1 Job, 2 Perspectives

 A month ago Al Sirois posted this job listing from freelancer site UpWork on Facebook:

Wanted: Short story in 9 parts in fantasy and speculative fiction. This will be a serialized fictional tale that should be engaging and includes well-crafted visual and other sensory details.

The plot is up to you but should involve multiple pantheons of Gods interacting in the real world as we know it. Whether they get along or not is up to you, along with setting and anything you want. I will be available for brainstorming, questions, anything you need.

I need this project completed within four to five business days. It’s likely more orders will be made, but the first 9 stories should complete a satisfying arc while still leaving the reader wishing there was more.

Each story should be between 900 to 1500 words and formatting as an ebook.

This is a ghostwriting position and may require signing an NDA acknowledging the transfer of rights to the content.

The post didn't mention it, but he said that the author was paying a flat fee of $80 for the job.  As a professional ghostwriter, he thought that was utter bullshit.  And most of his friends then made fun of how stupid this was.

For the record, I don't think it's a great deal.  Still, I did the math on this.  9 stories of 900-1,500 words is 8,100-13,500 words.  For someone like me, I figure I could bang that out in about 2 days once I knew what I was doing.  Basically I could do it over a weekend and make $80.  That's a week of groceries or a couple of tanks of gas or something.

It'd be a better deal than the two rounds of flash fiction I wrote for December House Publishing.  I spent weeks on the first 23 stories I wrote (and then I think had to write 2 more).  The second batch of 7 stories I wrote pretty much in one afternoon at the crappy old Arby's in Roseville.  Which is how I know I could pretty much do this in one weekend if I had my druthers on.  How much did I make for those flash fiction stories?  $0.  I barely even got "exposure" because the publisher went out of business.  I've probably sold a few copies of Last Dance and Other Stories and Mortal Sins on Amazon, but not $80--or $160 since it was two projects.

The difference in perspective is Al is a professional writer while I have a regular job.  For me it's just a side hustle to do on the weekend, so $80 is not as much of an insult.  It's like the difference between a taxi driver who does it full time and an Uber driver who does it only occasionally; if someone said, "Drive me from New York City to Vermont for $80" the professional driver isn't going to do that, but an Uber driver might not be as picky because they might just be squeezing it in in their spare time.  $80 for one day isn't as bad because it's not their sole source of income.

For me the real problem is that the person on UpWork wants me to come up with most of the idea and send them a proposal.  I mean all they give you is some vague idea that they want it to be like American Gods or something similar.  Banging out a few flash fiction stories is one thing but when you want me to come up with pretty much this whole idea too, then that's more work.

So, what do you think of this deal?