If a laptop computer is the most essential tool for an aspiring writer, the second most important (and perhaps most overlooked) piece of equipment is a good camera--not just any camera, a decent camera.
I bought a basic Samsung camera upon starting out, but its resolution (7.2 megapixels) is a bit short of the requirements of some magazines. For a little bit extra, upcomers can buy a camera that can take high resolution pictures that publications will accept.
As I've learned, many publications have professional photographers, but for lots of stories (especially travel stories) publications want (and sometimes require) pictures. Furthermore, for lots of stories, magazines may not require pictures, but they will certainly accept pictures if they're of high enough quality.
For some stories that I've had accepted, the pictures that I've submitted are just a bit under the quality expected.
Perhaps most importantly, if you're into freelancing for the long haul, a good camera will eventually pay for itself. That's because publications pay extra for pictures. It's often not a lot, but over time, it can pay for the camera.
One thing to consider as well as taking a photography class, as did my fellow writer, Ned. There are particular skills involved in taking pictures of foods and portrait-type pictures for people you interview that would better guarantee your pictures are accepted by a publication.
2008年12月22日星期一
2008年12月18日星期四
On Keeping Things Simple
I've stressed again and again that the best way to pitch stories is to keep things as simple as possible. As yet more proof of this (and of my inability to fully accept my own advice), I had the following interaction with a local travel editor.
First, I sent an email with a two sentence introduction, three paragraph-long pitches.
Nothing.
15 days later, I sent a follow-up:
"I wanted to check in to see if you've had a chance to check out the pitches I sent on recommendation. Also, I just returned from a trip to Tianjin to explore the famed snacks doable as a day trip from Beijing."
Two minutes later I received a response:
Hi Thomas, I am into the Tianjin piece as a weekender column. 300 words.
It's that simple.
First, I sent an email with a two sentence introduction, three paragraph-long pitches.
Nothing.
15 days later, I sent a follow-up:
"I wanted to check in to see if you've had a chance to check out the pitches I sent on recommendation. Also, I just returned from a trip to Tianjin to explore the famed snacks doable as a day trip from Beijing."
Two minutes later I received a response:
Hi Thomas, I am into the Tianjin piece as a weekender column. 300 words.
It's that simple.
2008年12月11日星期四
When the Unexpected Happens
As I wrote earlier, big-britches pitches (where you pitch a story idea and write it after it's accepted by an editor) are great because you don't have to waste your time writing an article that doesn't get published, which can very well happen if you write an article first and try to pitch it as-is.
Well, I should have written "you shouldn't have to waste your time."
Last week I was busy writing up a trio of articles on the environment for Urbane, an English-language art and design magazine based in Beijing. Getting three articles pitches accepted is great, and I set out in earnest to put words where my mouth was. On the day of the deadline--as I was furiously researching and writing away to get the articles in before the deadline--a response to someone I was interviewing popped up in my mailbox with unexpected news.
"Did you see this?" Below was a link:
http://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2008/11/28/Au-Revoir-Urbane-for-now
From the words in the link, I sensed this was not a good sign. As I discovered, the magazine had been cancelled by its publisher. But my articles!?
It took several hours before I could get in touch with the editor, who was probably snowed under with the consequences of having his magazine cancelled. As I've said before, editors are not so good at keeping in touch, even when they should, as when the articles they've commissioned have been cancelled.
Needless to say, it was not a fun experience, but it did teach me what happens to freelancers in such a situation:
1. The editor may try to help you find an alternative outlet for your article. In this case, the editor said that he would do his best to place any articles in a Beijing magazine from the same company.
2. Failing that, the magazine would pay a "kill fee," in this case worth a third of what they would have paid for the articles.
I sent along two of the articles that I thought would be appropriate for the other publication, and held on to one to see if I could get it published elsewhere. A kill fee is better than nothing, but even better is getting it published elsewhere. Not only does that pay more, you actually get another clip and people read your article.
Well, I should have written "you shouldn't have to waste your time."
Last week I was busy writing up a trio of articles on the environment for Urbane, an English-language art and design magazine based in Beijing. Getting three articles pitches accepted is great, and I set out in earnest to put words where my mouth was. On the day of the deadline--as I was furiously researching and writing away to get the articles in before the deadline--a response to someone I was interviewing popped up in my mailbox with unexpected news.
"Did you see this?" Below was a link:
http://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2008/11/28/Au-Revoir-Urbane-for-now
From the words in the link, I sensed this was not a good sign. As I discovered, the magazine had been cancelled by its publisher. But my articles!?
