Selling Your Writing

Everything else
1

I know there are a few freelance writers and even a few editors here. Tomorrow I am going to talk with an editor about publishing a personal essay I wrote for a well-known paper. I’m very excited, but I’ve never done anything this before. I feel sort of stupid posting this, because, honestly, I would consider paying him to publish my essay.

What can you tell me about presenting myself as a professional, making the phone call a good experience? I don’t want to appear like a total noob (even though I am).

He has said it usually takes 30 minutes, but I can’t imagine what we’re going to talk about for that long. Are we going to go through the essay (~1500 words) line-by-line? Will price come up? If it does, what should I charge?

2

What can you tell me about presenting myself as a professional, making the phone call a good experience?

In a nutshell, be professional, but don’t try too hard. Be polite and friendly, keep joking to a minimum unless you’re sure it’s going to be appreciated, and if you don’t understand something, don’t be afraid to ask. Editors are used to throwing around jargon that only makes sense in the halls of publishing, and it’s always best to make sure you’re on the same page. I tend to follow the guideline that someone who won’t explain their terms is probably trying to pull one over on you.

(As one example, I recently had a freelancer submit an article without any boxouts, and when asked why, they shamefacedly confessed that they had no idea what a boxout was but were too afraid to ask for fear of looking stupid. As I told them, I’d much rather take the ten seconds to explain it if the result is better/more usable copy.)

He has said it usually takes 30 minutes, but I can’t imagine what we’re going to talk about for that long

Most likely for scheduling purposes. He’ll want to be out of there in 30, but have the time to get everything sorted in the one call.

Will price come up? If it does, what should I charge?

Depends on the nature of the newspaper, the prominence/style of the piece, its length, and about a million other factors. If it’s a one-shot deal for these guys, I wouldn’t stress it too much in the circumstances. It’s not great business sense to ask “How much do you usually pay?” if the issue comes up, but it’ll probably be your best shot.

If there’s a chance of doing more in the future, be careful not to tie yourself to an overly crappy rate. I’d hit some union site or proper writing discussion boards and solicit some opinions - AbsoluteWrite is quite a good one, if you avoid the increasing legion of people willing to work for pennies and focus on responses from people who’ve done old-school journalism in your field.

That said, in this situation, your bargaining power is pretty much exactly none, so I wouldn’t expect great riches.

3

I feel this way doing voice acting. Like I would do it without getting paid! And I would pay to get more jobs.

4

(As one example, I recently had a freelancer submit an article without any boxouts, and when asked why, they shamefacedly confessed that they had no idea what a boxout was but were too afraid to ask for fear of looking stupid. As I told them, I’d much rather take the ten seconds to explain it if the result is better/more usable copy.)

In the name of the internet, I command you to define this term.

5

What’s a boxout?

EDIT: (Bah, beaten by Aeon, but internet curiosity must be repeated)

6

A boxout is a box separate from other page content that is often used to house images, captions, and other ancillary information.

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7

For heaven’s sake, google it. I mean, click boxout, copy, paste into search box, it’s not that hard…

Anyhow, Bullhajj, you just sent a sample cold to some editor, and they are following up with interest, or did you connect with them some other way?

I really have no freelance experience myself, though it’s something I’ve been considering looking into. At one point some years ago I got to the point of almost writing a series of science popularization articles for the Times based just on sending them a sample and a suggestion for an approach to article writing, but they managed to piss me off* at a time I was working full time anyhow, so I put the idea away.

*I wrote this lengthy and if I say so myself excellent piece on PKI that I thought ordinary people could actually understand, but then the editor said “this is great, but unfortunately we just published a PKI article and I didn’t realize it, so could you write some more stuff, but don’t use words, just pictures”. I thought I had better things to do, though probably in retrospect I should have done what they asked…

8

My essay went to a regular feature/column. They’re expecting people to submit. What you did to get your foot in the door sounds much more grand. I don’t blame you for shying away. It’s hard to find time to work on the side if you’ve already got a day job.

9

Go try googling boxout. I spent five minutes wandering around the internets before I gave up.

10

Huh. I got Mordrak’s link first thing, myself. I think it’s #2 on the list from google…

11

Hidden between the eight million other things that don’t have any relevance, much like my last few posts. Anyway, I’m putting an entry about it on wikipedia now, so this problem will be solved for the future!

edit: nevermind, I had forgotten that you have to be logged in to create an article. Don’t wanna.

12

Jimmy Wales is keeping you down, Aeon.