Part of my daily routine is checking journalismjobs.com. Several times. I check newspaper jobs, click over to magazine/publishing jobs and finally check out the Web openings. Only rarely do I find one I want to apply for. After all, I’m probably too picky about where I will go next in my career, so it’s not often a job is posted that I want to apply for. That said, this evening I stumbled upon the absolute worst job posting in the history of journalismjobs.com:
Atlantic Publishing Company is a leading publisher in the business, finance, real estate, and hospitality areas. We are searching for freelance writers who are able to review books and are able to write honest reviews of 1-3 paragraphs. We will pay $50 for the entire project of ALL 3 reviews upon completion.
Allow me to recap, a “leading publisher in the business, finance, real estate, and hospitality areas” is so eager for people to review books for it — books that are sure to be boring, by the way — they will pay you the whopping sum of $50. Absolutely nuts.
For those readers who aren’t in journalism, it’s important to understand that we place great value on our product. What is the value of our words? Priceless. I’m the only one who can ever phrase things my way. No matter how hard someone tries, they will never be able to write exactly the way I do. What I submit for any assignment is absolutely one of a kind. Of course, what we do has to have a price tag attached and journalists are famously poorly paid. But, to ask for three separate pieces for $50 total is absurd.
Fifty bucks is considered crummy pay for just one freelance piece, so to expect three for that price is mind boggling. Beyond that, not only will the pay you peanuts, you can’t even do additional work for them for more peanuts. More from the ad:
If you have done book reviews with us in the past we will not be able to re-hire you at this time.
You really about rewarding the people who work for you, huh?
each review only has to be a paragraph. that’s not bad money, actually
That’s true, but you have to read the books before you can review them. That what really gets me. That will take time, and if you break it down to how long it takes to read the books, put thought into analyzing them and then putting that on paper, I bet you’re not getting paid 5 bucks an hour.