It took several hours before I could get in touch with the editor, who was probably snowed under with the consequences of having his magazine cancelled. As I've said before, editors are not so good at keeping in touch, even when they should, as when the articles they've commissioned have been cancelled.
Needless to say, it was not a fun experience, but it did teach me what happens to freelancers in such a situation:
1. The editor may try to help you find an alternative outlet for your article. In this case, the editor said that he would do his best to place any articles in a Beijing magazine from the same company.
2. Failing that, the magazine would pay a "kill fee," in this case worth a third of what they would have paid for the articles.
I sent along two of the articles that I thought would be appropriate for the other publication, and held on to one to see if I could get it published elsewhere. A kill fee is better than nothing, but even better is getting it published elsewhere. Not only does that pay more, you actually get another clip and people read your article.
2008年11月27日星期四
Reforming my Writing, Part 2
Changing from academic writing, as I wrote last week, involved picking the best, the most interesting parts of experiences, places, etc. and bringing them to the front. I've had to learn to turn amorphous experiences into stories, especially in the case of travel writing.
Another big part of changing my writing has been to carry out the similar changes at the level of sentence structure. In academic writing and writing for my classes, I was accustomed to writing long, Thoreau-esque sentences. Perhaps I think in longer sentences; whatever the reason, it's been hard to streamline my sentences.
I remember being slightly disappointed in my first and only journalism class, back at East Lansing High School, where I learned that newspaper writing was basic, to-the-point, no frills, or, in other words, aimed at a third grader. Of course, not all newspaper writing is like this. Students studying for the vocab portions of the GRE are often encouraged to read The New York Times.
Yet the majority of writing is meant to be simple and understandable. And it's not necessarily a bad thing. A major goal of a newswriter should be to communicate information effectively and clearly.
Even after paying attention to this problem with my writing, the second piece of feedback I got from the editor who looked over my first story draft told me clearly: you need to cut down on the long sentences. They're confusing.
So I've been trying to limit the number of dependent clauses and make sure my dog could follow my work. At least my audience is widening.
Another big part of changing my writing has been to carry out the similar changes at the level of sentence structure. In academic writing and writing for my classes, I was accustomed to writing long, Thoreau-esque sentences. Perhaps I think in longer sentences; whatever the reason, it's been hard to streamline my sentences.
I remember being slightly disappointed in my first and only journalism class, back at East Lansing High School, where I learned that newspaper writing was basic, to-the-point, no frills, or, in other words, aimed at a third grader. Of course, not all newspaper writing is like this. Students studying for the vocab portions of the GRE are often encouraged to read The New York Times.
Yet the majority of writing is meant to be simple and understandable. And it's not necessarily a bad thing. A major goal of a newswriter should be to communicate information effectively and clearly.
Even after paying attention to this problem with my writing, the second piece of feedback I got from the editor who looked over my first story draft told me clearly: you need to cut down on the long sentences. They're confusing.
So I've been trying to limit the number of dependent clauses and make sure my dog could follow my work. At least my audience is widening.
2008年11月17日星期一
Reforming my Writing, Part 1
As I've mentioned, writing for magazines and newspapers is different from writing academic papers. In the process of writing for magazine and newspapers, I've had to make two large changes to my style of writing. Part one:
Academic papers emphasize analysis, accuracy, and completeness. That is, academic papers are supposed to analyze all the aspects of arguments, qualify statements, avoid conclusions without a clear demonstration of evidence, and raise possible questions and concerns.
I was used to doing this at the University of Michigan in classes for paper and in the psychology research papers I wrote. The problem is that this doesn't make for captivating and efficient reading. Academic writing is comprehensive, but it can also be a waste of time. Academic writing requires you to consider alternative hypotheses and explanations, most of which are unlikely. People reading newspapers and magazines don't have the time or patience for such detail.
Thus, one of the most important skills of writing for magazines and newspapers is to pull out the most important threads and take-home points of a story, a trip, or a location, and come up with the most interesting conclusion about it.
My first encounter with the importance of focus was when I wanted to write up a trip I took to Emei Shan, a sacred Buddhist mountain in Sichuan province. My trip was really interesting--a true adventure--and there were a lot of things I wanted to touch upon in the article: the amazing peak of the mountain, with large stupas shrouded in clouds so high people would get light headed; the history, where in the past monks jumped to their deaths from the cliff because they believed they could see the Buddha's image in the light reflecting in the mist enveloping the peak; the wooden temples on the way that hikers could stay in; and the monkeys that help make the mountain famous that have now developed their thuggery into true mafia-esque extortion.
