I mentioned screenwriter Curt Siodmak yesterday..
(in the email where I said all freelance copywriters are suckers)
And, specifically, I showed this quote from him from the book Backstory 2:
“Irving Thalberg once said: “The most important man in the motion picture business is the writer. Don’t ever give him any power!” Even today the writers are oppressed. Even today a writer gets little appreciation. That’s why good writers become writer-directors, or writer-producers, to get more standing, and of course to make more money. I haven’t met a writer yet who owns a yacht like producers or directors. But don’t let them kid you. Where would they be without writers?”
Below is another quote from him from the same interview.
And, if you translate it to the freelance copywriting world, it further proves what suckers freelance copywriters are.
Here goes:
“The film [The Wolf Man] was written like a Greek tragedy, without my intent at the time, but it fell into place and that’s why it has run for forty-eight years. I made $3,000 on the job. They have made, so far, $30 million on the picture.”
Context:
He got paid $3,000 in 1941 money, which is over $62,000 in today’s money.
Not a bad payday for writing at all.
That is, until you look at the $30 million it made. That comes out to $621 million in today’s money. Well over half a billion. Yet he got peanuts while a bunch of executives got rich. This is the sort of realization that made Walter White decide to Break Bad…
But, that’s just how work for hire goes.
There’s nothing right or wrong about it.
It just is.
If you’re a freelance copywriter and the above viscerally bothers you?
Do your own projects, be your own client, keep all the money.
The paid Email Players newsletter can help with the email part of that:
Ben Settle