Toes in the freelancing pool

A co-worker of my best friend is a budding interior designer and asked for my help in writing the content for her website.*

Technically, what I'm doing is editing, as she already had text prepared. My job is to make sure it's organized well and sounds professional.

It's better than it was, but needs quite a bit more work. However, I have done all I could for now; I've sent the latest revision to her for comment and approval. After I hear back from her, I can do the last of changes, some of which will be more sweeping, since I think it seems too similar to another website in format.

Being inspired by another's work is one thing; plagiarism is quite another and completely unacceptable.




(*Woo-hoo! Getting paid for it too! Not a lot, but it's something!)

Look at me! I'm networking!

On Tuesday night, I met with the editorial assistant (EA)* at the local newspaper. We talked about life at the paper, her job and what it entails, as well as the state of the industry -- all from the point of view of a young person just starting out in the field.

The bottom line, so far, is a little bleak. The deflation of the economy in addition to the continued troubled state of journalism (print in particular) has led to a great many layoffs throughout the industry. Which means the competition for available positions is more fierce than expected, since even experienced journalists may be applying for jobs that we new grads are trying to get. And they, of course, are more likely to get those jobs, as they have an experiential edge. I feel the only hope for me and others like me is the fact that we are likely to accept lower pay than those who have been in the field longer.

However, as the EA told me, aside from looking for work in related fields, I do have several other options. One, which I have been looking into, is freelancing for magazines. She also suggested working as a stringer for the paper. Despite all the recent layoffs at the paper, she said they are still welcoming stringers, and in fact, actually need RELIABLE ones. Apparently, in this area, many stringers are notorious for not following through after a pitch has been accepted. She also warned me to NEVER send a story "on spec" (a whole unsolicited article for free). Another option is to volunteer as a blogger for the paper. Of course, I have to have an angle, and we discussed a few.

After our talk, she gave me a tour of the new newspaper facility and I got to see the press in action. I've had tours of newspapers before, but never have I been in the press room while the press is running. What a rush! It made me feel like a kid at an amusement park.

I'm very grateful she took the time to meet and speak with me two days before Christmas. I expect the Thank You card I sent will get to her tomorrow. (Always send a Thank You card to everyone who gives you a hand!)

Anyway, I have quite a bit to think about -- a lot of information to filter out and plenty of ideas to sort out and put into action.

(* I'm not posting the EA's name or the name of the paper, as I'm not sure it's polite -- at the very least -- from a networking standpoint to do so on a personal, publicly-viewed blog without permission. I guess I need to network with some other bloggers to find out.)

Emptying the envelope

I realized today that I have not updated my clips file in a while. A now-battered yellow manila envelope holds most of my recent work from my internship this spring on the copy desk of the Syracuse Post-Standard. I had not realized how many articles I edited or for which I wrote headlines and cutlines. It really does my spirit good to see them. A glimmer of hope glows anew.

My project is to sort all those clips, make copies, and put them into a new portfolio featuring a couple of "before and after" examples of my editing work, along with my most recent articles and a few of my older ones.

This is part of my plan to repackage and re-present myself to the job market.

Trying again

I created a blog on Blogspot with almost the same name a few years back, but forgot the password.

You can see the original (and very short) blog here: www.copyeditina.blogspot.com.

Subsequently, Blogspot became Blogger and I lost access to the original e-mail address under which I signed in. Now, I've tried with no success to reclaim my original blog.

Thus, I now have Copyeditina2 on Blogger.

So, here I go again!