I wrote the article with a lot of the elements in it, and the first correction I got back from a friend of my sister who works in journalism was that I had "buried the lead." In other words, I failed to dig through the experience for the most important element and push it in the front. That is, the most fascinating element was the monkey thuggery (especially since I could write a lot more about that than the peak-top activities), and I had failed to put it in the first paragraphs.
Journalistic writing is not about subtlety and patience; it's about being punchy and to-the-point, doing the work for the reader. It's been hard to change this. It felt (and still feels) a bit phony and reductionistic. It doesn't feel as true to my experience to pick out the most interesting portions and describe them in the most exciting way possible. I still struggle with this question, but I've also come to see that highlighting certain parts is not necessarily misleading.
Constantly trying to pick out a theme and an important thread (i.e., a way to pitch) has changed the way I perceive the world, especially in travel writing. I now start to see things in terms of "that's a story" or "I might be able to learn more about that and make it a story."
I remember reading several autobiographical essays and books by normal individuals and then one day realizing that my experiences were no more special than theirs. Instead, the difference lay in these writer's abilities to pick out the important elements of their experiences and communicate them effectively and entertainingly in words. That's all. Same thing, different eyes (and perhaps pen).
Writing--freelance writing in particular, where you get a large say in what you want to write, rather than being on, say, the business beat--involves just as much a change of eye prescription as much as it does learning how to write. And with this change in what you're looking for, changes in writing come naturally.
Academic papers emphasize analysis, accuracy, and completeness. That is, academic papers are supposed to analyze all the aspects of arguments, qualify statements, avoid conclusions without a clear demonstration of evidence, and raise possible questions and concerns.
I was used to doing this at the University of Michigan in classes for paper and in the psychology research papers I wrote. The problem is that this doesn't make for captivating and efficient reading. Academic writing is comprehensive, but it can also be a waste of time. Academic writing requires you to consider alternative hypotheses and explanations, most of which are unlikely. People reading newspapers and magazines don't have the time or patience for such detail.
Thus, one of the most important skills of writing for magazines and newspapers is to pull out the most important threads and take-home points of a story, a trip, or a location, and come up with the most interesting conclusion about it.
My first encounter with the importance of focus was when I wanted to write up a trip I took to Emei Shan, a sacred Buddhist mountain in Sichuan province. My trip was really interesting--a true adventure--and there were a lot of things I wanted to touch upon in the article: the amazing peak of the mountain, with large stupas shrouded in clouds so high people would get light headed; the history, where in the past monks jumped to their deaths from the cliff because they believed they could see the Buddha's image in the light reflecting in the mist enveloping the peak; the wooden temples on the way that hikers could stay in; and the monkeys that help make the mountain famous that have now developed their thuggery into true mafia-esque extortion.
I wrote the article with a lot of the elements in it, and the first correction I got back from a friend of my sister who works in journalism was that I had "buried the lead." In other words, I failed to dig through the experience for the most important element and push it in the front. That is, the most fascinating element was the monkey thuggery (especially since I could write a lot more about that than the peak-top activities), and I had failed to put it in the first paragraphs.
Journalistic writing is not about subtlety and patience; it's about being punchy and to-the-point, doing the work for the reader. It's been hard to change this. It felt (and still feels) a bit phony and reductionistic. It doesn't feel as true to my experience to pick out the most interesting portions and describe them in the most exciting way possible. I still struggle with this question, but I've also come to see that highlighting certain parts is not necessarily misleading.
Constantly trying to pick out a theme and an important thread (i.e., a way to pitch) has changed the way I perceive the world, especially in travel writing. I now start to see things in terms of "that's a story" or "I might be able to learn more about that and make it a story."
I remember reading several autobiographical essays and books by normal individuals and then one day realizing that my experiences were no more special than theirs. Instead, the difference lay in these writer's abilities to pick out the important elements of their experiences and communicate them effectively and entertainingly in words. That's all. Same thing, different eyes (and perhaps pen).
Writing--freelance writing in particular, where you get a large say in what you want to write, rather than being on, say, the business beat--involves just as much a change of eye prescription as much as it does learning how to write. And with this change in what you're looking for, changes in writing come naturally.
2008年11月5日星期三
Pitching: Specifics and Travel Pitching
Besides pitching style (below) and introductions, there are other details I had to learn about pitching.
First, there are two types of pitches:
(1) There's the as-is pitch, where you've already written an article and you include it as an attachment that you're pitching more or less as is.
(2) There's the big-britches gamble pitch, where, having written exactly jack squat, you pitch an idea for an article that you'd like to write, if they're willing to accept it.
The upside of a big-britches pitch is that you don't waste your time drafting an article that will never get published. If editors don't like it, you just don't write it.
