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Indemnity clauses – the rickety bridges of freelancing
by Lesley Evans Ogden Imagine you want to climb up a mountain to a beautiful viewpoint. You’ve done some research, figured out how to get to the trailhead, packed your backpack, and climbed most of the way up the mountain. But on the final ascent you arrive at a deep chasm. The only way across […]
Tricks of the trade: clever tips for finding stories at conferences
by Lesley Evans Ogden How do you nab great stories at conferences? That’s a question I’ve been toying with a lot lately, because in late December 2015, I had the opportunity to attend The Society For Marine Mammalogy Conference in San Francisco. There, I was one of 14 COMPASS Journalist Fellows scouring the scene […]
The Internet ate my homework. (Or: How to save your published web work)
by Lesley Evans Ogden When you were a kid in grade school you probably became familiar with the worst excuse ever for losing your homework: the dog ate it. These days, it’s probably not the dog you need to look out for. At some point you’ll likely fall prey to gobbling up of another […]
Allie Wilkinson: A “how did you do it?” profile.
by Lesley Evans Ogden Allie Wilkinson is a Washington DC based freelance science journalist. I met her at a freelancer workshop called Courage Camp in Colorado in August 2014, and since that time, I’ve followed her online and seen her career flourish. Wilkinson is the founder of a blog called, “This is what a scientist […]
The savvy freelancer: Being clever about recycling extra material. Tips from Rose Eveleth.
by Lesley Evans Ogden Successful freelancers need a diversity of skills. One specialized skill that has always intrigued me is the ability to repurpose similar material in multiple places. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, mainly because I’ve realized I’m not very good at it. As a feature writer who frequently conducts long interviews […]
Deadly sins of freelancing
by Lesley Evans Ogden Relationships. Every successful freelancer knows that healthy professional relationships are everything. So if things aren’t going so well, perhaps it’s time to take a close look at whether you might be doing something that is annoying your editor/producer/client. To dive into the pet peeves that drive these people nuts, I […]
From research to story: advice for writers
by Lesley Evans Ogden At the recent Canadian Science Writers Association Meeting in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, two gurus of science journalism, Tom Hayden and Peter Calamai shared their sage advice on the art of turning research into a story. While their advice was given to and intended for science writers, many of their tips will be […]
Freelance Funnies
by Lesley Evans Ogden As a freelancer, you’ve no doubt read a plethora of recent posts about the gloomy outlook for journalism, and how tough it is for freelancers to make a living these days. Yet we’re a tenacious bunch, and there is much to enjoy and celebrate about our flexible jobs. One of […]
Simultaneous pitching – views from the other side of the desk
by Lesley Evans Ogden For freelance journalists and producers, pitching is a make or break activity. And the traditional advice doled out to freelancers pitching their stories has been that simultaneous pitching – pitching the same story to multiple outlets simultaneously – is a no-no. Recently, this blog post by Scott Carney suggested that simultaneous […]
Motivation and its evil twin: procrastination
by Lesley Evans Ogden To make a go of it as a freelancer, an abundance of motivation is crucial. But as we all know and hate, motivation doesn’t come in steady waves. It tends to ebb and flow over time, sometimes waning when we need it the most. Procrastination is one of those nasty […]
