I use Media Bistro as a resource looking for writing and media jobs. It's very useful. I read a great advertisement today, and had to laugh. As I was reading the job requirements my eyebrows went higher - wow, that's challenging, I thought. Growing an audience for poetry.com through top ten lists, video and audio creation, trend--tracking, fresh angles, niche stories...
Then I read the remuneration. You are kidding. You want all that, for that?
No wonder artists are starving.
Do you love poetry? Can you identify and create vibrant, useful, relevant content, blogs, photo galleries, Top 10 lists, resource lists, tips and advice features, quizzes, articles, video, audio, and user-generated content from the social network, etc. that will drive and increase traffic and serve our poetry.com audience needs and interests?
Keep track of hot topics in poetry for the purposes of writing about them for the Poetry.com audience.
Generate story ideas and pitch them to an editor regularly.
Provide fresh angles on both high interest and niche stories in literature, Film, TV, music, pop-culture and/or other aspects of entertainment & relate them to poetry.
Conduct interviews with celebrities, artists, and public figures and produce interesting features or Q&As.
Writer should have developed own voice and be passionate about poetry.
Be dialed in to social media & promote your articles
The pay is $15 for 250 word articles $20 for 500 word articles $50 for 800-1000 piece, if it can be split into consecutively published Part 1 & Part 2 (only a few celebrity/author/entertainment pieces are appropriate for two-parters). We will assign in bulk 10-20 articles per assignment.
Unless you can research, write, edit and proof a 250-word article in less than two hours, that is NOT even minimum wage. OMG! (Twenty four words. Please send me $1.50.)
ReplyDeleteSounds like most job descriptions now...
ReplyDeleteFor the young who want to
ReplyDeleteBY MARGE PIERCY
Talent is what they say
you have after the novel
is published and favorably
reviewed. Beforehand what
you have is a tedious
delusion, a hobby like knitting.
Work is what you have done
after the play is produced
and the audience claps.
Before that friends keep asking
when you are planning to go
out and get a job.
Genius is what they know you
had after the third volume
of remarkable poems. Earlier
they accuse you of withdrawing,
ask why you don’t have a baby,
call you a bum.
The reason people want M.F.A.’s,
take workshops with fancy names
when all you can really
learn is a few techniques,
typing instructions and some-
body else’s mannerisms
is that every artist lacks
a license to hang on the wall
like your optician, your vet
proving you may be a clumsy sadist
whose fillings fall into the stew
but you’re certified a dentist.
The real writer is one
who really writes. Talent
is an invention like phlogiston
after the fact of fire.
Work is its own cure. You have to
like it better than being loved.
(I did Creative Writing Poetry as my undergrad. I am now a librarian in a Paleobiology Library.)
I've given up on jobs like that. Better just to starve and be sane. I'm running into the problem that I'm overqualified for anything, and a friend suggested I stop putting my grad degrees on resumes.
ReplyDeleteThat just pisses me off. I know someone will take the job because even that tiny amount of money is better than none. But good writing shouldn't come cheap. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. Say it with me.
ReplyDeleteBeing someone who is also always looking for freelance work, I've seen tons of these ads, and I skip right by them. It actually makes me angry. It's like working for slave wages and really degrades what we do. Surely there is greater value to it than that. The only people they could possibly get is recent college grads still living at home who don't actually have to live on what they make. Really infuriates me. And oh, yes, if you double the word count we'll pay you an extra $5.
ReplyDeletewebb- thanks for doing the math. It's mind boggling.
ReplyDeleteJenna - (silence from me: head in the sand)...
Carrie - yeah, thanks. Good butt kick. Except the last line...work is its own cure/You have to like it better than you like being well fed?- perhaps...
Benjamin - huh, that's...not a nice thought.
Ellen, yep - and it sells everyone down the river. I'm mad as hell and...I need a drink!
CT Blogger - well, one must skip. I just can't help the knee jerk reaction. It's ludicrous.
As a freelancer…graphic design, I can only say this has been an interesting two years. We creative people use to be a respected bunch. At least our expertise and talents were valued. No more. Now we compete against interns who are either working for free or a tiny stipend or those who want us to work on spec. Unless we know someone who knows someone who knows someone who is looking to hire…decent pay is getting harder and harder to come by. Yes someone will take the job, but because someone does, it hurts all of us.
ReplyDelete