Asking for Free Writing Advice is The “Send Nudes” of My Profession
I agreed under the assumption that talk shop meant we’d be discussing potential business. Talking shop turned into me handing over 45 minutes of free consulting, because I was too nice to stick it to him. I’m not entirely bitter, although, I am still here writing about it. I chalked the call up as a teachable write-off. I’d gone full-time with writing only a few months prior, after years of doing it on the side. I’d banked on making a few mistakes. However, I vowed these talking shop episodes would be exceedingly rare and only for good friends. But it hasn’t been without a fight. “Hey, can you look at my writing and provide some feedback?” “Want to come on my podcast and we can analyze my writing?” Welcome to my inbox. This is a good chunk of the messages. There’s a noticeable brazenness in the writing profession, a willingness to hound professionals for free stuff.
Perhaps it’s because “anyone can write sentences” and everyone has written essays in school, occasionally scoring a good grade. They assume writing has this airy, easily tangible quality, like picking up a pen someone just dropped. Other times, their inquiry is more calculated. That’s when my claws come out. They’ll say, “I would love to pick your brain” or “meet for coffee” when they are just looking for free coaching. How about I buy my own coffee and charge my fee? Back in my ad agency days, clients occasionally kicked and screamed about our billings. There was the old, “Why am I paying this much for something your graphic designer can do in two hours?” The blunter version of our response, “You are paying for the years of experience that enabled them to do it in two hours. And the fact that…
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