Five reasons NOT to become a design writer
What better way to celebrate the inaugural edition of the warmwhite newsletter than with a critical, self-deprecating look at the plight of the design writer?
Writing about design might seem like an attractive prospect. But scratch beneath the surface of this seemingly glamorous profession, and all is not as shiny as it seems. As this writer has learned (the hard way), here’s five reasons to keep your kids away from the ugly business of design writing:
Nobody is going to thank you for writing about design.
If, and it's a big if, you manage to get one of your articles published in a fancy design magazine, you’ll feel all proud and smug for having a little bit of perceived credibility. You might even get a few likes when you share your published text on LinkedIn.
But finding someone outside your immediate sphere of influence who’ll care will be difficult. If you can write, do yourself a favour, and get into PR or copywriting instead.
Writing about design is not well paid.
Let’s imagine the scenario. You’ve written a couple of articles for your blog, and now an online publication wants to speak to you about writing some paid articles. You’re on the zoom call, and all is going well. You’re about to land your first paid gig as a design writer. The conversation turns to money, and the news is shattering. You’d be lucky to scramble a couple of hundred for a couple of day’s worth of research and writing.
That’s right my friend. Earning a living as a writer these days is a pretty tough gig. Earning a living writing about design is even tougher.
It’s competitive.
If you want to go down the traditional route, there’s certainly huge competition to write for the big magazines such as AD or Frame. They rely mostly on their regular crop of freelancers to provide content, so getting your foot in the door will be an extremely tall order.
Unfortunately or the budding design writer, there are too few opportunities. To add insult to injury, a lot of these opportunities will be unpaid. And just because you’re not getting paid, don’t think it’ll be easy to get the gig. You’ll have to beg for scraps.
You can’t always write about what you want.
Let’s assume you do end up writing for a publication. Congratulations. Unfortunately for you, you’ll be given topics to write about. You’ll be able to pitch stuff too, but you’ll have to toe the party line.
On top of that, your carefully crafted words will be edited down by one of the magazine’s or platform’s many in-house editorial interns, who themselves operate either for free or for next to nothing in the hope of a poorly paid job in a few months time. Just brutal.
Self publishing (might) not be the answer.
Want to do things on your own terms? Self publishing on platforms such as Substack or Medium could be a great option. But it’s a lonely road fraught with existential doubt.
Although you’ll be writing about the stuff that interests you, with your content swimming in an ocean of content that nobody reads, your passion for the subject topic and conviction will be tested to the limit. The psychological barriers are real, and inevitably leave many budding writers flailing at the first hurdle.
So, with all that in mind, why would someone ever consider dedicating their time to this under-appreciated and underpaid art form? Or, worse still, why would someone in their right mind voluntarily choose to do a free newsletter on design?
Some, like myself, are driven by a belief that an independent and opinionated voice can provide genuine value in the bland PR driven media of the design world.
Others are probably just delusional.
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