Susie Cagle on Eight Years of Freelancing

I wanted to write about politics but soon found myself applying for entry level editorial jobs at Conde Nast teen magazines, at Daily Candy, at Babble. I pretended to be a college student and blogged for $10 an hour for a shady start-up. I blogged for pennies. I blogged for free. I filled out dozens of job applications a day. I was one of thousands.

In journalism school, professors had told us to never write for less than $1 a word, but we didn’t spend much time learning how to pitch. My parents, who had fostered creative careers in New York in the ’70s and ’80s, encouraged it all. “Don’t take those unpaid internships, you’re worth more than that!” But I wasn’t.

I did apply for those unpaid internships. I didn’t get them.

Journalist and cartoonist Susie Cagle writes and draws on Medium (excellently, and for free (this time)) about “freelance labor, journalism, and survival.” It is a familiar story but chilling nevertheless. As she said on Twitter, “I wrote & drew this about freelancing to let you know I’m looking for work, not to make you feel depressed.”

Still though: “The year I got the most TV and radio spots and magazine write-ups, I made about $17,000.”

Image by susie.c herself! via Flickr CC

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