The Born Freelancer on Drawing a Line in the Sand
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? We’d love to hear from you in the comments. Sooner or later it will happen. Every working freelancer will eventually confront employer demands so egregious, so patently unfair, that they will be forced […]
Reaping what you sow: Five writers talk about their websites
by Steven Threndyle For most of us, writing is a business. And if you’re a businessperson, you need some kind of online presence where, at the very minimum, you can post your published clips to prove to a prospective editor or client that you are, in fact, a professional. In today’s post, we talk to […]
CBC Freelance Specific Services Contracts – Good Value or a Possible Minefield?
by Don Genova Last month I went over the nuts and bolts of CBC’s Freelance Contributor Contracts. But CBC also uses other kinds of contracts with freelancers. One of those is the Freelance Specific Services contract. For a type of contract that often gets used by the CBC to hire freelancers, it sure doesn’t say […]
The Born Freelancer’s Musings on Muses and the Origins of Inspiration
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? We’d love to hear from you in the comments. I was speaking to a visual artist the other day. I found myself guilty of asking him the same over-worked question we writers so […]
Blogger or journalist? In Canada, defamation law applies either way
by Vanessa Hrvatin Who is a journalist, anyway? In the age of the internet, the definition is becoming less clear. In the past, journalists were considered gatekeepers of information, but today, anyone can share facts and stories online through different platforms, including blogging sites. Many freelance journalists spend time blogging about topics without necessarily worrying […]
Crafting the “Reactive Story” — Reworking News Stories into Web Features
by Steven Threndyle If you’re as ADD as most writers I know, you probably spend a bit of your day on social media and get a significant amount of your news from what your friends are posting or tweeting. And, if you’re in story-hunting mode, (and you should always be in story hunting mode), you […]
The 5-Minute Freelancer Q&A #35 — Geoff Dembicki
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. Geoff Dembicki got into journalism at a strange time. He graduated from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2008, when the financial crisis and other troubles were causing the folding and downsizing […]
Back to School: The ABC’s of CBC Freelance Contracts
by Don Genova There are actually A’s, and B’s, and C stands for Copyright in a typical CBC Freelance Contributor Contract, but I’ll get to those in a bit. With the new broadcast season, more local and national programs, radio, TV or digital, will be engaging freelancers to provide material for their shows in the […]
The Born Freelancer on Getting Names Right
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? We’d love to hear from you in the comments. Names possess almost magical power unlike any other words. Used correctly, they can help foster confidence, trust, empathy and credibility. Incorrect use can be […]
Pitching around staff writers
By Brittany Duggan As a freelancer, it’s hard to keep of track of which Canadian media outlets still have budgets for outsourcing. “The Globe has a freeze on freelancers for another month,” a colleague told me recently while we brainstormed where to pitch a story. A Toronto editor told her this after a pitch she […]
