What a Tool

I recently subscribed to Freelancesuccess.com, and one of the first things I managed to do with my new account was create a nifty little webpage to showcase some of my clips. Check it out here It has gotten some good feedback, most notably from Editor Brian Cunningham at Wizard Magazine (THE Comic Book Magazine.) He said that the clips were impressive and would be forwarded to the Features Editor. It occurs to me that despite having having to butt heads to often, it's very useful to please editors and make their lives as simple and painless as possible. So, from now on, instead of sending a jumble of links in query emails, I've decided to chuck my resume altogether and simple add a link to my webpage and its neatly organized contents. Simple, easy, and the editors can browse via subject or topic however they like. I just hope they appreciate all that I'm doing for them.

Pleasant Surprise

Mediabistro.com is one of the cardinal sites I check for jobs, I also have a resume posted there as should any freelancer. They recently ran this story. I got a lovely surprise today, the bleary eyed ramble I wrote at two in the moring last week was published in the letters to the editor page. You can see it here, it's the second from the top.

I want to comment on the other two letters that so vehemently disagree with Mr. Lindsay, but it seems they are a lost cause.

Edit: Who am I kidding, I have to comment:

An open letter to the editors of Mediabistro.com: was Greg Lindsay's condescending rant about j-school really worth 2,000 words?

Lindsay seems to have missed one of the cardinal rules of journalism: be concise. Being accurate couldn't hurt, either. I'm in the graduate program at NYU. At least one professor, Jay Rosen, has his own blog. In my magazine writing class this semester, each person in my class kept a blog and updated it three times a week. (You can read our blog at journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/theoryb.) Each week, a professional journalist spoke to our 10-person class, because our professor, Adam Penenberg, is quite aware that "It's who you know, not what you know."

I don't know when Lindsay graduated from j-school, but I think he's been saving up this rambling, rudderless rant ever since. The essay wanders from French philosophers to Spy magazine to some poor undergraduate intern who got beat up on Romanesko. [sic] (Yes, Mr. Lindsay, I do read Romanesko.) But he doesn't make any clear point other than "rebellion is fun." Next time, if he wants to write about what's going on in journalism schools, maybe he should try some actual reporting first.

Hannah Clark

"I'm in the graduate program at NYU."
And there is your bias. At least have the decency to be honest about it.

"Adam Penenberg, is quite aware that 'It's who you know, not what you know.'"
Which is exactly the sentiment Lindsay was talking about. The entitlement is strong with this one. The fact that Hannah buys into this culture of nepotism and bootlicking assures me of two things, A) she completely missed the point of the letter and B) she will never take any risks in the pursuit of good writing.

I really hope she enjoys treading that neatly trimmed path that people like me, Lindsay, or anyone else with a grain of integrity have carved out for her. Some of us prefer to go screaming into the woods.

"But he doesn't make any clear point other than 'rebellion is fun.'"
Actually, he made quite a few solid points that so obviously swooshed over her head. The dangers of comfort and entitlement being one, and the decline of j-school's relevance. You would think that j-school would teach one to be an astute reader? That's quite a sum of money to throw down without basic reading comprehension.

The fact is that rebellion is fun and worthwhile to boot. Hannah should try it sometime.


I sincerely hope Hannah reads this, I think it would fun to read her rebuttal.

A Few Notes

Things have been picking up, and I'm delighted to tell the truth. From what I've experienced in this business it's feast or famine when it comes to the workload. Just a few positives notes here, then I'll move on to the bashing, and let's be honest it is more fun to bash douchebag editors and clients than it is to felate myself with job-well-done's. So here goes:


The Good
Inkwell Editorial informed me today that they would be publishing a response to a query I wrote in regard to freelancing overseas. I'll post a link when it gets published in July.

I wrote some copy the last few weeks, as mentioned in a previous post, for a restaurant called Hummus Place (109 St. Mark's Place New York, NY) in the East Village. It was just some basic information about the food, history, and nutrition of Hummus (that's all they serve). Sharon, the graphic designer, and Ori, the chef, loved the copy and I can hope for more copywriting work from Sharon. The two were delightful to work with. I'll be scanning a copy and posting it once these babies get printed up.

I was also contacted to write a series of health articles for some anonymous yahoo user. I always get everything in writing, so I responded that all the specifics should be written into a basic contract. Still waiting on that.

EDIT: I forgot to mention I've been tapped to write a tutorial on binary numbers for Mathblues.com. Rafiq, my editor, says that it's a chance to rewrite history and scold all those text editors who punished me with bland direction. I'm actually enjoying it, I'll post a link soon.

