This article isn’t exactly about being online, but rather about being creative.

I just finished reading an article by Alan D. Mutter calling on writers to collectively stand up and demand to be paid for work they have been doing for free or for cheap. He even provides a helpful spreadsheet full of numbers loosely based on an arbitrary rate of 4 times minimum wage in order to demonstrate what a freelance writer should be paid.

How can you possibly determine what a freelancer should be paid without any consideration for the demand of skillset of the freelancer?

Mr. Mutter makes an argument in the article that journalists, collectively, are holding themselves back from being fairly valued by working for rates that do not provide fair value or a living wage. It’s an argument I’ve seen a lot of professional photographers make over and over on the blogs and forums I’ve followed over the last few years.

There is this idea that somehow if all of the photographers (or journalists) of a particular caliber (or any caliber) get together and agree to charge a certain rate the buyers of journalism and photography will suddenly decide that those skills are more respected and more expensive.

I don’t see how that will ever work. The market sets the value of photography and writing, and the market decided long ago that free is good and 1995 magazine rates for unoriginal or uninspiring writing and photogaphy printed on poor quality paper and only available at a select number of specialty magazine stores is not gonna fly anymore.

You cannot subvert the supply and demand relationship by convincing suppliers to charge more, you’ll just invite a new supplier at the old price point.

In this case the price point being discussed is sometimes exposure.

Look, when most people come to me and asks me to work on their project for exposure, I’ll be the first guy to tell them exposure won’t buy me cheeseburgers. But that’s because I’m confident that they can’t find my skillset and experience for less than I charge. They might find someone who fits their project at a lower price point, maybe even the exposure price point, but if that works their project never required my skill level to begin with, or they are risking their project by using someone with a sub-par skill level.

That’s most people. But if a potential client who does consistently cool work that I want to do or the kind of work I might want to try but don’t have the complete skillset or experience to charge for–I’ll work for exposure, or a lower rate, or expenses. That’s the buyers risk.

I like working. I challenge myself all the time without potential for monetary award at all. I do that because it’s fun. Why wouldn’t I accept someone else’s challenge if it’s going to potentially gain me new clients, help someone else out, and/or improve my skill set while having fun? I’m not taking work away from someone else. If someone else was required or available that would provide a higher value to the project the buyer would go find someone else.

Finding that someone else could mean hiring an expensive person who can mitigate risk at a rate that limits potential profit, or it could mean hiring someone for ‘exposure’ that costs very little but comes with a high risk in relation to the skillset required to execute on a particular set of requirements.

The fact is, exposure works. New media is littered with creative people who are making and growing their careers built on giving stuff away for free. But you have to be exposing–and I’d argue not just exposing but actively hustling–something innovative and creative enough that someone somewhere sees the value in buying it.

If your skill level is such that no one wants to pay you a living wage for what you do, you gotta go do something else that you can get paid for or up your game. It’s not going to work just to tell everyone else who’ll work for cheaper to charge what you wish you were worth.

Mr. Mutter is correct when he ends his article by saying ‘Whatever you do, though, don’t sell yourself short, because journalists can’t protect society if they can’t protect their own careers.’

As creatives, we need to understand what we’re worth, but what we’re worth is exactly what someone will pay.

Writers, journalists, photographers, web developers — we fail when we let someone take advantage of us by accepting compensation that doesn’t align with our skillset. However, that’s an individual failure and not a failure that can be addressed by collectively deciding to charge more. That only works with a skillset in limited supply.

And let’s face it, mediocre writing and mediocre photography and mediocre web development is really easy to do, so there will always be someone willing to do it on the cheap–maybe even free.