The downside is that it's tempting to pitch articles that you think are interesting, but, when an editor bites, you actually have to write it. Thus, it's important that you're certain you can actually write the article you're selling. You need to know where to research it, where to go to find someone to talk to, and the extent of the information that you are capable of digging up about the topic. If you can't write it; don't pitch it.
Big britches pitches involve a bit of a hoodwink; an ideal pitch makes you sound like you know a lot more about the topic than you really do.
When I was getting started, all of my pitches were of the first kind. I got started in travel writing so I would write up a destination I had been to and pitch a trio of articles to publications I thought would be interested.
Nowadays, I most of my pitches are big-britches pitches.
Now I'm convinced that the important divide between big-britches pitches and as-is pitches is whether it's a travel or news/feature article. Travel articles are the only pitches that should be as-is. Travel articles aren't often taken as idea pitches and, unless you're well established, publications aren't going to sponsor your travel, so it doesn't help to pitch in advance. Furthermore, it's hard to know in advance that a particular destination is worthy of an article, so you don't want to trap yourself into writing about a destination if that destination turns out to be a dud.
It's important to note whether you will include pictures or not. Pictures are helpful, if not absolutely necessary for most travel pitches. Also, I like to lay may stories out using Apple's iWeb application, which lets me lay out text, pictures, and captions and convert it into a PDF. As a PDF with pictures and a semi-finished format, the article looks more professional.
First, there are two types of pitches:
(1) There's the as-is pitch, where you've already written an article and you include it as an attachment that you're pitching more or less as is.
(2) There's the big-britches gamble pitch, where, having written exactly jack squat, you pitch an idea for an article that you'd like to write, if they're willing to accept it.
The upside of a big-britches pitch is that you don't waste your time drafting an article that will never get published. If editors don't like it, you just don't write it.
The downside is that it's tempting to pitch articles that you think are interesting, but, when an editor bites, you actually have to write it. Thus, it's important that you're certain you can actually write the article you're selling. You need to know where to research it, where to go to find someone to talk to, and the extent of the information that you are capable of digging up about the topic. If you can't write it; don't pitch it.
Big britches pitches involve a bit of a hoodwink; an ideal pitch makes you sound like you know a lot more about the topic than you really do.
When I was getting started, all of my pitches were of the first kind. I got started in travel writing so I would write up a destination I had been to and pitch a trio of articles to publications I thought would be interested.
Nowadays, I most of my pitches are big-britches pitches.
Now I'm convinced that the important divide between big-britches pitches and as-is pitches is whether it's a travel or news/feature article. Travel articles are the only pitches that should be as-is. Travel articles aren't often taken as idea pitches and, unless you're well established, publications aren't going to sponsor your travel, so it doesn't help to pitch in advance. Furthermore, it's hard to know in advance that a particular destination is worthy of an article, so you don't want to trap yourself into writing about a destination if that destination turns out to be a dud.
It's important to note whether you will include pictures or not. Pictures are helpful, if not absolutely necessary for most travel pitches. Also, I like to lay may stories out using Apple's iWeb application, which lets me lay out text, pictures, and captions and convert it into a PDF. As a PDF with pictures and a semi-finished format, the article looks more professional.
Pitching Stories
Looking back at the first emails I sent out pitching stories to editors, I shudder with embarrassment. My first pitches read like a middle schooler's letter to a senator--not the way to impress an editor.
"Dear Editor,
I am a graduate of the University now serving on a Princeton in Asia fellowship teaching English in Guangzhou. I'm from . . ."
Wrong.
Editors are on par with God in terms of being overworked and having an inflated sense of self-importance. Thus, emails with wordy openings like mine wind up in the trash.
As a part of being incredibly bust, editors care only about ideas; they couldn't care less about your resume. In the world of writing, ideas and "clips" (articles previously published) are the standard currency.
No one cares where you graduated from. Most editors (perhaps all) have no clue that I went to Michigan. Instead, what they look at is the power, the catchiness of your ideas and whether or not they fit with what the magazine needs.
Second, knowing that you have experience writing is important. A sentence referencing where you've published goes a lot farther than a sentence describing your Boy Scout rank and GPA. Starting out, this is a problem, but calling yourself a freelancer will work. Additionally, publishing editorials in your hometown's newspaper is an easy way of getting published fast (without being paid, of course).
Nowadays, my cold-call introduction is one sentence long and it consists of (1) I am a freelancer (2) based in Beijing and (3) I speak Chinese. This way's easier for me and works better with editors.
