Writing EXPOSURE—Gamble or Grift?

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Writing exposure. A phrase that makes my left eye twitch. For over a decade, many writers have been killing themselves (and their careers) believing a lie, an illusion, and a flat out SCAM. Countless writers have been giving their best to launch their brand and their career, trusting those who claimed to be helping them…doing them a favor even.

NOT!

Writers and other creatives truly believed good content, diligence and hard work would pay off…and it does. Writing exposure doesn’t have to be dirty and predatory. Getting our name and work out there is critical in Web 2.0 (a brand/platform).

But…

We’ve been taken unfair advantage of, and this nonsense ends NOW. We’ve been part of an illusion. We knew writing was a gamble, yet many of us fell for a grift.

We thought we were a contender, never realizing we were actually the mark.

Yet, knowledge is power. There’s nothing wrong with risking and losing. In fact it’s necessary. We learn more from failure than success. We grow and mature and get better.

There are no sure wins, no sure-fire paths to success with an express elevator. Every path to being a contender is a gamble.

But if we keep losing and losing and losing…and losing, something is going horribly wrong. My goal today is to take yet one more step toward righting the wrongs committed against hard-working creatives and showing them a way to be free.

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Image courtesy of Eflon via Flickr Creative Commons

Eighteen months ago, all I knew was I was angry—okay foaming at the mouth pissed OFF. I knew creatives were being used, just was unsure how. It’s taken me over a year and a half to figure out the hustle, to understand exactly what game the MEGAs are playing and how they’re using this to (often) play us for suckers.

***NOTE: For anyone new to this blog or series of posts, when I use the term MEGA, I’m referring to very large wealthy brands who are super fond of paying creative professionals in “exposure dollars”…all the while knowing that currency hasn’t been valuable since Abercrombie and Fitch was cool.

These brands are also wealthy enough to pay contributors, but why should they if content creators are so eager to work for free, for the golden writing exposure?

Yes, still looking at you Huffington Post.

As mentioned in my last post Pay the Writer 2–Out Hustle the Hustlers, the key (aside from realizing we’re being hustled in the first place) is to study the hustle long enough to unravel how it all works.

This important because we must know our weaknesses and how they’ve been used against us.

The LOVE of the GAME

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In Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, one of the main characters, Wednesday—who’s a shameless con man and a grifter—relates the story of the infamous 19th century gambler, Canada Bill Jones, who was in a small town doing what he loved to do.

Gambling.

Of course Jones was also steadily losing. A friend tried to intercede and told him, “The game is rigged.” Jones’s famous reply was, “I know, but it’s the only game in town.”

Thing was, Jones loved to gamble. It was who he was, and his gambling was a passion that drove him and gave him some kind of pleasure, even while losing.

We writers can be the same way, blinded by a similar passion, which is why we can make easy marks paid in exposure dollars.

We love to write. It’s who we are and we’re often willing to do it for FREE. We are willing to keep writing even when we’re being taken unfair advantage of…because we love it so much.

Thing is, those who are most likely to prey on creatives know that about us. They use this love—our passion—to keep us playing a losing game.

We might not see this weak spot, but predators will and do. The MEGAs couldn’t get away with the grift as successfully as they have if writers got smarter.

Which is where I come in. My first revelation is this:

The MEGAs are not the only game in town.

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We might be gamblers, but we can refuse the grift.

We do have better and smarter options that pay out real money not “exposure dollars.”

The MEGAs have been playing the odds, wagering that writers would fail to see the grift and keep on hitting PUBLISH with the raw enthusiasm of a hamster randomly rewarded with a cheap sugar cube. 

When (or if) a writer complains about never being paid, the MEGA is there to gently remind the writer that the entertainment business is a gamble…which is not exactly a lie.

But it isn’t entirely the truth, either.

The problem is we believe we’re playing Publishing Poker at the BRAND Bellagio, when it’s more like the Content Cup Shuffle run by some shady dude on a street corner. He rooks us in with an “easy challenge” and a quick “win” that keeps the hustle going.

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Image courtesy of oatsy40 Flickr Creative commons

Can we spot the peanut?

Eventually, we’re all hunting for a nut that’s no longer in play—unless you count us, because only a nut would think they could win this game.

The MEGA game (anything paying in only “exposure” dollars) can never be won…because it’s a hustle. The second every creative realizes this and refuses to play, the MEGA house of cards implodes.

