5 Tricks People Use to Get Out of Paying Creatives

And what to say when people want work for free

Photo by Dillon Wanner on Unsplash

I’ve been what I would call a creative most of my life. Even when I wasn’t making money writing, singing, or acting, I was trying to make money from doing one or all of these things. It took me only a few jobs and gigs to realize that everyone thought that singing, acting, or even writing were hobbies and not careers. The truth is, unless we’re working for someone, at an agency as a writer or a designer/developer, or are represented by an agency as a singer or actor, many people don’t see a reason to pay for the services we creatives provide.

But the truth is, as a creative, you deserve compensation for that time and effort. But, all too often, creatives, especially creatives who are just starting out, get talked into giving away their valuable time and energy for nothing in return.

In order to prevent that from happening (as often), to the next generation of performers, poets, artists, and filmmakers, we need to become aware of the typical tricks used by people to wriggle free work out of people in the creative fields. Once we’re aware of these tricks, we can start to counter them.

Let’s start with these 5.