Questions about Writer Pools

[ScriptMaster]

Hi,

1) From the guidelines:
"you must have at least 10 articles accepted by the Constant-Content editors, at a 60 percent approval rate."

What exactly does this mean? For example, let's say I have submitted only 1 article that was accepted after edit requests. Does this mean I have a 100% approval rate. If I have submitted 2 articles and 1 has been accepted but the other is awaiting review, does this mean I have a 50% acceptance rate?

2) Why is it necessary to submit a writing sample when applying to a pool? Since, by definition, at least 10 articles have been accepted, surely it should not be necessary to submit a sample.

3) Can the sample be an article already submitted if it is relevant to the pool?

Thanks.

[ShannonA]

Good questions and things I was wondering as well. Nearly all of my articles have been rejected for at least minor issues like a missing comma. I wasn't sure what counted as 60% acceptance.

[Evelyn]

In my panel under the Writer Pool Settings tab, I can see my "Writing Statistics." Work submitted, work approved, and approval rate (percentage). I'm already in some pools, so I don't know if you can see those same statistics.

For the approval rate, my guess is that you need the articles to be accepted right away with no editing changes. I could be wrong, but that's my guess. So if you've submitted one article and it was sent back for changes, you'd have a 0% approval rating. Writer pool requests usually have a tight deadline and highly specific topics (and are almost always purchased), so the customers and editors want the process to be as smooth as possible.

As far as submitting samples: That's standard practice. If you apply for the ebook or white paper pools, you'll need to attach an ebook or a white paper to show that you can write such documents coherently. For the language pools, you'd need to attach something written in French, German, etc. If you're only interested in applying for the article pool, your current C-C portfolio will suffice for samples. These aren't samples to show how you write; they show you write certain styles or types of documents.

So, be ultra-vigilant in your editing and build your portfolio. The 60 percent requirement is quite generous in the writing world. Good luck!

[ScriptMaster]

Hi Evelyn,

Thanks for the reply.

I cannot see a writer's stats option, so I have to continue working in the dark (too much of CC is clouded in mystery), not knowing my percentage acceptance rate.

With regard to getting edit-free submissions, right now that looks a bit optimistic. Some editing rejects I have received are based on subjective editorial opinion, not on concrete typo, spacing, spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors. For example, I had an article rejected because one sentence "lacked clarity". The editorial rejection included the editor's slightly modified version of the sentence. The meaning of the sentence was not altered in the slightest. My point is, if the original sentence "lacked clarity", how did the editor know what it intended to say? Or I am supposed to write as if the target audience has limited comprehension?

Another example - I used the expression "of course", as in
"Aging is, of course, something we ...".
The editor felt "of course" could be construed as condescending. Of course, I can learn from this type of editorial decision, and I'll never use the expression "of course" again in my articles for CC. But, I remain convinced that there are absolutely no valid grounds for rejecting because the article had the phrase.

Anyway, all we can do is sigh, have a chuckle, and get on with it.

Thanks again.
Billy

[iamyownboss]

Hi,
I just became eligible for the writer's pool, so I thought I'd let you know what I've found. Firstly, once you're eligible, the "Writer Pool Settings" link appears on the left under "My account". Click that, and somewhere on the page you'll see "Writing Statistics". Now, I've submitted 12 articles so far, one is still under review, and the rest were accepted. Out of the 11 that were accepted, one was rejected first up, I corrected the error and resubmitted, and it was then accepted. What I see in my stats, is that it shows that I have 13 articles submitted, and not 12. This means that the one that I submitted twice, was counted as 2 separate submissions. The next field in the stats is "Work Approved", and that shows the count as 11, which is correct, but counts the rejected and resubmitted article as one. The third and last stat is "Approval Rate", which is 85%. So this means that whenever a submission is rejected, that counts as a strike against you, even if it gets accepted later on.
Now I'm waiting for an invite to apply for specific pools.
I hope I've been clear enough... I was wondering the same things myself before today. It looks like new writers need to try to aim for their submissions being accepted right off the bat to get a high enough approval rate. However, I do think after a few tries, one will get the hang of it and slowly get your rate up there.
Good luck with the magical numbers!

[ScriptMaster]

Hi iammyownboss,

Thanks for the excellent explanation - crystal clear.

Makes me wonder why Writer Stats are not available for ALL writers.

Billy