A lot of people have been asking for more details on the warning I ran Monday about Profile magazine. Basically, I received emails from three different writer who all had similar experiences.
In a nutshell, they were told to write the articles “on spec” and when the articles were delivered, they were told “on spec” meant no payment would be involved. “On spec,” in my experience, has usually meant “we’ll pay you if we like it,” not “we won’t pay you if we like it”).
For this and every market, I’d recommend you get a written agreement that clearly states the rate and kill fee, as well as the payment terms.
Meanwhile, one reader responded to yesterday’s too-good-to-be-true sounding ghostwriting job (the one that offered “up to” $5,000 per project): “The editor did get in touch with me and she wanted to pay me $300 to ghostwrite a 12,500 page ebook with no royalties.
“So much for the $5,000!”
Have you had a bad experience with a market listed in Freelance Daily (or anywhere else, for that matter)? Send it along and help protect other writers from going through the same experience.
