Another update on the status of my not-quite-employment
Much like my "chemo diaries" were intended as part-venting, part a way to get everybody up to speed and not repeat myself so much...
There have been some new developments on the income sources front. First, I got a regular gig at Austin Weekly News - a weekly newspaper published by Wednesday Journal Inc, the same company that used to publish Chicago Journal (before they shut it down) and Skyline (before they sold it to Inside Publications. I'm going to be covering politics on Chicago's West Side.
I was dismayed to discover that, since I last worked for them, the freelancer went down to... Well, 22nd Century Media levels. But the good news was that paper's editor and I were able to work out an arrangement, where I would do an article a week and get paid monthly at... about the same amount as I would for four Pioneer Press articles. Which doesn't fix my financial instability, but it does help.
Which kind of touches on the big problem with the current arrangement. With the Niles Bugle, things seem to be settling into a pattern of 2-3 articles a week. But with 22nd Century Media, things are much harder to predict. Some editors give me a bit of heads up a few days before assignment date, but most seem content to send assignments either a day before, or on the same day, which makes it harder to plan. And so far, there's no pattern as to how many assignments I do for them. Two weeks ago, it was two. Last week, it was three. This week... It's one.
Which brings me to another problem. I can't take every single assignment that's offered. I turned down one because it conflicted with an assignment from another 22nd Century Media editor. I turned down another because it conflicted with an assignment from Niles Bugle. And that's going to continue.
At the same time, I have been pursuing another, parallel strategy. While I was still at Pioneer Press, I had ideas for pitches to larger publications, magazines and online publications that supposedly actually paid (which is far from a given in this day and age). But since getting fired/blacklisted, I figured I might as well give it a try.
So far, only one - the Belt online magazine - has responded. And after some back and forth... I'm writing an article for them. I have three weeks to finish it, and assuming everything goes through payment-wise... It's not much per se, but Let's just say that I've never been paid quite that much per article.
It's a one-time thing, but if they like what they see, maybe there could be more. Maybe it could be a stepping stone for something bigger, if not in this magazine, then in other publications. Where the morsels from freelance work won't have to be so tiny.
Wish me luck
There have been some new developments on the income sources front. First, I got a regular gig at Austin Weekly News - a weekly newspaper published by Wednesday Journal Inc, the same company that used to publish Chicago Journal (before they shut it down) and Skyline (before they sold it to Inside Publications. I'm going to be covering politics on Chicago's West Side.
I was dismayed to discover that, since I last worked for them, the freelancer went down to... Well, 22nd Century Media levels. But the good news was that paper's editor and I were able to work out an arrangement, where I would do an article a week and get paid monthly at... about the same amount as I would for four Pioneer Press articles. Which doesn't fix my financial instability, but it does help.
Which kind of touches on the big problem with the current arrangement. With the Niles Bugle, things seem to be settling into a pattern of 2-3 articles a week. But with 22nd Century Media, things are much harder to predict. Some editors give me a bit of heads up a few days before assignment date, but most seem content to send assignments either a day before, or on the same day, which makes it harder to plan. And so far, there's no pattern as to how many assignments I do for them. Two weeks ago, it was two. Last week, it was three. This week... It's one.
Which brings me to another problem. I can't take every single assignment that's offered. I turned down one because it conflicted with an assignment from another 22nd Century Media editor. I turned down another because it conflicted with an assignment from Niles Bugle. And that's going to continue.
At the same time, I have been pursuing another, parallel strategy. While I was still at Pioneer Press, I had ideas for pitches to larger publications, magazines and online publications that supposedly actually paid (which is far from a given in this day and age). But since getting fired/blacklisted, I figured I might as well give it a try.
So far, only one - the Belt online magazine - has responded. And after some back and forth... I'm writing an article for them. I have three weeks to finish it, and assuming everything goes through payment-wise... It's not much per se, but Let's just say that I've never been paid quite that much per article.
It's a one-time thing, but if they like what they see, maybe there could be more. Maybe it could be a stepping stone for something bigger, if not in this magazine, then in other publications. Where the morsels from freelance work won't have to be so tiny.
Wish me luck