The Press: The Free-Lancers

For their contents most U.S. magazines are dependent on the ruggedly individualistic breed of writers called freelancers.

The free-lancers write more than half the articles that appear in the Saturday Evening Post, Reader’s Digest, Cottier’s, McCall’s, This Week and scores of others.

And their importance has vastly increased in recent years as U.S. magazines, which were once mostly fiction, have shifted to about 75% nonfiction. Thus, except for the handful of magazines that are largely staff-written, free-lancers have become indispensable. “The free-lancer,” says Collier’s Editor Roger Dakin. “is the backbone of the magazine industry.” He is also the substance of an American dream.

For years the vision of good pay, independence, no office hours, etc., has attracted thousands of writers and would-be writers to freelancing. Last week, in one day, Satevepost alone received close to 300 manuscripts “over the transom,” i.e., unsolicited. Self-help magazines—Writer’s Digest, Author and Journalist, etc.—bolster the dream with enticing ads: “No More Rejection Slips,” or “Enjoy Fame and Fortune as a Writer.” Reality v. Dream. Actually, the reality is much less enticing than the dream. Of the thousands who have tried free-lancing magazine articles, only about 70 or 80 in the U.S. earn upwards of $10,000 a year.

Countless others, including many professional newsmen, write an occasional article, or hold regular jobs while they try to free-lance on the side. But the successful full-time free-lancer who depends only on the articles he sells to magazines is a rare breed. “Since the decline of the oldtime prospector,” says Morton Sontheimer, past president of the 91-member Society of Magazine Writers, “few people have worked with less companionship, few have had to rely more on their own resources.” For the top writers magazines compete fiercely. Satevepost pays a new writer $750 for his first piece, then jumps in steps of $250 to as high as $2,500, or even $3,000. Collier’s averages $1,500 for an article, the Reader’s Digest $2,000, but both magazines go higher. Editors also woo writers by other means, e.g., the Post specializes in “Fast service,” tries to give a free-lancer “an answer on an article or an idea within 30 hours after receiving it. Digest Editor DeWitt Wallace often sends handsome bonuses to writers whose work he likes.

Between Checks. A successful free lancer usually submits at least four or five article ideas for every one a magazine takes. He rarely begins to work on an article until he gets a green light from an editor. If the article is turned down, expense money may be all the free-lancer gets unless the magazine decides, or has agreed in advance, to pay him a “minimum guarantee.” Success comes hard, but it comes steadily to those who stick to it.

Ex-Reporter John Bartlow Martin, 39, who lives in Chicago, started writing at i/ to 2¢ a word for pulp crime and detective magazines, graduated to Harper’s, which averages $250 to $350 a piece, and finally also began selling to Satevepost and other slick magazines. Says he: “I like every thing about freelancing, with the exception of the lack of security. Sometimes it’s four to six months between checks, and that creates problems for my grocer and everybody else.” One writer who no longer worries about the grocery bills is Frank J. Taylor, 60, dean of the freelancers. Although Tay lor now considers himself “in semiretirement,” he still writes ten or twelve articles a year for Satevepost and Reader’s Digest.

Before he slowed down, Taylor wrote 35 or 40 a year, was once dubbed by Satevepost Editor Ben Hibbs “a writing factory.” Taylor’s factory is a worker’s dream.

In his handsome, rambling redwood home in the hills near Los Altos, Calif, he rarely works beyond noon, spends afternoons tending his orchards. He outlines each article in full, then dictates a rough draft into a recording machine, which his secretary transcribes. Then Taylor does as many as eight new drafts on his portable before he considers his article finished.

No two free-lancers have the same habits. Robert Lewis Taylor (no kin to Frank) starts to work at 1 a.m., takes a two-hour nap at 3, works until breakfast at 8:30, then finishes for the day at noon. Between articles Taylor has written seven books, on everything from Winston Churchill to W. C. Fields, also writes occasional fiction and is a regular contributor to The New Yorker.* Many another successful free-lancer carves out a specialized area for himself, e.g., J.D. Ratcliff, science and medicine, Howard Whitman, popular sociology. But even the “specialists” go far afield if they come across an article idea that interests them—and the editor of a magazine they write for.

Senator-Writer. Most successful freelancers would not trade their work for regular jobs with the same income. They value their freedom, although it is deceptive ; if a free-lancer is not well disciplined, he often finds himself working longer hours than he would on a regular job.

“It’s a brutal discipline,” says Washington Free-Lancer Sidney Shalett, “and you have to stick to it. If you make the mistake of trying to write fiction in your spare time or fix light bulbs around the house, you’re finished.” The illusion of not having a boss is also deceptive; instead of one boss they have to satisfy a dozen editors. Says Free-Lancer Maurice Zolotow, who often writes about personalities in the entertainment world: “Once every year most free-lancers are bound to go through a period of despondency. Editors just don’t seem to appreciate your genius. When that happens, I just see my analyst and go back to free-lancing again.” But their biggest problem is still security. Many a free-lancer gives up because he cannot stand the strain of worrying over where his next check is coming from.

With increasing success, however, the question of security solves itself. When a free-lancer begins to write regularly for several magazines, he can begin to count on their checks just as the magazine can count on the quality of the articles it orders from him. A free-lancer who has stood the gaff long enough to become successful finds it a good life. Says Oregon Democratic Senator Richard Neuberger, who free-lanced for years before he was elected to the Senate: “There’s no better existence than a free-lancer’s if you can make a go of it. Being a Senator is not nearly so good a life.”

* Which has a unique arrangement with many of its regular free-lance contributors. It puts them on a “drawing account,” lets them “borrow” what amounts to a regular salary against earnings from future articles.