The Cost of Saying Yes to Every Gig
How turning down projects can help you build your freelance writing business.
by Miranda Miller
Opportunity cost dictates that even when you make the best choice possible, you lose out on the benefits of the next best option.
We see this constantly as we move through life, in everything from grocery shopping to deciding which book to read to choosing a route to drive to work. When you pick your life partner, you’ve said no to all others (I hope). Every time you choose to do something, you’ve chosen not to do something else.
As confident as we are in our choices, understanding the loss of the next best choice gives valuable perspective, especially in business. Considering opportunity cost as part of our decision-making process helps us make the best choices possible.
Microeconomics was one of my favourite courses in university, not because I understood the value of it then, but because I learned early on that it was heavy on theory and light on actual numbers. Opportunity cost isn’t a complicated mathematical formula, but a way of weighing your options as you make decisions around the types of gigs you choose to accept.
In my last column, we looked at different tactics for growing your freelance writing business in 2015. Now, let’s look at the theory of opportunity cost and how you can apply it in your business, not only to make good decisions for growth, but to help you avoid costly mistakes that can hold you back.
How does opportunity cost work in freelance writing?
Freelance Finances: Get Money Awesome!
Tax season is here, freelancers. If the thought of balancing your books and filing your taxes makes you shudder, CMG Freelance wants to help.
CMG Freelance and CWA Canada Associate Members are invited to an online workshop next month on freelance finances:
Get Money Awesome!
Wednesday April 8
3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET.
In Get Money Awesome!, Toronto-based creative professional Emily Schooley will cover some of the essentials of successful financial management for freelancers. From budgeting and bookkeeping, to tax preparation and filing, to financial goal-setting, Emily will help take the stress out of managing the money side of your freelance business.
Click here to register for the workshop and you’ll be sent an invitation for the Spreecast webinar. If you’re not able to attend in person but are interested in watching later, sign up anyway: the invitation will contain a link where you’ll be able to watch the recorded workshop afterwards.
If you’re not currently a member but are interested in taking this workshop, check out our membership options with CMG Freelance and CWA Canada Associate Members (a membership for students, volunteers and precarious media workers).
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Mar 17-23
Once a week, we gather stories about the media business, journalism, writing, publishing, and freelancing—with a Canadian focus—and share them in Off the Wire. Who needs a water cooler?
From Canada:
- How to Be a Happy Writer [Creative Nonfiction Collective]
- Your Guide to Winter/Spring 2015 Magazine Writing Contests [Magazine Awards]
- Libel law and the freelance writer [J-Source]
- New site crowdfunds $80k to cover energy conflict in Canada [Journalism.co.uk]
- Honouring Ali Mustafa, one year after his death [J-Source]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- How to Handle Lasting Relationships With Sources [The Freelancer]
- 7 tips for students seeking journalism work experience [Journalism.co.uk]
- Journalism and Social Media: It’s a Love-Hate Affair [PBS]
- How Can Ghostwriters Find New Clients if They Don’t Have Bylines? [The Freelancer]
- How Successful, Work-From-Home Freelance Writers Really Find Work [The Write Life]
- Essential financial information for freelance journalists [Journalism.co.uk]
- 5 tips for telling your story to potential clients [Freelancers Union]
- Journohub wants to link editors and freelancers [Journalism.co.uk]
Last week on Story Board:
- After the death of freelancer Pamela Cuthbert, colleagues recall a generous person and great writer: Toronto freelance food journalist Pamela Cuthbert lost her life to a stroke on March 11th, leaving a husband and young son as well as a wide circle of extended family, friends and colleagues, many of whom have posted messages online expressing shock and sadness at her sudden passing…
- The Born Freelance on Spring Cleaning for Freelancers: With the coming of Spring (sorry, Maritimes, but your Spring will eventually arrive too – I hope) there is no better time to reappraise and reevaluate our freelancing life – to take stock and have a thorough spring cleaning…
Spot a story you think we should include in next week’s Off the Wire? Email the link to editor@thestoryboard.ca or tweet us at @storyboard_ca.
After the death of freelancer Pamela Cuthbert, colleagues recall a generous person and great writer
Toronto freelance food journalist Pamela Cuthbert lost her life to a stroke on March 11th, leaving a husband and young son as well as a wide circle of extended family, friends and colleagues, many of whom have posted messages online expressing shock and sadness at her sudden passing.
Cuthbert was an award-winning journalist who wrote for such publications as Maclean’s, the Globe and Mail, Saveur and The Economist. She was a passionate advocate for food sustainability and a volunteer for a variety of sustainability-related NGOs. Cuthbert founded the Slow Food Toronto Convivium in 2002.
Maclean’s managing editor Sarmishta Subramanian worked with Cuthbert on a number of stories over the past six or seven years. She says Cuthbert was a meticulous researcher and a vivid storyeller.
“She had a way of finding poetry in the most unlikely places, and an eye for whimsy that helped define the kinds of food stories we do in Maclean’s,” Subramanian told Story Board this week via email.
