Re: Question about payment for blogs

**"* C* <d*@gmail.com>**

-----Original Message----- 
From: Geri Laufer Subject: Re: [GWL] Question about payment for blogs

>For example, if a company is requesting
>one blog per week for 6 months, about 325 words + 2 photos each week, (they
>will suggest some of the topics and supply some of the photos), approx 75%
>artistic freedom and topic choice, but subject to editing

A personal perspective, and a warning. Many, many years ago, when garden 
writing was actual ink on actual paper, I approached a major chain garden 
retailer with what I thought was a good idea, pre-blogging. They would buy 
my weekly column, then running in a local paper, and make it available for 
free to newspapers in their sales areas. They fell for it. Soon my column 
was running weekly or frequently in 150 newspapers. That went on for four 
years, and it was a nightmare. That 75 percent artistic freedom is actually 
zero percent. My column was vetted through seven different departments, 
including the dreaded legal department, and every secretary and clerk had 
something they wanted changed or added. If you want to write (sorry) 
boilerplate about planting petunias and spreading proprietary fertilizer, 
which is a perfectly understandable goal if you get paid well enough,  go 
for it. But if you have your own voice and thoughts and don't feel 
comfortable flacking a company's marketing department's agenda, think twice 
before signing a contract.

On the plus side, once they dropped me and the ulcers healed, I started 
charging for the formerly free content and only about eighty percent of the 
papers dropped the column.

Duane Campbell
Syndicated garden columnist
Author: Best of Green Space; 30 Years of Composted Columns 

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