Since this is my diary, and as we just entered a new year, I thought I’d share a few of my New Year’s Resolutions with you before getting to the meat of this article.

1.) Forgive passive-aggressive non-smokers for their snarky, intrusive, and demeaning remarks. Remember, Jenni, that in their own self-righteous way, they’re just trying to be helpful.

2.) Have more patience with the kids.

3.) Try to keep a little more organized (see No. 2)

4.) Set aside more time for work. (see No. 2)

5.) NO MORE PARKING TICKETS!!!

6.) Should No. 5 not work out, forgive my meter maids for singling myself and my husband out for ticketing and remember that if I were working as a meter maid, I would go for the guaranteed mark. (8:03 in the morning indeed….)

7.) Improve the quality of my writing by focusing again on research-based articles (see No.’s 2, 3, 4, and 8).

8.) Demand better pay for my freelance work.

I have been ruminating over number 8 for several months now, and to my readers, I would like to apologize for the drop in the quality, well researched pieces that I have been providing the last couple of years. But let’s be frank, when one is not properly compensated for their hard work and when the latter is not incentivized, it makes it difficult to put 20 hours a week aside for research, interviews, transcription and writing. I’m not going to tell you exactly what I get paid, but I will say this -- it’s less than what you’d fill your gas tank for and more than a carton of cigarettes.

So I’m sure you think that I’m just grating my gears, well, yes … but the fact is I am only one of thousands of freelance employees in this city who are poorly compensated and treated with disdain by their employers.

I had written a bitter, scathing open letter regarding this subject, but I decided that my job and personal relationships were not worth the catharsis. But I will say this …

There is an assumption amongst employers that either: a) freelancers do what they do for fun, b) that they do what they so as a supplementary income, or c) that because they work as freelancers their wages and the timeliness of payment are fair game. To illustrate this prerogative, let me give you a couple of real life examples:

A certain local publication, which shall remain nameless, has the bad habit of commissioning its freelance writers and photographers with work with the promise of a very tidy sum by El Paso standards upon publication. The writer or photojournalist completes the work, turns it in by deadline and is promised that the piece will be published in the upcoming issue. Here, one of two situations will occur: a) it IS published and the writer/photographer is not paid for months (I’ve heard tale of as much as 6 months after publication) and has to be threatened with a report to the Better Business Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce to pry a check out of the publisher, or b) the COMMISSIONED piece is sat on by the editorial staff for months and months, and the COMMISSIONED piece becomes irrelevant, forcing the writer or photographer to beg on their hands and knees for a kill fee, usually half of the promised amount. I have heard complaints from at least FIFTEEN writers and photographers regarding the treatment of freelance work by this publication, yours truly included. These individuals include some of the best professional writers and photographers in this city (some of whom have moved since), and if this is how we treat the cream of the crop, then how does a second tier freelancer expect to make it?

Here are some more examples. NOTE: The names of places and people have been changed to protect the innocent and to keep the guilty from suing yours truly.

Your wife has just had a child and you’re looking to move your practice from the boondocks of Canutillo (where you were making a chunk of change by El Paso standards making award winning albums for a boss who appreciated your talent), closer to Central so you can be a help to your wife and a father to your newborn child, only to find that you were home less than when you worked in the boonies, made less, found that the owner took MONTHS (seven months in fact) to bring your pay checks up to date, but billed his studio using your credentials, while still paying a fraction of your worth while touting his position as a revitalization tool, while said employee is relying on Medicaid and family assistance to subsidize his and his family’s meager lifestyle. Said employer finally pays him up to date three days before Christmas and calls it even, while his wife is freaking out about making sure the kids have fresh chones, pampers and gifts under the tree. This owner now pays in a relatively expedient manner, because since the freelancer went back to work in Canutillo, he realizes just how valuable the employee was.

The same agency employed the work of a local filmmaker and a freelance designer to produce a promotional product for a very important client. The two men were given three days to produce a 3 1/2 minute video and synch it to music, which is a very short amount of time to produce such a video. The two men, with the help of a video editor/ sound designer worked ALL NIGHT for those three days. The filmmaker and the freelance designer were paid an abysmal pittance (about $250 each) for their all-nighters.

Why am I telling these stories? I have a lot to lose by making these stories publicly known. I’m very friendly with the ad agency owner, I’ve done work for the previously mentioned publication, but I’m fucking sick of it, and it is my duty to speak for my very talented and underappreciated friends. As a freelance writer, the publishers, which employ me, see me as dispensable and replaceable, and all I have left is the power of the pen and the public humiliation that accompanies it.

A lot of credit can be given to employers who give young writers and artists the chance to practice their craft when they would otherwise be unemployed, but when one is hiring a professional for freelance work, there is a certain amount of respect and compensation that is expected. It does not bode well for the economic progress of a city when everyone is so disgusted with their treatment that they move to another market, say- Austin or Albuquerque, where they feel they will have better opportunities.

I would like to personally thank the publishers who have given me work and fair payment with the knowledge that I am a good writer though I have no degree in Creative Writing or Journalism (Sito, Richard, Secret, Vanessa J., that means you), but I’m coming on my third anniversary writing this column, and my seventh year as a freelance writer, and I expect a little more than the pitiful paycheck I currently receive and the silence of the unnamed editor of the unnamed publication who is not responding to my emails regarding an essay s/he’s been sitting on for over a year. (Note to this editor: It is humiliating when one interviews multi-Grammy award winning producers like Chuy Flores, Stephen Stuart-Short, and Neil Kernon for an article and has to tell them that she doesn’t know what happened to the article, and that it hasn’t been published, probably never will be, and that I wasted their valuable time). Moreover, I am sick of hearing dismaying stories from my fellow freelancers about payment and treatment received as seasoned professionals.

Do you really want economic progress in this town? Do you really want to keep young talent here? Then you need to pay your freelancers what they’re worth. As for you freelancers, stop being cowed by the promise of a paycheck, and demand your worth.

Happy New Year, and hopefully I’ll still be writing for you next week. Same Tree time. Same Tree channel.