What it’s like to be asked to work for free as a professional writer.

You’re a writer, it’s what you know to do, what comes naturally to you. You’re confident in your abilities, maybe you even have a few bylines with major outlets under your belt. Part of being a writer is looking for outlets to write for. You have a creative voice and feel like it would be a good fit for a particular website or magazine or newspaper or what have you. Also like, being able to afford food is fun.

So you come across a job posting for a website, let’s call it TheCultureTrip.com. It’s a small site, but it looks good and their tone is fun. You thoroughly read through the job posting.

Great, it feels freelance, that’s cool. They don’t explicitly say they don’t pay, which probably means they don’t pay very much. But a little something is better than nothing, right?

You apply. Within a day you get a reply. They must have liked your resume.

WTF?! Unpaid? Exposure? What language are they speaking? Also, if you’re getting 2 million readers a month, you can afford to throw a dime at a writer.

This must be a mistake. But how do you reply and ask, yet stand your ground that writers should get paid for their work? Hmmm….

I’m sure they’ll reply. Why wouldn’t they reply?

Uhhhhh… still no response.

Hmmmm… still waiting.