A Response To A Certain oDesk Poster ...
Once upon a time, I wrote this open letter to those who post openings for writers on Craigslist .
This morning, on oDesk, I spied a posting for a freelance writer which earned the designation "Absurd Freelance Listing of the Day." I don't hand out that honor daily, but I probably could.
If I wanted to spend the time looking for listings that would crush my soul.
The poster of the listing I spied today is looking for 200 articles, 500-1,000 words per.
The budget? $200.
TOTAL.
Yep, that's right: 200,000 words for $200.
But wait! There's more!
The poster of the gig wants someone to write "hot personal experiences under different profiles" for an adult dating site.
In other words: porn.
Nice.
A standard manuscript page contains about 250 words. Which means that 200,000 words is the equivalent of an 800-page manuscript.
For $200.
The least they could do is throw in dinner.
This morning, on oDesk, I spied a posting for a freelance writer which earned the designation "Absurd Freelance Listing of the Day." I don't hand out that honor daily, but I probably could.
If I wanted to spend the time looking for listings that would crush my soul.
The poster of the listing I spied today is looking for 200 articles, 500-1,000 words per.
The budget? $200.
TOTAL.
Yep, that's right: 200,000 words for $200.
But wait! There's more!
The poster of the gig wants someone to write "hot personal experiences under different profiles" for an adult dating site.
In other words: porn.
Nice.
A standard manuscript page contains about 250 words. Which means that 200,000 words is the equivalent of an 800-page manuscript.
For $200.
The least they could do is throw in dinner.
posted by Beth at 9:21 AM
2 Comments:
I've seen similar listings frequently.The real problem is two-fold: no one cares about quality very much, just quantity; and there are people in other parts of the world for whom that $200 insult is actually a good bit of money.
Of course, the odds that they write coherent English are slim-to-none (and Slim just left town), but then again (re-read first part of post).
Excellent points.
Unforunately, for the writers trying to make a living in parts of the world where $200 is, as you say, an insult.
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