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.