Dear editor of [Insert name of pretty much any cool magazine],
Thank you so much for sending me some copies of your magazine. I agree that it is lovely. Such heavy, expensive paper! And beautifully printed, in full colour throughout, with that gorgeous, expensive metallic ink on the cover.
Thank you too for asking me to contribute.
I’m very excited, especially as you are offering to pay in the new currency. I believe many younger writers have been taking their earnings in this way for some time, so I was thrilled to finally get the chance to try Exposure.
However I live in a small town a couple of hours outside of London, so I wanted to check first that everyone is familiar with this new payment system. Believe it or not, a lot of shops here don’t even take Bitcoin!
I called my mortgage company, but unfortunately, they do not yet accept payments in Exposure. This would be difficult for me, as my mortgage is my biggest outlay. (I know I’m showing my age here – I grew up in an era when writers could still afford to buy a home! As a millennial yourself, you may not know how this works, but I need to pay them every month, or they come and take the house away.)
The electricity, gas, water companies also don’t accept payments in Exposure. Even my broadband and mobile providers seemed bemused by the idea.
However, I want to be helpful, so I also asked my local supermarket. I’m embarrassed to say that the checkout assistant had never heard of Exposure. I asked to speak to the manager, and showed him the fabulous layouts in your magazine, but he too was alarmingly provincial in his outlook. He said the supermarket would not accept Exposure either. Indeed, he added that if I tried to leave with food in exchange for my Exposure, he’d call the police. Can you imagine?
A call around other local businesses showed me that hardly anyone else was willing to accept Exposure. A web designer just starting out, a young copywriter and an illustrator fresh out of college somewhat grudgingly said they’d “give it a go”, but unfortunately I have no need of a website, copy or illustrations right now. So, it seems, the Exposure would be of no use to me.
I’m not sure how to proceed. I’m assuming you are also paid in Exposure, so perhaps you could tell me how and where you use it?
If not, as I’ve said, I’d love to work for you. But for now, I’ll have to ask you to pay me the old-fashioned way. With money.
Yours sincerely,
A fed-up writer
This piece brilliantly highlights the irony of “paying” creatives in exposure. It’s relatable, witty, and a much-needed reminder that real work deserves real compensation.
Exposure doesn’t put food on the table or keep the lights on—let’s value creativity by paying fairly. Thank you for sharing such an eloquent perspective, Sheryl!
Jodi, glad you liked it! There’s such a difference between being asked to work for free for a commercially published magazine, and volunteering our skills for something we believe in. I do this all the time: writing copy for websites of worthy causes, or reporting for nonprofits. When we have our expenses covered, we can afford to be generous. And everyone who does creative work deserves that choice. I just hate it when people are exploited and expected to work for nothing!
Very clever, Sheryl. The problem is also that when good writers write for free, everybody is hurt because editors then think they won’t have to pay anyone. Thanks for writing this in such a fun way that really gets to the point. BTW, I do write or edit for free sometimes, but it is for nonprofits that support my mission of making the world more accessible and acceptable to everyone.