Finally, editors want story pitches to be punchy. A huge difference between writing for class and writing for publications is punchiness. At UM, I got used to writing in detail, splitting hairs, and qualifying arguments. In freelancing, I've had to learn to pare down my writing and pitches to jazz up the details, pick out the most important, interesting, or take-away point and bring it to the front.
This takes judgment on your part. A trip of mine up Emei Mountain was full of adventure--bunking in a monastery; altitude sickness; violent, thieving monkeys--but in pitching it to an editor, I had to choose the most interesting point (the monkey gauntlet) and pitch the stories as if the entire trip had been about the monkeys. Of course, the article itself has room for other details, but, without a focus and a story thread, the article becomes boring.
Thus, pitches should be two or three sentences long, dressing up the exciting point of the article. At the end, a sentence explaining why it is a good fit for the particular outlet can help too.
Perfecting the art of pitching can take time and effort, but the upshot is that with enough work in the beginning, you won't need to pitch later--editors will start finding you.
"Dear Editor,
I am a graduate of the University now serving on a Princeton in Asia fellowship teaching English in Guangzhou. I'm from . . ."
Wrong.
Editors are on par with God in terms of being overworked and having an inflated sense of self-importance. Thus, emails with wordy openings like mine wind up in the trash.
As a part of being incredibly bust, editors care only about ideas; they couldn't care less about your resume. In the world of writing, ideas and "clips" (articles previously published) are the standard currency.
No one cares where you graduated from. Most editors (perhaps all) have no clue that I went to Michigan. Instead, what they look at is the power, the catchiness of your ideas and whether or not they fit with what the magazine needs.
Second, knowing that you have experience writing is important. A sentence referencing where you've published goes a lot farther than a sentence describing your Boy Scout rank and GPA. Starting out, this is a problem, but calling yourself a freelancer will work. Additionally, publishing editorials in your hometown's newspaper is an easy way of getting published fast (without being paid, of course).
Nowadays, my cold-call introduction is one sentence long and it consists of (1) I am a freelancer (2) based in Beijing and (3) I speak Chinese. This way's easier for me and works better with editors.
Finally, editors want story pitches to be punchy. A huge difference between writing for class and writing for publications is punchiness. At UM, I got used to writing in detail, splitting hairs, and qualifying arguments. In freelancing, I've had to learn to pare down my writing and pitches to jazz up the details, pick out the most important, interesting, or take-away point and bring it to the front.
This takes judgment on your part. A trip of mine up Emei Mountain was full of adventure--bunking in a monastery; altitude sickness; violent, thieving monkeys--but in pitching it to an editor, I had to choose the most interesting point (the monkey gauntlet) and pitch the stories as if the entire trip had been about the monkeys. Of course, the article itself has room for other details, but, without a focus and a story thread, the article becomes boring.
Thus, pitches should be two or three sentences long, dressing up the exciting point of the article. At the end, a sentence explaining why it is a good fit for the particular outlet can help too.
Perfecting the art of pitching can take time and effort, but the upshot is that with enough work in the beginning, you won't need to pitch later--editors will start finding you.
2008年10月27日星期一
Developing a thick skin
"Sorry. I thought I had emailed you back." This editor hadn't, as promised. "In any case, we're just not interested in any of those ideas." If there were a list of necessary qualities for people wanting to be writers or freelancers, having a thick sick would certainly be near the top.
Editors make decisions quickly and decisively, which means they either like your ideas and will go with them quickly or they will reject them off hand. Rejection is not fun, and I've had to stifle my desire to try to explain why I think the story is worthwhile.
In the end, you can't expect that every story you pitch will get accepted, especially at the beginning. It helps to know which outlets are interested in what sort of stories; how to pitch to that outlet specifically; and which stories they normally accept freelance for (for instance, I've found a fair number of newspapers in the US use their own writers and wire services exclusively).
Another thing that can be difficult is the staggering number of emails that you have to send, of which almost none get responses. When I was getting started, there must have been a handful of weeks during which I sent out hundreds of emails and got exactly zero responses.
Editors are busy people, so if they don't have an urgent need to respond to your email, chances are they won't. Rejections may be hard to take, but don't expect to get too many of those. Editors save rejections for people they've had long contact with. Most normal rejections consist simply of silence.
I was surprised to get a response from the travel editor of the Seattle Times on Monday in response to a pitch I had sent him half a year ago. At least it was response.
Finally, another reason for thick skin are all the dead ends. Editors will express interest, only to saunter off. Editors will send an inquiry about a story and then never follow up. It has happened several times that I thought I had a promising lead with a story in a publication, only to have things not pan out.
The bright side is that, with a thick enough skin, a story will pan out sooner or later. That story will lead to another story, and it all gets easier from there.
