Frey, Work For Hire, and the MFA

If you're not up on the James Frey work-for-hire thing, check out this article.

Basically,  he's started his own book packaging firm, offering writers a completely draconian contract.  Lots of people have weighed in, telling folks they should never sign a contract like this, and I agree--it's terrible.   Mostly because the author of the book gets only 250 bucks for writing the book.

I've done some work-for-hire writing, and I freaking loved it.  This is probably because I was always good at being a student. Give me a writing assignment, and I am ready to go to town.

But I got paid a lot more than 250 bucks.  Work for hire is fine and dandy as long as it pays decently.  If you are a talented writer, you don't have to use your talent exclusively to write work that makes your soul sing. It's okay to use your talent to pay the bills, too. Everybody understands that actors do this.  (Like poor Jamie Pressley in that "use Axe to wash your balls" ad.)  But, I mean, 250 bucks is not gonna pay the bills. There are reputable work for hire opportunities that pay a lot more than this.  And non-James Frey-related work for hire gigs can actually help you to build your professional network.  You've worked with an editor who knows you do good work and deliver it on time, and maybe their buddy down the hall is in the market for a novel...well, you see how this might work.

So, yeah, James Frey is not a good person and intends to exploit his contract employees.  

Fine and dandy, but I kind of wonder why more scorn isn't falling on the MFA programs from which Frey recruits his serfs.  Frey, douchebag though he is, offers nominal payment for some work.  What exactly are the MFA programs offering?  The chance to pay tens, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars....for what, exactly? 

I mean, this guy who wrote the "Pittacus Lore" book for James Frey is apparently pissed because he can't sell his literary novel about an earnest young writer who can't write.  The book is called, and I am not making this up, Agony at Dawn.  

If you were writing a parody of earnest literary novels about young writers who can't write, you would probably call it Agony at Dawn.  Except that name is apparently already taken.  

Some folks have been critical of Columbia's MFA program for bringing Frey in to recruit serfs, but who's making more money off the young aspiring writers?  I mean, this dude who wrote the Pittacus Lore book came out of Columbia's MFA program thinking that a novel about a young writer called Agony at Dawn was something anybody on earth wanted to read.  At least Frey gave him 250 bucks. And "trust me, and you can't audit" points on the movie deal.  Mr. Agony at Dawn can probably forego a day job for a couple of years, and maybe write something someone other than his mom and girlfriend want to read as a result.  How much of this does he owe to Columbia's MFA program? And what does it say about said program that 5 out of 9 people in the room for Frey's serfdom pitch went and prostrated themselves before him?

I'm not suggesting anybody should sign on to Frey's crappy deal.  But as long as we're castigating people who profit off of the labor and naivete of young writers, maybe we should look at what kind of value the MFA programs are giving those young naive writers in exchange for their tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.