Saying 'No'
Sometimes freelancers are offered projects for which the only sensible answer is 'no'. It may be because of the timing -- in the middle of two projects when real plum drops into your lap -- or it may be that it just isn't right for you. It's tough to turn down paying work even if you're busy at the time: freelancing is a feast-or-famine existence, and building up a nest egg against the lean times is always desirable when work can suddenly dry up for months at a time.
I recently had a convention ask me to appear as a special guest. This convention was a two-day drive away from where I live, and due to the somewhat remote location, it would also be expensive to attend by flying. Being a small and fairly new convention, the only compensation they could offer me was a free badge (membership) to the con.
It was very flattering to be asked, but three important things came to mind:
The convention would cost me roughly $1500 to attend through gas, food, and lodging.
Timewise, it would cost me at least a week: two days driving -- both there and back -- plus the three days of the con.
This was a gaming con, and while I am a gamer and enjoy games, there's really nothing for me at the majority of local gaming conventions.
While I am at a point in my life where I have more time than money generally, this trip would cost me both, and the likelihood of it doing anything that would help my career as a writer is slim. In the gaming industry I don't really need any more exposure: I have a multitude of very solid contacts in that area, so work can be had if I'm willing to work for the rates that gaming companies can offer. It's not that I feel gaming work is beneath me or any such thing: my time is more valuable to me than two cents per word (or less) and retaining no rights whatsoever to the work after I turn it in. Those downsides for such projects usually far outweigh the benefits. It has to be a special project that really appeals to me before I will strongly consider work of that sort. It does come along from time to time, but it's rare.
Writing is a business, and writers have to learn to treat it that way. It would have been a balm to my frequently bruised ego to be listed on that program book as "special guest" but the numbers just didn't add up for me.
I recently had a convention ask me to appear as a special guest. This convention was a two-day drive away from where I live, and due to the somewhat remote location, it would also be expensive to attend by flying. Being a small and fairly new convention, the only compensation they could offer me was a free badge (membership) to the con.
It was very flattering to be asked, but three important things came to mind:
The convention would cost me roughly $1500 to attend through gas, food, and lodging.
Timewise, it would cost me at least a week: two days driving -- both there and back -- plus the three days of the con.
This was a gaming con, and while I am a gamer and enjoy games, there's really nothing for me at the majority of local gaming conventions.
While I am at a point in my life where I have more time than money generally, this trip would cost me both, and the likelihood of it doing anything that would help my career as a writer is slim. In the gaming industry I don't really need any more exposure: I have a multitude of very solid contacts in that area, so work can be had if I'm willing to work for the rates that gaming companies can offer. It's not that I feel gaming work is beneath me or any such thing: my time is more valuable to me than two cents per word (or less) and retaining no rights whatsoever to the work after I turn it in. Those downsides for such projects usually far outweigh the benefits. It has to be a special project that really appeals to me before I will strongly consider work of that sort. It does come along from time to time, but it's rare.
Writing is a business, and writers have to learn to treat it that way. It would have been a balm to my frequently bruised ego to be listed on that program book as "special guest" but the numbers just didn't add up for me.
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