushed to the side while I focused on other things. I meant for this post to be a light-hearted look at being a freelance writer, but something I read today erased any feelings of humour I had about freelancing. The issue: the Halifax Herald has come out with a new rights-grabbing contract–no increase in pay to compensate for the loss of rights, of course–and the deadline for writers to sign it has now passed.
I’ll give the details here, but I encourage everyone to read the full account at a blog about the freelancers’ ordeals, called HoweNow. Meanwhile, a post by Silver David Cameron, writer for the Herald, can be found at The Green Interview. Please read it, as well. The comparison he makes between the rights-grabbing contract and selling apples is brilliant. Although I don’t know his writing well, after reading this post I’d imagine readers of the Herald will dearly miss his columns.
In a nutshell, the Herald has reportedly demanded that its freelance writers sign a contract that takes all their rights, allows the Herald to modify the work in any way they see fit, allows the Herald to reassign the rights without restriction, prevents writers from discussing their financial dealings with the Herald with anyone other than lawyers and accountants, and allows the Herald to decide not to publish the work but prevents the writer from withdrawing the work or publishing it elsewhere, even if the Herald does not publish it.
According to HoweNow, the Herald agreed to change the contract somewhat, but refused to change clauses involving rights. The blog notes that the Canadian Freelance Union called the Herald’s contract the “worst contract in Canada.”
Essentially, the Herald gets more from the writers, in terms of free content, but doesn’t have to pay them more money. And the attitude is one of “we’re a business, we have to survive.” Apparently, newspapers have to survive, freelance writers don’t. The situation is sickening, and even more so because so many publications are turning to this sort of rights-grabbing contract.
According to the Professional Writers’ Association of Canada (PWAC), writers have not seen a substantial increase in the per-word pay for articles since the 1970s. It’s one of the sad facts of being a freelance writer. How we get around that is by taking articles we’ve written and repackaging them for other markets.
For example: You could write an article about a new local hotel that uses only environmentally friendly products and publish that in a local newspaper. You could then take that article, use the same interviews but rewrite the story as a travel article for a newspaper in a city on the other side of the country. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a way to take work already done (usually for a pittance) and make extra money.
But with rights-grabbing contracts, writers no longer have the ability to do that. Publishers say it’s because they “aren’t running a charity.” Apparently, freelance writers are running charities. I had no idea–I should have applied for charity status a long time ago.
This is terrible for freelance writers, but it also affects the public. Because really, what these publishers are saying is that their readers aren’t worth the cost of experienced, knowledgeable writers. They’re saying it isn’t worth it to them to ensure that readers continue to read the same writers they’ve come to know and love over the years.
To the publishers, nothing is worth it. The writers aren’t worth the money and the readers aren’t worth the cost. I’m sure the publishers won’t have any trouble finding writers to sign the new contracts. They’ll find younger writers who don’t really understand the contract or who just want to get their foot in the door. And the new writers aren’t bad people–they just don’t understand that the contracts they’re signing are helping to devalue the writing profession as a whole.
But what makes me so angry is that writers are portrayed as not being “team players” because they want to protect their rights and their futures. Somehow, everyone else is allowed to want to make money, except for writers. Apparently, when we agreed to become freelance writers, we agreed to live like the monks who’ve taken a vow of poverty.
I wonder how many of these higher ups at newspapers and magazines have agreed to take a salary decrease to ensure their newspaper survives.
To read more about writing contracts, visit Bad Writing Contracts. Meanwhile, if you want to tell the Herald what you think of how they treat freelancers, you can do so at their Facebook page (thank heavens for social media). You have to “Like” the page first, but then feel free to leave your comments.