“Here’s how she pitched a story about the ecological costs of almonds: There’s ‘a bee bordello in California.’ When everyone else was starting to cotton on to the trend of eating insects, Pamela wanted to do a story about the backlash against ‘industrial insect farming.’ Who could say no? Her painstaking research would turn up amazing details, and she was writing about food or agriculture, but would ultimately tell a rich story of how we live,” said Subramanian.
“I will miss her voice in my pages.”
Toronto writer Jason McBride tweeted about Cuthbert’s passing earlier this week, describing her as a generous and extremely decent person and a great writer. McBride says Cuthbert hired him as a young writer in 2002 and was a supportive and generous editor.
Andrew Clark, a Toronto writer and instructor at Humber College, also tweeted about Cuthbert’s generosity and talent. Clark told Story Board that as well as being an excellent writer, Cuthbert was encouraging of other writers and those just starting out in the business.
“In a field that is generally categorized by envy and back-biting she was a positive and constructive force,” said Clark.
For the past year, Cuthbert was also a regular contributor to Zoomer magazine, writing about foodie destinations around Ontario. An article that she wrote about Creemore, Ontario will be in the next issue of Zoomer, and her story about the Blue Mountain area will run in their fall issue.
The Born Freelancer on Spring Cleaning for Freelancers
This series of posts by the Born Freelancer shares personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? Your input is welcome in the comments.
With the coming of Spring (sorry, Maritimes, but your Spring will eventually arrive too – I hope) there is no better time to reappraise and reevaluate our freelancing life – to take stock and have a thorough spring cleaning.
Refreshing your brand
Nothing says more about your commitment to serving others than your commitment to serving yourself. This is a great time of year to look at how you are representing yourself in public and – when appropriate – taking action to reenergize that presentation.
Revitalize your website
Are your graphics the same ones you have been using for years? Is the promo blurb about yourself still making reference to the work you did on shows that have been off the air for most of the current century? It’s time to update and revitalize your site.
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Mar 9-16
Once a week, we gather stories about the media business, journalism, writing, publishing, and freelancing—with a Canadian focus—and share them in Off the Wire. Who needs a water cooler?
From Canada:
- And then there was Shad: inside the search for the new host of Q [Globe and Mail]
- BuzzFeed to expand Canadian operations [Globe and Mail]
- News, lies and videotape: The legitimation crisis in journalism [J-Source]
- CBC picks rapper Shad as new host of Q [Globe and Mail]
- Photographers at Irving-owned N.B. newspapers laid off, union says [CTV]
- Moncton Times & Transcript, Telegraph-Journal photographers laid off [CBC]
- Journalists: never befriend a source [J-Source]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- How to handle rejection (even when it feels constant) [Freelancers Union]
- New Jersey luxury magazine sends cease-and-desist to freelancer trying to get paid [Romenesko]
- 5 Ways to Balance Freelance Writing Jobs and Personal Projects [The Write Life]
- Why are more women than men freelancing? [Fast Company]
- 6 reasons to fire your client [Freelancers Union]
- 7 Self-Editing Tips for Reporters Without Copy Editors [AJR]
- The 10 Worst Things Editors Do That Drive Freelancers Nuts [The Freelancer]
Last week on Story Board:
- Simultaneous pitching — views from the other side of the desk: 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…
- Connect The Docs offers unique online tools for documentary filmmakers: The Victoria documentary film community gathered on Wednesday, January 28 to discuss and watch clips from the upcoming doc Election Day in Canada. The screening happened in other locations simultaneously thanks to everyday tools – streaming video, social networks and the Open Cinema site – that helped remote viewers participate in this event…
Spot a story you think we should include in next week’s Off the Wire? Email the link to editor@thestoryboard.ca or tweet us at @storyboard_ca.
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 pitching, or something he calls “market pitching” should be the norm. It raised a lot of discussion among freelancers, but I was curious to get the perspective of those on the receiving end of those pitches — editors and producers. So I sent out this request to editors and producers far and wide asking them this question:
Is simultaneous pitching* still a no-no? Why or why not?
(*e.g. to multiple venues with different platforms – print/web, radio/podcast, video/TV, or multiple venues on the same platform)
What I received back was a non-random, completely unscientific sample of anecdotal responses. Nevertheless they represent an interesting round-up of current views from editors and producers working in print, web, and radio.
Here’s what they said:
Read the rest of this post »
Connect the Docs offers unique online tools for documentary filmmakers
by Luigi Benetton
The Victoria documentary film community gathered on Wednesday, January 28 to discuss and watch clips from the upcoming doc Election Day in Canada. The screening happened in other locations simultaneously thanks to everyday tools – streaming video, social networks and the Open Cinema site – that helped remote viewers participate in this event.
These tools are coming together in a platform called Connect the Docs, the brainchild of documentary enthusiast and Open Cinema founder Mandy Leith. Leith has joined forces with digital marketing and communications professional Graham Powell to take Connect the Docs from drawing board to tech startup with the help of a Victoria business incubator.