Okay, so knowing writing is a gamble, it’s wise to learn how professional gambling operates so we can spot the game from the grift. We can leave Plastic Cup Dude the peanuts and get involved in a real game we can win.

Understanding how to win involves knowing what game to play and with whom. We need our work out there. Writing exposure critical, but we must control the game like pros.

Professional Poker

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Image via Flickr Creative Commons courtesy of Goeffrey Fairchild

See, folks who make a living playing professional poker understand the casino is a means to an end and vice versa. Pro gamblers don’t let the crystal and marble and all-you-can-eat buffets go to their heads. Flattery is rampant, but the pro shrugs it off.

It’s a distraction.

No professional gambler wins every single game. They also lose. Yet, in the end, the casino profits no matter what because they are in it for the long game. There are enough games going on for it to all work out. Some win, some lose but ultimately the chandeliers are paid for.

The pro gambler fundamentally understands this:

While the House is friendly, the House is not the gambler’s friend. 

The pro gambler always remembers and respects this difference. Yet, the House remembers and respects this as well. The House knows they need the gamblers, and it’s unwise to use and abuse the guests who pay the bills. They need to let the gamblers win.

Greed is a double-edged sword handled with care by both gambler and the House.

Professional Publishing IS a Gamble

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Image via Flickr Creative Commons courtesy of Club Paf

Publishers, agents, magazines, and book distributors are not our friend, but this doesn’t make them our enemy either—much like the pro gambler and the casino.

Yet the difference in the street hustle versus the pro game is this:

The hustle is ALWAYS a parasitic relationship (one side works for exposure and the other gets PAID REAL MONEY).

With the pros, it’s a far more symbiotic partnership, with BOTH sides taking calculated risks, playing odds, hedging losses and everyone hoping to win big. BOTH SIDES get PAID REAL MONEY.

Legit publishers appreciate that wins and losses generally balance out over time, so long as they aren’t being stupid. Sure the Big Five give Neil Gaiman the red carpet treatment, because he’s a high-roller.

Mr Gaiman has earned that red-carpet treatment because the House has made serious bank off his work (and even Neil Gaiman started out as a small time player in the beginning). Yet, after years of hard work and calculated risks, Neil Gaiman is a CONTENDER.

Contenders are the household name authors who bring the House enough revenue to cover that newbie who seemed so promising…yet fizzled.

For the pros, it is a game of balancing risk and reward for all.

The rest of us who are NOT yet a contender like Neil Gaiman have a path. We hone our craft, build our audience, build our brand, learn the business of our business.

We work hard and learn to be patient while also being simultaneously relentless….all the while appreciating the deck is stacked against us. Writing exposure vital, but must be done with strategy for the payoff.

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Unlike 20th century publishing, there’s now more than one road that leads to being a CONTENDER.

There are a number of paths writers can take…but they are all a gamble. Legacy, small press, indie, self-pub, blog-to-book, crowd-sourcing, hybrid, and on and on. Lots of roads and many paths to being a CONTENDER.

This said some paths are not paths. They are DEAD ENDS where WE (writers) are the other white meat. These “paths” are scams. Writing exposure often means we’re just food for the MEGAs’ insatiable hunger for free content.

Writing Exposure: Gamble or Grift? How Can We Tell?

writing exposure, Exposure dollars, Pexel, Kristen Lamb, writers working for free, writers working for exposureGood question and there are a LOT of grifts going on, which we will systematically tackle in other posts. Today, for the sake of brevity, we’ll talk about the one that burns my tail more than any other and is the most common.

The Blog for Our MEGA & Use Our BIG Name & HUGE Audiences Grift

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One of the best ways for writers to create a brand and eventually sell books and make money is to blog. That is a fact. How we go about it, however, makes a HUGE difference. MEGA brands, however, as mentioned in my previous post, keep us writing like it’s 1999.

Often a MEGA will come and say something like, “Hey! We saw your post on BLAH and love it! We want to showcase your talent!”

Beware of flattery.

“It’s easy, too!”

Beware of easy.

Often they will come at you with a plan that sounds like sheer genius. We may have blogged to the ether. We are tired and we’d like some help. We don’t want to go it all alone and are looking for some benevolent force to propel us to a new level…and they know that.

The MEGA might say something like:

“We don’t even expect you to write a new post. Why NOT repurpose something you’ve ALREADY written? We can get it to a larger audience. You can still write on your little blog and get our audience too. It’s a favor…really.”