The Bad
I did encounter one sour bit in the last month of assignments and it still irritates me no matter how far I put it out of my mind. I was contacted by a man, we'll call him Phil, who runs a medical website. I don't care to name it, because honestly I hope his business flounders in the market. Phil is a self proclaimed salesman, originally trained as an engineer and from what he told me on the phone, "an intense guy." He asked me on the phone whether or not he came across as intense and I had to respond, not really. We met at his office, I should have known when he first walked in, fresh from lunch wearing that ridiculous buret and self importantance. We went into his office and he began grilling me on what I could do for him, like any good salesman. He even went so far as to offer me a fulltime job, as he described it, a thankless job, I'll pay you nothing and I'm difficult man to work for. Needless to say I told him I wasn't interested. I did, however, mention that it might be interesting to work gathering writers and see what projects they are working on. To this he bobbed his hand in the universal "jack off" motion. I'm not one to be upset at vulgarity, far from it, I think it's one of the wonderful quirks of language, but the self importance that this salesman had dismissed my thought was infuriating. I let it slide, he quickly retracted his statement by saying "if it's important to you, then it is important to me." Bullshit. And I know it when I see it. You don't live in New York and not see great heaps of it every day.

We eventually got to the idea of freelancing. He wanted someone to write a series of articles on some of his clients, profiles you might say, to attract visitors to his site and purchase their services. We agreed on a length, a topic, and a price, which was very low mind you. The price wasn't really what got to me. What got to me was that I had mentioned in passing once on the phone the meager sum I had received for a previous writing assignment (my first one, mind you) and with everything else that was said, he remembered that number and kept bringing it back up, as if it was a travesty that someone else should get a better deal than him. I agreed to take on the minor project since there was not much else going on. Phil proceeds to call me on the weekend urging me to get started. Perhaps he is not familiar with freelance writing, but I will let anyone else know that we freelancers keep sacred deadlines. If you miss one, it's your ass. We work from home for god's sake, it's the one parameter we must adhere. It took me a solid month to get the good people at ICE on the phone. I don't blame them at all, they are a small firm with a limited staff. I wrote the article with a series of phone interviews and notes. I sent it off to Phill and the folks at ICE. ICE liked it, Phill did not. He, as I recall, "could not get past the lead. It frustrated me." Indeed. Fine, I said, read it and give me some feed back and I will happily (well not happily) make the changes. I have not heard from him since and I am considering letting the project die on account that I have a few other clients that are infinitely more accomodating and pleasant to work with. So, in closing I learned to

A) never disclose previous fees and

B) men who style themselves as "intense" are sporting a facade that's cardboard thin. Hunter Thompson was an intense man, Henry Rollins is an intense man. Phil was just a pushy salesman. I will forever spit the word salesman with distaste and revulsion.

Title Change

There's a few things I want to touch on today. First is the obvious title change as you can so plainly see above. LOL@u.com didn't really capture everything I wanted to accomplish with this blog when I put it up, so I changed it. The new title came to me a while ago, and I don't pretend it's completely original, I'm sure someone out there has the very same moniker for a screen name, email address, or alias somewhere. I was speaking to a friend about my employment and it somehow came up that every job, or freelance gig that I had ever gotten had come from showing up, sometimes late, in jeans, beaten sneakers and a hooded sweatshirt. Everyone hums the mantra "dress to impress" ad nauseum and while it may work for some, it simply doesnt work for me. To be honest, I've never felt comfortable in a suit, or my own skin for that matter, so comfortable clothes are the best I can do. Being the manic depressive I am, my rationale was quite simple, I can go in for an interview or meeting and I can get the job or not. This, in turn, will either plunge me into depression or elation. So, I decided that I will meet these prospective employers in my rawest form, comfortable clothes, standing on comfortable soles. Regardless of whether I get the job, I have something I can feel positive about, being myself. If I am not accepted for my rash decisions, well then, I suppose it just wasn't meant to be and the employment gods are less cruel than I thought. I remarked to this friend that my success in this regard must be the appeal of my maverick writer persona, whose magnetism comes from pure, unbridled creativity and original thought. So, there you have it. Maverick Writer.com. I like it.

Been Quiet

There's not much to report. I've been doing research for some copywriting I'm doing for a restaurant in Greenwich Village. Mildly interesting stuff, I'll not bore you with the details. I will, however, share a brief tip for any writers out there. I've learned it's a good strategy to inundate yourself with contacts and more projects than you can handle. The reason is that far more projects than you know will end up falling through the cracks, because of any of the following reasons:

Lack of money
Forgetfulness
Lack of interest
No response
The client has a friend "with an interest in writing"

It's always a good idea to keep a resume and clips portfolio up to date and posted wherever you can find space.