Erin Millar offers young freelancers advice at NASH
by H.G. Watson Freelancing takes guts. It’s intimidating to approach someone you don’t know and ask them to pay you to write. What if they say no? Or worst of all, don’t even respond to your carefully crafted pitch? Yet getting your foot in the door at any publication means getting over your fear. […]
AMI looking for radio freelancers
Get out your microphones, audiophiles, there’s a new opportunity for Canadian radio freelancers. Accessible Media Inc. is a not-for-profit organization that produces media for Canadians with disabilities – that’s anywhere from 5 to 8 million people across the country who have difficulty accessing mainstream media. Until recently, AMI’s on-air programming has been produced mainly by volunteers […]
How to pitch interactive projects to the NFB
Diversification is without a doubt one of the keys to freelancing successfully. And although opportunities in traditional media seem to be on the decline lately, publishing innovations and new media present writers with exciting new possibilities. The trick is knowing where to find them. I stumbled across one recently and set out to get you the low-down […]
Advice from Canadian journalists on crafting the “perfect pitch”
Besides being the kind that gets you a “yes” from an editor, what makes a pitch good? An original angle, a custom-tailored scope, timely, articulate, well-researched: all very important characteristics. But what can a writers do to make their queries “perfect”? On April 26 at The HiVE in Vancouver, The Tyee gathered together Gary Stephen […]
Secrets worth sharing: Tips and tricks from three successful Canadian freelancers
As part of its ongoing Professional Development series, PWAC Toronto hosted an event entitled “Secrets of Freelancing Success.” Its panel of experienced freelance writers shared—if not secrets, exactly—a boatload of valuable advice. This latest edition in PWAC’s series, which we’ve covered before, really packed ’em in at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre (the event […]
Finding freelance work with Canadian governments
By Luigi Benetton Canadian federal, provincial, and municipal governments buy billions of dollars’ worth of goods and services every year that they can’t make or perform in-house. Freelance writing figures among those services, so in December I, along with a few other freelancers, attended three workshops offered by the Ontario Government. Each had a different […]
Call for submissions: Short fiction and artwork for a revenue-sharing publication
If you’re a freelancer who writes short fiction or creates visual art, or if you’re interested in unique revenue steams, here’s something to consider. ZenFri, a company based out of Winnipeg, is looking for short stories and artwork for their upcoming anthology, Warpaint. Interested writers and artists can consult the submission guidelines for exact word […]
How to handle “idea theft”
This week on the Toronto Freelance Editors and Writers email list, a member asked the group for advice on a tricky situation. It’s a familiar one to most freelance writers and many editors who work with both freelance and staff writers. This writer had pitched a profile of a young entrepreneur to a weekly community […]
On relationships, pie charts, and SEO: How to pitch stories to editors
A guest post by Daniela DiStefano The Toronto Chapter of the Professional Writers Association kicked off its 2011/2012 Professional Development Series Wednesday night at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre with the season’s first seminar, “Getting Yes: How to Pitch Stories to Editors.” Chapter president Jaclyn Law hosted the panel of editors, Rani Sheen (FASHION), […]
Freelancer beware: 11 pitfalls of spec “pitches” and how to handle them from the Born Freelancer
Here is a fantastic cartoon that illustrates some of the dilemmas we freelancers face [LINK]. Could anybody who is not a freelancer get it? It is so funny because it is all so sadly true — I’ve seen them all at some point in my career. I guess the freelancing experience is universal. Go over […]