Editors make decisions quickly and decisively, which means they either like your ideas and will go with them quickly or they will reject them off hand. Rejection is not fun, and I've had to stifle my desire to try to explain why I think the story is worthwhile.
In the end, you can't expect that every story you pitch will get accepted, especially at the beginning. It helps to know which outlets are interested in what sort of stories; how to pitch to that outlet specifically; and which stories they normally accept freelance for (for instance, I've found a fair number of newspapers in the US use their own writers and wire services exclusively).
Another thing that can be difficult is the staggering number of emails that you have to send, of which almost none get responses. When I was getting started, there must have been a handful of weeks during which I sent out hundreds of emails and got exactly zero responses.
Editors are busy people, so if they don't have an urgent need to respond to your email, chances are they won't. Rejections may be hard to take, but don't expect to get too many of those. Editors save rejections for people they've had long contact with. Most normal rejections consist simply of silence.
I was surprised to get a response from the travel editor of the Seattle Times on Monday in response to a pitch I had sent him half a year ago. At least it was response.
Finally, another reason for thick skin are all the dead ends. Editors will express interest, only to saunter off. Editors will send an inquiry about a story and then never follow up. It has happened several times that I thought I had a promising lead with a story in a publication, only to have things not pan out.
The bright side is that, with a thick enough skin, a story will pan out sooner or later. That story will lead to another story, and it all gets easier from there.
2008年10月20日星期一
How does pay work?
One of the biggest questions I had getting started was how pay would work.
If you're established and a good writer with articles in demand, you may be able to name a price when you pitch articles. This only works, though, if you're in demand and if publications are willing to go out of their normal pay rate to get your articles.
If you name your prices with your pitches, chances are you're limiting the number of acceptances you'll get. So in getting started, where the most important thing is simply getting articles published and building up clips, naming your own price is pretty much out of the question.
So, in most cases publications have their own pay rates, and they will tell you (or you should ask) when they tell you they're interested in your article. Some pay per word; some pay per article.
It's likely that pay will increase (or that you'll have the leverage to ask for a pay-rate increase) if you've worked with a certain publication for a long time.
Furthermore, pay rates don't always work as you might expect. Some large, famous publications pay little, but still get lots of pieces thrown at them because of their fame. Other publications, particularly industry publications or publications for businesses, pay better even though your audience is smaller and the prestige of writing is lower.
Since editors are busy people who like things that cut to the chase, I've found that it's best to slim down my email pitches. Thus, I don't mention payment in my emails. If my emails are too long, most editors will just ignore them. As a result, I wait until interest is expressed in an article before I mention pay, which publications usually have a set policy on.
There have been times when I've been asked what I normally get paid, which is hard to answer when you're getting started at freelancing. This seems to me like the beginning of a bargaining situation, which makes me uncomfortable, but I've always responded with a per-word figure that is on the mid to high range.
In sum, pay rates are not a huge difficulty, since most publications have their own rate policies. This saves the headache of having to haggle and argue over pay rates.
If you're established and a good writer with articles in demand, you may be able to name a price when you pitch articles. This only works, though, if you're in demand and if publications are willing to go out of their normal pay rate to get your articles.
If you name your prices with your pitches, chances are you're limiting the number of acceptances you'll get. So in getting started, where the most important thing is simply getting articles published and building up clips, naming your own price is pretty much out of the question.
So, in most cases publications have their own pay rates, and they will tell you (or you should ask) when they tell you they're interested in your article. Some pay per word; some pay per article.
It's likely that pay will increase (or that you'll have the leverage to ask for a pay-rate increase) if you've worked with a certain publication for a long time.
Furthermore, pay rates don't always work as you might expect. Some large, famous publications pay little, but still get lots of pieces thrown at them because of their fame. Other publications, particularly industry publications or publications for businesses, pay better even though your audience is smaller and the prestige of writing is lower.
Since editors are busy people who like things that cut to the chase, I've found that it's best to slim down my email pitches. Thus, I don't mention payment in my emails. If my emails are too long, most editors will just ignore them. As a result, I wait until interest is expressed in an article before I mention pay, which publications usually have a set policy on.
There have been times when I've been asked what I normally get paid, which is hard to answer when you're getting started at freelancing. This seems to me like the beginning of a bargaining situation, which makes me uncomfortable, but I've always responded with a per-word figure that is on the mid to high range.
In sum, pay rates are not a huge difficulty, since most publications have their own rate policies. This saves the headache of having to haggle and argue over pay rates.
2008年10月15日星期三
Difficulties
Difficulties
As Ned explained to me later, one of the biggest difficulties of being a freelancer is payment. Freelancing, especially in the beginning, is a rough and uncertain path to take, and poverty is probably the foremost obstacle.