Hmmm, maybe…

“AND you get exposed to our audience which is millions! That and you can link back to YOUR blog and BE DISCOVERED!”

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Before you get all excited about writing for exposure, ask the next logical question.

How did the MEGA know to contact you in the first place?

Often a MEGA will contact us because our post was doing well enough on its own to get their attention…meaning it can get the attention of OTHERS as well.

The reason this is a grift is the MEGAs know a couple things many writers do not.

First, they understand your content was good enough for people to notice—FOR THEM to notice–and they want to cash in on opportunity. If they can get our work (excellent & FREE bait) on their site, every click on our good work pays THEM MONEY because they’re optimized in a way we can never compete with.

We’re working for exposure while they are paid in cold hard cash.

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Image via Jeremy Noble courtesy of Flickr Creative commons. Text added.

Secondly, they understand how search engines work. The MEGAs know search engines like Google penalize for duplicate content.

They know it is impossible for a writer to serve two digital masters.

What this means is that if I post a blog here on my blog and then the same post at Huffington…the bigger SEO shark wins.

In fact, even if I wrote two completely different blogs…bigger SEO shark would likely win because they beat me hands down with SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

I cannot compete with an entity that has tens or hundreds of writers putting out new content daily…short of cloning myself.

Anyone googling my name would be far more likely to find the MEGA and not me. The reader clicking on MY content will also PAY the MEGA and NOT me.

By blogging for exposure I am unwittingly cannibalizing my own brand and earning ability while building the ALREADY RICH MEGA….for FREE.

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This is where we get smart about writing exposure. If I would’ve simply kept plugging along with the content that got the MEGA’s attention in the first place, I’d KNOW I was doing something right…because THEY WANTED IT.

I’d have confirmation I was on my way to having my own audience on my own site where eventually I’d make money off ads, books, merchandise, etc.

Sure I’m going to work for free but when I go it on my own, FREE is only temporary.

It’s a gamble. We all know this! I will have to work hard, hone my craft, put in a lot of time and work and posts. I’ll have to take risks, try new things, and build my audience.

But THAT is the gamble NOT the grift 😉 .

What about you? What are your thoughts?

Have you been overwhelmed with social media? Tired? Worn out and all the love gone? Feel like a hamster in a wheel? Ready to get your power back? YOU ARE WORTH BEING PAID! Don’t know about you, but if we can have fair trade coffee, we can also get fair trade fiction, fair trade content. This nonsense MUST STOP!

Time to take back your power! I have some new classes below to help you out and show you HOW to play to WIN, so make sure to sign up.

I LOVE HEARING FROM YOU! And I am NOT above BRIBERY!

What do you WIN? For the month of OCTOBER, for everyone who leaves a comment, I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

Harnessing Writing Power! THE BLOG October 26th, 7-9 EST and comes with FREE RECORDING. $50 for General Admission, GOLD Option AVAILABLE!

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  1. You hit this one out of the ballpark, Kristen! Learning how to manage our writing and publishing to the standards we set for ourselves is a challenge. Constantly dodging soul-sucking, pocket-draining “advice” makes me crazy. The industry feels like a bazaar of hucksters, but principled publishers also exist–people who deal fairly and love creating quality products out the books we write. “It’s a business,” people tell me. I agree, but we don’t have to accept nasty business.
    It’s a long conversation.

    1. Oh my gosh, yes, this!

      I’ve often wondered how much money people scam out of authors trying to make it versus how much authors actually make.

    • Mary Foster on October 23, 2017 at 12:25 pm
    • Reply

    You spelled it out and called them on it: “By blogging for exposure I am unwittingly cannibalizing my own brand and earning ability while building the ALREADY RICH MEGA….for FREE.”

    Huffington Post won’t want to steal THIS content. 🙂

    Eagerly looking forward to your continuing breakdown of the hustle, Kristen. You’re going to save a lot of heartbreak with this.

    1. I sure hope so. I am sick and tired of us being exploited. I don’t mind people making money from our writing, but using us as slaves? #NOPE

  2. Wow … about the SEO scamming … the big-wigs profiting at our expense have been on my mind for a long time, but that’s just a whole other nasty level of exploitation that many of us were never aware of.

