Should writers get paid?

Who said writers shouldn’t get paid? I’d like to talk to them. With an axe.

Edit: the statement has been deleted and updated.

If you saw this in context related to collaborations, then it was probably not because they're the writer, but because it's their idea getting executed. If it's your idea, your project, then you're the one who should be paying, no matter if you're an artist or writer.
However, it's very rare for an artist to have their own idea and search for someone else to write. Usually they'd want to write it themselves. But if it happens, then it's a case of a writer working for an artist, so the writer should get paid.

Basically, if the collaboration is "I want you to write my comic", the writer should get paid. If it's "I want to draw your comic", the artist should get paid.

Yes, writers should get paid. A few questions you might want to ask are:

1. Does the particular author you're working with need compensation before they'll work with you. Some authors are willing to work for free, but not all.

2. How much do they want to be paid and how much are you willing to pay?

3. If you are paying an author, are you paying for quality or quantity? Anyone can write a story, and that's partially why so many people assume authors don't need to be paid. But a good author can write a good story. Not everyone can tell stories worth reading, and that's why authors (at least the ones with good quality) definitely deserve to be compensated.

4. Will you pay by word count or by chapters?

5. Before you pay an author, ask yourself if you could write the story yourself. But in a simular sense, if you ask an author to write something for you, but you don't necessarily feel the finished product is good enough, honor your word and pay the agreed amount. It's up to you to do research on the quality of writing a person does before you hire them or agree to work with them. Don't be the guy that avoids paying just because you couldn't get ice cream out of a mud pie, you should have done an inspections before hand.

Anyone doing any kind of work should be paid (writing, drawing, editing etc).

What that payment should be can get VERY complicated, so to keep it simple, the people involved in a project need to sit down together, reveal their demands and expectations and hopefully come to an agreement.

Why this debate about writers keeps popping up is due to a situation that is the reality of indie comics. A lot of people want to tell (write) stories, but statistically speaking far fewer people can/want to draw. Also, coming up with a story and writing it (not necessarily a good one) takes less time than drawing the story (not everyone is willing to accept this, but from my writer's point of view, it's the truth).

That is why writers, even in the mainstream media, usually work on more than one project at a time, (I heard of writers working on 3 different titles) but artists can only work on one title at a time and keep up with the deadline. If you check the standard page rates, you will see a writer is paid less per page than an artist, which makes sense to me personally.

For this simple reason, you have an influx of writers wanting to create comics and tell stories and never enough artists to meet the demand (even if you did, the are people always willing to pay to get work done, as it should be in an ideal world). Therefore when the project is NOT a collaboration where they both agree to work for free and hopefully make some money when they are done with the project, it is usually the writer that funds a project by hiring an artist to work for them (remember, way more willing writers than artists out there, regardless of skill). That is the majority of all indie comics, and so in those cases, the writer pays the artist to draw for them, and the writer is not paid anything. If they do a good job then maybe they will make some money when/if they sell their comic.

This has created the idea that writers should not get paid. Especially if you are an artist and decide you want to draw a comic, just post that you are looking for a writer to collaborate with and be willing to work for free on the project, and you will be flooded with messages from writers (not necessarily good writers, but that isn't the point).

So the idea is, writers should not be paid when making indie/free comics. Artists need to get paid because if you want the comic on a deadline then drawing has to be their full-time job. However, as a writer, you can also have a full-time job and earn a living from something else while writing stories (this has been the case for me personally, I had a full time job other than writing stories). That is the main reason, I believe, why some people might say that writers should not be paid when the same people will say that artists should always be paid (and I find myself agreeing with the paying the artist part).

But these kinds of conversations always assume that the writer is the one trying to start this project and should therefore pay. The same way a mainstream company pays ALL the creators, including writers, working on their projects. I believe the conversation you saw, that states writers should not be paid is about a situation similar to the indie comics I am describing here.

Absolutely yes they should. It's one thing if writer doesn't want to be paid (well doesn't require to be paid) because they want to use that as a practice or to promote their work, but writers should be paid

Damn right writers should get paid. Why is this even a question?

You're looking to hire, you pay up. Be it to make art, writing or whatever other creative services you might need. Its still labor y'all.

Lol no, you shouldn't pay writers. After all, what do they even do? They only put words on a page/screen. In fact, they to pay you, for the honour of working on your magnum dong opus of a comic.

I say NAY, never pay writers, embrace the Sigma Grindset or else, they'll get big egos and start thinking they're doing "Work" and deserve to be "Compensated". Shakespeare might have written A Comedy of Errors, but his drivel could never convey deep emotion like this glorious piece of art does17

Yes. (I would just leave that but there is a minimum character requirement.)

I think that it's a difficult situation. If the artist wants to pay the writer then they should certainly do so. I find it very uncommon regarding that circumstance, but it is ultimately up to them.

After lots of reflection, I see that everyone should be paid for their work writing or drawing. When it comes to collaboration it gets tricky because people then ask, well is one more important than the other? Should one be paid?

I guess that's why collaborations exist, as they live as equals, not separations. However, some people realize that they need others and are willing willing pay which is their own choice. Overall, it's sticky.

I guess it comes down to this, all artists (writers and drawing as artists) work hard on their crafts and should be paid. When it comes to collaborations, a deal is formed where they become a team, working together.

Do writers deserve to be paid? Yes. It comes down to situation and ultimately the individuals involved.

I also want to apologize to any I offended. After looking at all the feedback, I realize my error in my comments and I've looked at it from a different point of view. If you are able to, please accept my apology with time.

If I am hiring a writer to write me a story that will suit my needs, of course I should be paying them. If I am hiring a writer that will suit my needs and I am asking a ton of world building, characters chemistry and other important stuff from them, of course I should be paying them.

Now I am not in a paid collaboration, but without my writer I won't be a creator of all these awesome comics, I won't be able to win a comic contest with this awesome story, not to mention I won't even start drawing comics at all because I was never confident that I can write a cohesive story by myself. It's time and skill and research that is put into writing work. To say that writers shouldn't get paid is as infuriating as saying that artists shouldn't be paid, because "eh, you like doing it anyway, like it's not hard for you or anything".

Most collaborations are about one person trying to execute a particular vision, and seeking outside talent to help realize that vision, in which case outside talent should be paid.

I think we also need to recognize that the reality of the situation is there are simply more writers who desire the contribution of artists to their storytelling than the reverse, which puts a lot of the "pay creative people for their work" pressure on these writers. ((Though reminder that many of these types of collaboration are actually from people with an idea, and no real writing experience, but they present themselves as writers)) This does not mean artists are entitled to free writing, just that the odds of a writer being willing to contribute their writing for free are probably higher. Which gets us into the myriad of issues with free collaboration.

So it's a sticky wicket. I hope most, if not all, of us realize artists and writers are of equal creative value. Whoever is offering a service should be paid.

I want authors to get paid because I want to get paid

That's because the commenter deleted their statement and have made a new one here clarifying things, if you can read.