Because you're not working a steady job, you don't have a salary coming in at the same time of the month. Furthermore, you're entirely at the will of the publication to pay you. They pay you when they want to pay you and you have to put up with it because that's how the game works.
Now, editors are a bit like college professors: they're incredibly busy and terrible at responding to emails. (Although I have to say that professors have been great at responding to my interview requests...) The more urgent the email, the better the chance that you'll get a response. Emails that freelancers send in about when exactly their pay will be deposited are not high on the priority list.
Ned told me stories about writing articles that he was not paid for until weeks or months after they were published. This can be quite a difficulty if you're living hand to mouth, so it's usually necessary for people starting in freelance to take another job.
If you're in Asia like Ned and me, private English teaching positions are great, since they're well-paying and flexible, allowing for time off for travel. I'm still having to support myself with teaching, although it's entirely possible that I will be able to support myself entirely on writing soon enough.
With freelancing, it's the beginning that's the hardest. It's hard to establish yourself, but when you start accumulating clips and editors start to get to know you, pay can become more regular and opportunities start to open up. That doesn't mean that you won't have to bug editors for payment anymore.
As Ned explained to me later, one of the biggest difficulties of being a freelancer is payment. Freelancing, especially in the beginning, is a rough and uncertain path to take, and poverty is probably the foremost obstacle.
Because you're not working a steady job, you don't have a salary coming in at the same time of the month. Furthermore, you're entirely at the will of the publication to pay you. They pay you when they want to pay you and you have to put up with it because that's how the game works.
Now, editors are a bit like college professors: they're incredibly busy and terrible at responding to emails. (Although I have to say that professors have been great at responding to my interview requests...) The more urgent the email, the better the chance that you'll get a response. Emails that freelancers send in about when exactly their pay will be deposited are not high on the priority list.
Ned told me stories about writing articles that he was not paid for until weeks or months after they were published. This can be quite a difficulty if you're living hand to mouth, so it's usually necessary for people starting in freelance to take another job.
If you're in Asia like Ned and me, private English teaching positions are great, since they're well-paying and flexible, allowing for time off for travel. I'm still having to support myself with teaching, although it's entirely possible that I will be able to support myself entirely on writing soon enough.
With freelancing, it's the beginning that's the hardest. It's hard to establish yourself, but when you start accumulating clips and editors start to get to know you, pay can become more regular and opportunities start to open up. That doesn't mean that you won't have to bug editors for payment anymore.
2008年10月7日星期二
Getting started, part II
Before I graduated from U of M, the co-op that I lived in held a small career how-to from a house member and graduate student Aaron Traxler-Balew. I'll always remember Aaron's advice about how to get started in a field that you're interested in but have no experience in.
Because most jobs are passed through acquaintances and because you have no experience in your desired field, he recommended combing friends and relatives to see if they could put you in touch with anyone in the field you're interested in.
As I was looking to get started in freelancing, I told my idea to friends and family, and the people who knew writers and editors offered their help to me. It didn't hurt that my sister was a journalist for the Associated Press at the time, but truthfully a lot of my support came from elsewhere.
According to Aaron, when you find somebody in the field that you're interested in, you should approach them as a newbie and ask them how they got started, what advice they have for someone looking to enter their field, and what opportunities they know of.
It sounds like you're pestering them, but, as Aaron said, most people are flattered by the chance to talk about themselves and their career to someone who's aspiring to do what they do.
The sources that I ended up finding were varied: a editor at a South Carolina newspaper that my sister used to work at (who was extremely encouraging); an email to my former Freshman English teacher put me in touch with a writer in Beijing; an email found me through my upper-level writing requirement teacher who had a former student now working as a freelancer looking for help with an article about Chinese (after helping him, I asked for advice getting started freelancing); I even sent emails to writers that I had seen in positions that I envied (although my email to a New York Times writer didn't get a response).
Some offered encouragement and general ideas about writing and pitching, others offered specific avenues for where I could get work published and who was looking for writing. Their help was different, but their effect was the same. Thanks to all those who have helped me along the way and to Aaron who advised me on how where to put my feet first.
Because most jobs are passed through acquaintances and because you have no experience in your desired field, he recommended combing friends and relatives to see if they could put you in touch with anyone in the field you're interested in.
As I was looking to get started in freelancing, I told my idea to friends and family, and the people who knew writers and editors offered their help to me. It didn't hurt that my sister was a journalist for the Associated Press at the time, but truthfully a lot of my support came from elsewhere.
