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You are receiving Jane Friedman’s self-study class, How to Earn a Living as a Writer. New lessons release every Friday through April 18, 2025. Browse the archive.
Week 5: Writing for “exposure” instead of money
In 2013, Ta-Nehisi Coates told the story of how he became a regular columnist for The Atlantic—long before he published “The Case for Reparations” or his bestselling memoir, Between the World and Me. He wrote:
In 2008, I was not some young fresh-faced college kid. I was 32. I had worked in print for twelve years, virtually my entire adult life. I had been on staff at The Village Voice and TIME magazine. I’d freelanced for The New York Times Magazine and had begun dipping my toe in the online water by freelancing for Slate and blogging on my own. […]
I agreed to write [for free for The Atlantic] because I wanted exposure. I was not a “young journalist.” This was not my chance to break into the profession. What I was was a product of a time when you could be brimming with ideas and have no place to say them. I had a style and voice that had never seemed to fit anywhere (except my first job at Washington City Paper). I could not convince editors that what I was curious about was worth writing about. Every day I would watch ideas die in my head. […] What the internet offered was the chance to let all of those ideas compete in the arena, and live and die on the merits. [The Atlantic] was offering a bigger arena. I was ecstatic.
Coates made a calculated bet that writing for The Atlantic for free would eventually lead to desirable, paying opportunities. He was right. (We can debate whether The Atlantic should have paid regardless; that’s another conversation.)
If you’ve spent even a few minutes in the writing and publishing community, then you know that “writing for exposure" is generally seen as exploitative and devaluing of the cultural work that writers do. But everything depends on context. Writing for free or for exposure is not intrinsically bad. Demonizing every instance of “writing for exposure” does a disservice to writers whose best and most ready tool for establishing their careers may be, in fact, writing for free. If such activity leads to paying work or better opportunities, then it’s a smart move. If it leads to insufficient career opportunities, then it should be abandoned.
Even established writers write for exposure, typically to support book marketing and promotion. Writers in high demand may be able to score twice: they can get paid for their writing and use it to promote a new book. At other times, a well-known writer may work for less than usual, or for free, to reach a new audience or contribute to a publication or cause they believe in.
None of this is meant to excuse editors or publishers who seek high-quality writing for free. The truth is, most publications get exactly what they pay for. There is a wide spectrum of legitimate publishing practice, and whereas writers may choose not to work with publications that don’t pay—so as not to encourage that model—as long as writing supply outpaces demand, the practice will continue.
I don’t believe the value of writing is approaching zero, or that it’s meant to be distributed for free or as a gift. However, some writing does indeed have a market value of zero. The reason may be general, because there’s more supply than demand, or because neither readers or publishers are willing to pay for the particular piece. Writers can avoid frustration by not demanding unreasonable payment for something of low perceived value in the marketplace, especially if their name is relatively unknown. In such instances, it can make more sense to employ patronage (grants, fellowships, crowdfunding) for support.
Writing for exposure in a strategic manner requires writing and sharing things emblematic of you and your work that have the potential to reach a large or influential audience. I call such things “cheese cubes”—a tasty sample of what you’re capable of producing. The people who are most engaged will want the premium cheese basket: the highest-value offering you have, customized just for them.
Publishing expert Richard Nash often talks of how each writer has a “demand curve.” At one end of the curve, you offer something for free to the largest possible audience; at the other end, you provide something that’s expensive to a small number of individuals. Writers should consider their entire demand curve, and all the potential price points for the work they do, not just the part of the curve that’s most obvious (the book sale, the freelance article fee).
What could you charge 99 cents for, and how many people would show up at that price? What could you charge $4.99 for? What could you charge $1,000 for? This exploratory thinking gets you outside of the conventional ways writers have earned a living and into territory that will more likely benefit how you need and want to earn a living.
The bottom line: It’s smart for writers to make some things available for free—whether through their own platform, social media, or publications—as part of a larger business strategy. Writing for exposure won’t work well, however, without some due diligence on other aspects of your platform. For example, lack of an author website can prevent interested editors or agents from contacting you, while cryptic social media profiles that don’t even use your real name can hamper your efforts.
Exercise
To know what’s working, track and measure the following when possible. How would you answer these questions today? How would you like to answer these questions?
- How do new people find you? Aside from simply publishing new work for people to enjoy and share, your sources of new readership will fall into about half a dozen categories, including social media sharing, email newsletter reach, and referrals/mentions by the media or influential individuals. There’s also word of mouth from countless online communities, in-person events, online classes, and one-on-one sharing. There’s a reason why businesses ask how you heard about them—it helps them focus on what actually works to bring in new people.
- What is your most popular work? Pay attention to what generates conversation or sparks people to reach out to you, and what sinks without comment. When you work with an online publication, ask it for any stats to help you understand how readers found your piece or how much attention it received.
- What converts? Some platforms, like Substack, tell you how successful a specific effort was at leading people to buy, subscribe or follow. If they don’t, you can always track it yourself by using tracking links or link shorteners to help uncover what’s working. Link shorteners are unique links that you can track indefinitely; they tell you how many times your links are clicked and from where. It’s ideal to get in the habit of using link shorteners with important efforts, to build up a repository of statistics. One of the most popular link-shortening services is Bitly.
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The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (releasing April 2025)
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