As a follow up on free samples for my prior post, here’s a conversation we had some time ago in Deb’s blog:

S. says:

Not to kill the school topic (which is very interesting), but some of you may remember me asking a potential client for a nominal fee to send her further samples pertaining to her work specifically. I was reluctant to ask, but I did it anyway.

She emails me today saying she doesn’t agree. She said she looks at it as a job interview and she’s never been paid on a job interview.

Nice!

And my very uncouth answer was:

S>> tell her a job interview can’t be put up on a web site but an article can. Honestly, people suck at analogy.

Katharine, however, addressed the issue well:

I once read something that put it this way — it’s all about how much time and effort the interviewer is putting forth. If they are taking time to schedule interviews, meet with applicants, run background checks, etc., then they are investing themselves and are much less likely to be scammers. If, however, they are just sending out mass requests for writing samples, they aren’t really putting a lot of effort into finding a writer, and have no right to expect you to put effort into writing a sample.

I think that’s a good way of looking at it. I have written unpaid samples upon request at actual in-person interviews, but I would never do so if requested via email by someone I didn’t know at all. That’s what my portfolio is for.

There. Hope that helped clear things up.