According to Aaron, when you find somebody in the field that you're interested in, you should approach them as a newbie and ask them how they got started, what advice they have for someone looking to enter their field, and what opportunities they know of.
It sounds like you're pestering them, but, as Aaron said, most people are flattered by the chance to talk about themselves and their career to someone who's aspiring to do what they do.
The sources that I ended up finding were varied: a editor at a South Carolina newspaper that my sister used to work at (who was extremely encouraging); an email to my former Freshman English teacher put me in touch with a writer in Beijing; an email found me through my upper-level writing requirement teacher who had a former student now working as a freelancer looking for help with an article about Chinese (after helping him, I asked for advice getting started freelancing); I even sent emails to writers that I had seen in positions that I envied (although my email to a New York Times writer didn't get a response).
Some offered encouragement and general ideas about writing and pitching, others offered specific avenues for where I could get work published and who was looking for writing. Their help was different, but their effect was the same. Thanks to all those who have helped me along the way and to Aaron who advised me on how where to put my feet first.
2008年10月4日星期六
Getting Started
Since this is a career blog and I'm at the beginning, I should probably write about how I got started in freelancing.
I've had lots of encouragement along the way, but the person responsible for truly planting the seed of the idea in my mind is a fellow Princeton in Asia fellow who's now a reporter with Hong Kong-based Finance Asia, Ned Russell.
I met Ned when I was traveling through Thailand just after graduating from the University of Michigan and before starting my Princeton in Asia fellowship teaching in Guangzhou. (Anyone interested in interning, doing non-profit work, or teaching in Asia should check PiA out. It's open to graduates from any university.)
Ned was finishing up a business internship in Bangkok and agreed to meet up for dinner as a fellow PiAer was passing through town. When we met for dinner, Ned told me about how he was starting freelancing.
I was intensely curious and filled with questions. I had always pictured writing as a mysterious career that some people had magic access to. I hadn't imagined that you could just get started on your own and do it.
Ned was naturally interested in airplanes, airports, and transportation development, so he had a writing niche from the start. While he was working a full-time office job that he didn't find fulfilling, he was researching airports in the area and pitching ideas to airline magazines--essentially magazines for airline industry people.
Ned was gracious at answering my barrage of questions, telling me that he was working on getting up his number of clips (articles that you've previously published that you provide to publications as proof of your previous work, kind of like a freelancing resume).
My interests lay more in culture and travel, rather than airports, but the fact that someone in the same position as me had put himself in his own freelancing position was enough to plant the seed of the idea in my head. As I settled down in Guangzhou for a year of teaching English, the seed grew.
I've had lots of encouragement along the way, but the person responsible for truly planting the seed of the idea in my mind is a fellow Princeton in Asia fellow who's now a reporter with Hong Kong-based Finance Asia, Ned Russell.
I met Ned when I was traveling through Thailand just after graduating from the University of Michigan and before starting my Princeton in Asia fellowship teaching in Guangzhou. (Anyone interested in interning, doing non-profit work, or teaching in Asia should check PiA out. It's open to graduates from any university.)
Ned was finishing up a business internship in Bangkok and agreed to meet up for dinner as a fellow PiAer was passing through town. When we met for dinner, Ned told me about how he was starting freelancing.
I was intensely curious and filled with questions. I had always pictured writing as a mysterious career that some people had magic access to. I hadn't imagined that you could just get started on your own and do it.
Ned was naturally interested in airplanes, airports, and transportation development, so he had a writing niche from the start. While he was working a full-time office job that he didn't find fulfilling, he was researching airports in the area and pitching ideas to airline magazines--essentially magazines for airline industry people.
Ned was gracious at answering my barrage of questions, telling me that he was working on getting up his number of clips (articles that you've previously published that you provide to publications as proof of your previous work, kind of like a freelancing resume).
My interests lay more in culture and travel, rather than airports, but the fact that someone in the same position as me had put himself in his own freelancing position was enough to plant the seed of the idea in my head. As I settled down in Guangzhou for a year of teaching English, the seed grew.
2008年9月26日星期五
Welcome
Hi all! As I'm getting started, a brief introduction:
I graduated in psychology and Spanish, with a minor in philosophy from UM '07. While at UM, I was also a peer advisor for the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program. After my junior year, I received an amazing MHIRT fellowship to do psychology research in China. I had never planned to do anything in Asia, and I was completely new to China and Chinese. After I graduated, I worked for a year on a Princeton in Asia fellowship teaching English in Guangzhou, China (near Hong Kong). Now I'm based in Beijing writing freelance--travel, features, culture, anything that pays the bills. When I have time, I study Chinese literature at the Language and Culture University.
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