    1. I KNOW. I just figured it out. Had some of the pieces and my gut saying certain things….but then all the tumblers fell in place and I was all ARE YOU KIDDING ME? OH HELL NO! NO MORE!

      1. The SEO thing just blows me away. Brilliant deduction, Kristen. Wow.

        I no longer click on any Huffington Post link, even if I am interested in the article. Now I have yet another reason to keep passing by.

        1. Normally I don’t hustle for shares, but the big guys are going to ignore this one. Not like “Pay the Writer” where they could attack me. This exposes their game and more readers AND writers need to know what is going on. So please share. We’ve got to stand up to this.

  3. Excellent post, as always. Screw exposure for exposure’s sake.

  4. I’m looking forward to the blog class on the 26th. Thanks for exposing the scam, Kristen.

  5. Thanks again Kristen for another helpful and eye-opening post. I loved the way you explained this and as you say ‘knowledge is power’. Looking forward to more posts on this topic.

  6. Couldn’t find the ‘Like’ button so…LIKE!

    • Lauren Craig on October 23, 2017 at 8:14 pm
    • Reply

    Have you ever considered creating a list of Mega’s that take advantage of people?

    1. Yep. I have to do some research first but Huffington Post brags about it so I regularly use them because they have been using us for years. Seems fair 😀 .

  7. Now, to write that blog post people actually want… 🙂

    1. You can do more than you realize, Hon 😉 . Practice, learn, grow, fail, win, practice, keep at it. Just like the novels.

  8. I’m glad to see this conversation happening and becoming more prominent. I’ve seen freelancing websites where writers jump at being paid $25 for a 1,000-word article. That makes me cringe because I know of places that pay $500 for a 1,000-word article, but writers will devalue themselves enough to say, I want that $25. Then rates go down and companies or others don’t see the point to paying anything for writing and writers become a dime a dozen because “how can it be a profession if everyone does it?”

    • LillyMarge Hill on October 24, 2017 at 10:14 am
    • Reply

    Wow! Yours is the first email I’ll check from now on. I’ve learned more in the last 5 minutes than the last five years when it comes to the publishing business! Thanks! My funds are a bit low for your classes right now, but I’m sure I’ll benefit from your offerings in November.

  9. Thank You, Kristen. Once again you cut to the heart of the matter.

  10. Great post Kristen. You brought to light something I’ve been suspecting for a while. Love that you are always on “our” side.

    Thank you,
    Ellen

  11. Thank you, Kristen, for a great article. I write because I try out in my stories alternative life stories to my own. I actually love the stories I write. It’s like a treasure hunt finding ways of dealing with unexpected life situations, killing off bad people, or falling in love with mister wonderful. It’s exciting entertainment given that our TV programme is terribly boring. There are only so many bachelor episodes or home improvement series I can stomach… I think I’ve seen enough of those. I get annoyed about all the people who try to tell me what I need to do to sell thousands of books (not that I am opposed to that notion). Of course, you have to sign up for a course that ultimately tells you… you have to write a good book and then find people who like it too. Not rocket science, really.

    I get annoyed with places like Huffington’s and similar outfits. It’s all a power game played by those who think they get away with it and those who think they need to comply in order to get somewhere. Just another Weinstein set-up. Hateful!

    • Omri Hope on October 27, 2017 at 1:53 pm
    • Reply

    Hi!
    Amazing food for thought. It makes me really think self-publishing was a good way to start out. 😉
    The more I hear, the more I feel perseverance is the key to being a good author. Not the publisher you choose.

    Have a lovely day,
    Omri

    • Michelle B on October 28, 2017 at 5:00 pm
    • Reply

    I’m so bummed, I missed the blog class. I have a blog on wordpress, but like many other new writers I’ve ignored it. Since I haven’t published anything yet I’m unsure of what to write about. I hope you’ll repeat the class. I haven’t taken a class yet, but read your blog often.

    1. I am going to put it up for sale as On-Demand this week. You are cool just look for it 😀 .

  1. […] you haven’t noticed, KLamb and I are tackling the multitude of ways writers are being exploited, used, abused, and often shamed for wanting to be paid in actual […]

  2. […] to my earlier posts about the exposure dollar grift and how places we can blog for exposure really are companies using us as a massive unpaid labor […]

  3. […] there’s the rampant (and unrepentant exploitation) from MEGA MEDIA BRANDS all using the ‘Exposure Dollar Ponzi Scam’ to rake in millions using creatives as free labor and […]

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