MIT Mgt. Review on "nanobots" and why freelancers should care
MIT Sloan Management Review just published this story about employees who work well outside of the office and used the term “nanobots” to describe them: There’s a new class of worker out there: Nearly Autonomous, Not in the Office, doing Business in their Own Time Staff. Or nanobots, for short. Empowered by their mobile devices [...]
Don't let this freelance faux pas happen to you
Writers love to gripe about frustrating things editors do, like assign rush jobs then wait weeks to edit them, or require a certain source be included in a story then ignore a writer’s frantic phone calls when said source goes AWOL. But freelancers make their fair share of dumb mistakes too. A friendly editor recently [...]
Freelancers need to pursue grants, scholarships, fellowships
Flipping through the latest issue of the Columbia Journalism Review, I saw an ad for the annual Kaiser Media Fellowships in Health. Six of the nine journalists and documentary filmmakers who received this year’s awards were freelancers or independent film producers. That in and of itself is cause to stand up and cheer. It underscores [...]
Will freelance writers save newspapers?
Are freelancers the wave of the future for newspapers? They might be. Daily newspapers are trimming jobs and looking for other ways to cut costs, and one way to do that is by using contract workers such as freelancers. Some papers, including major dailies such as the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, routinely [...]
News University offers online courses and Webinars
I’ve written before about online resources that freelancers can use or classes they can take to improve their writing or multimedia skills or learn new ones. One of the biggest sources of online classes is News University, a project of The Poynter Institute funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Since it [...]
What editors want from freelance writers
If you hang around freelance writers enough, you know one of the biggest topics of conversation is editors: how to find them, pitch to them, work with them, get them to return your emails and phone calls and love you so much they call you with assignments. Editors have the same kinds of discussions about [...]
Jane Boursaw: mild-mannered freelancer turned entertainment writer maven
See Jane. See Jane write. See Jane turn an average freelance writing career into a full-blown entertainment journalism enterprise. Jane is Jane Boursaw, and she’s the creative force behind a package of entertainment industry writing ventures that includes weekly and monthly syndicated columns, blogs and her Website, Reel Life with Jane. She’s such a hit, [...]
How to write great freelance blog posts
I’ve written about how great starting a blog can be for your freelance writing business. You can use a blog to promote yourself, develop a beat, make connections, improve your skills and if you’re lucky, pick up some paid gigs. But sooner or later you’ll find yourself staring at the screen thinking, “What can I [...]
How to keep track of story sources
If you’ve been in the freelance business long, you’ve accumulated a pretty hefty source list. How do you keep track of all those names? When I was a newspaper reporter, I used the simplest method possible. I created one text file for each subject I covered and made a running list. When I was feeling [...]
WordCount blogathon update
May 7 UPDATE: I’ve added 1 last freelance writer blog to the blogathon list, bringing the total to 23, or 24 counting me. MVR The WordCount May blogathon is six days old and I’m excited to say that 22 freelance writers have taken up the challenge of blogging every day this month. A few signed [...]
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