It's fine to write for free.

with some caveats

A new web publication, Byline, has started up, and it does not pay its writers. This in turn has started up a kind of eternal discourse about whether it’s ever okay not to pay writers, etc. I think the line that it’s never good to write for free and never okay to run a publication where people write for free has a lot of virtues, particularly in being simple and consistent, and as a person who makes money writing I’m obviously aware that it’s important that writing be treated as labor and not my fun hobby. And I certainly agree with the general sense that writing for “exposure” isn’t a thing—if a place can offer you meaningful exposure, it should be able to pay you.

But I think there’s a grey area here, or there can be. I would say that it’s fine to write for free under the following conditions:

• you retain total ownership of your work

• you are getting to do something kind of weird and one of a kind—something that’s a pure passion project for you or a piece you simply can’t place at a mor…