Constant Content

I'm working on my first article to be published in an actual magazine... and it's SUCH a process compared to the simplicity and control I have at CC! The pitch was relatively smooth as I had a friend refer me to the editor, and the actual writing itself wasn't too bad once the research and interviews were done.

But I also need to supply high res photos to illustrate my article, and apparently the ones I took (bar managers don't always get back to you with promised press photos!) myself have the "wrong composition." Back to the drawing board.

Argh! Almost ready to throw in the towel and just pull the article and post it on CC. Without photos.

***End rant***

I hear that. The market that CC has created here, and the control that writers have in determining how they fit into that marketplace, is simply terrific. I know I'm not alone in that I really enjoy writing, yet I absolutely loathe marketing my work. CC makes it painless.

That said, good luck with your article - wherever it ends up.

But wouldn't you make about 10x more selling your article to the magazine? Can you get the eds to tell you what the "right composition" would be and reshoot? If press photos exist, can you lean on the bar manager more to get them? I'd think people would want their press photos out there; that's what they're for.

I can't speak for Peggy and how much more she may be making with this magazine article, but I can say that sometimes making $x amount more elsewhere doesn't necessarily translate into more money for the effort. I have some outside clients that pay many times more per word than I make here but I often pay the price in other ways such as conference calls, invoicing, dealing with collections, marketing, etc.

For example, not too long ago I had one outside client take 40 minutes of humming and hah-ing on the phone before he finally told me he wasn't sure he liked a certain sentence! It took me all of three seconds to change the sentence to his satisfaction but those 40 minutes cost me dearly in terms of lost productivity. I find that the more you charge, the more discussions are expected each step of the way. I've been asked, "What words are you going to use when you write this?" and "How are you going to define this?" While most of us writers understand that we may not know until we start outlining, researching, and actually writing, customers don't always understand and it's tough to explain it to them.

With CC, micromanagement is kept to a minimum which I find so appealing. I love my clients and interacting with them, don't get me wrong there, but I also like the efficiency of CC. Here, we write and the words do the talking.

From what Peggy said, the pitch was easy which is really awesome. With traditional magazines that's not always the case. Queries, self-addressed envelopes, the endless waiting periods, form letters, and so on are a pain and incredibily disheartening. And that's the beginning. To make it even worse, payment is often "on publication" which could be six months or far longer in the future. Ugh. And then photos? Not only will they want photos, they'll likely want signed model releases. . .

Thanks for chipping in with support, you guys. Absolutely agree that although I am getting paid more per word for this article than what I would get selling here on CC, the cost per hour is still not high enough to justify it. Add to the fact that as this is my first, I've had to reduce my rates in order to get the gig in the first place - almost like an introductory discount as I have no published clips to use in my initial query email.

The press photos for this article was a hassle because these are hidden bars which don't really have a big PR team, actually make that NO PR team, so I had to shoot 2 out of the 3 bars I featured myself, taking very good care to not take pictures of people, in which case, as Celeste said, I would need model releases. The photos from the third bar, the press photos provided, are now "too low res, anything I can do to get better images?" according to my editor. Sigh.

And Celeste is right - this pitch was super easy as it was a direct referral. I can't imagine how much more hassle it would be if I had to send out lots of different article pitches to various editors at different publications, wait for responses, get the commission, write (The writing is often the least painless and fastest of this process!), get photos, edit, send, re-work to editor's satisfaction, re-send, invoice on publication, then wait for collection.

At CC, this process is: Write, post, sell. Even the money is automatically debited into my account and I don't have to chase up on *anything*! What a joy this website is.