Leith wants to develop Connect the Docs to support Canadian documentary filmmakers by combining live streaming, video on demand and real-time engagement in one interface. The resulting community can interact synchronously during events and asynchronously (like ordinary social media) at other times, nurturing engagement long after an event ends.
Leith says she hasn’t found such technology anywhere else. That’s what makes Connect the Docs so intriguing; it could spread much farther than the Canadian documentary filmmaking community.
Documentary filmmaking isn’t the only field where people build communities to share their interests and passions. For instance, in a “white-label” arrangement, a software company could use Connect the Docs to make its experts available via screencasts to demo a title’s latest features. Professional associations could live-stream professional development events across Canada. Presenters in either case could field questions from audience members no matter where they are.
Bringing focus back to Canadian documentary filmmaking, the envisioned tech business will generate revenues that help fund documentaries, from production through to distribution.
As with most things in incubators, Connect the Docs is still in its infancy. Leith and Powell are developing Connect the Docs into actual code and a business with the help of the Victoria Advanced Technology Council (VIATeC) (they first met with VIATeC representatives on February 13) and Accelerate Tectoria. And as with the documentaries that Leith champions, Connect the Docs is looking for funding.
Keep an eye on Leith and Powell’s creation, which seems set to shake the Canada’s documentary filmmaking world and many industries beyond.
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Mar 3-8
Once a week, we gather stories about the media business, journalism, writing, publishing, and freelancing—with a Canadian focus—and share them in Off the Wire. Who needs a water cooler?
From Canada:
- Alberta Magazine Awards 2015 [Alberta Magazines]
- Star to end paid digital subscriptions on April 1 [Toronto Star]
- Why the CBC’s Amanda Lang Review is Horseshit [Canadaland]
- The long goodbye to Canadian alt-weeklies [J-Source]
- CBC review concludes Amanda Lang met journalistic standards [Globe and Mail]
- Torstar reports flat profit, as Toronto Star readies tablet edition [Globe and Mail]
- Star awarded 2015 Canadian Hillman Prize for investigative reporting on sexual assault [J-Source]
- As paid work dwindles for student journalists, retail isn’t looking so bad [J-Source]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- Your “just for fun” projects are what set you apart [99u]
- McDonald’s asks indie band to play for free during SXSW [Dangerous Minds]
- Priced Out: Why I Can No Longer Afford a Career in Writing [The Toast] (via @thewritelife)
- 5 Newsletters Every Freelancer Should Subscribe To [The Freelancer]
- How playing nice with others helps freelancers succeed [Freelancers Union]
- Want More Writing Jobs? Create a Referral Network of Freelancers [The Write Life]
- 10 fast ways become a better writer [One Month] (via @thewritelife)
- 5 New Things Every Journalist Should Have [Newscastic]
- Freelance Writers Need Vacations, Too. Here’s How to Take One [The Write Life]
- Survival strategies of an online freelancer [CJR]
Last week on Story Board:
- The 5-Minute Freelancer Q&A #19 — Joanne Will: Joanne Will is a Toronto-based writer who has written for publications such as the Globe and Mail and The Tyee about everything from food history, to music, to literature, to cars and driving…
- Ali Mustafa Memorial Fundraiser: Ali Mustafa was a Toronto-based freelance photojournalist who was killed while working in Syria on March 9th, 2014. Shortly after his death, a group of his friends and colleagues set up the Ali Mustafa Memorial Collective to honour his life by offering an annual award for freelancers…
Spot a story you think we should include in next week’s Off the Wire? Email the link to editor@thestoryboard.ca or tweet us at @storyboard_ca.
The 5-Minute Freelancer Q&A #19 — Joanne Will
In this regular feature, Story Board asks Canadian writers to share a few details about their work habits and their strategies for navigating the ups and downs of freelance life.
Joanne Will is a Toronto-based writer who has written for publications such as the Globe and Mail and The Tyee about everything from food history, to music, to literature, to cars and driving.
She took the time to speak with Story Board this week about specializing, professional development and the benefits of spending time out in nature.
Do you think it’s better for a freelance writer to be a specialist or a generalist?
Setting out in the area you ultimately want to be working in is the way to build a satisfying career, and become someone editors will turn to when they’re looking for a subject matter expert. It goes against what you’re taught in journalism school; they tell you to be a generalist, take any gig you can. That’s fine if you don’t know what you want to do. But if you have a burning desire to cover, for example, nature and the environment, do that from the outset. It will take time, you have to build your reputation. You’ll most likely need another job to support yourself for a while. But if you keep at it, opportunities to do what you’re passionate about will find you, and you’ll find them. British author and journalist George Monbiot has done an excellent job of addressing this in the “Career Advice” section of his website, at Monbiot.com. I advise anyone starting out – or struggling with their current position – to read it.
What’s the most important thing you’ve done over the years for professional development?
