Gigs, Clips and Tips

Recently, I've attempted to to gather some of my past publishings so as to build a new portfolio for myself. Can you believe that I've never taken the time to save my clippings (clips) or to create a portfolio? Silly, I know, but if you've read this blog from the beginning, you know that I haven't always approached freelance writing with my A game. In fact, I'm only just now approaching it with any seriousness. I'm sure if I dig deeply enough, I have some old newspaper clips around here somewhere, but so far I haven't been able to put my hands on them. Luckily, thanks to the internet, I was able to pull up a few articles that were online, but even a few of those have been lost in cyberspace. Of course, I have the originals for most of what I've written, but that's not the same as having the actual clip reflecting my byline, the date, publication, etc.

My word of advice to anyone reading this, please keep all of your clips together and in a safe place no matter what. As I'm applying for freelance gigs now, even though I've published a lot, I don't have a very strong history to showcase what I've done. The only thing that I can do from here on out, is learn the lesson and save everything (and one of my missing clips is titled "Lessons Learned". I just noticed that...how funny, lol).

At any rate, here are just a few of the articles that I managed to find online:

The Gift or the Giver (originally published on GospelCity.com 3/3/2003)

The Undiscovered Wife (Originally published on GospelCity.com 4/8/2003)

The Power of Praise (Originally published on GospelCity.com 6/17/2003)

Hopefully, I can recover more and I promise to do better from here on out.

Last night, I spent a lot of time writing, submitting, researching and applying for freelance gigs. In fact, I didn't get in the bed until almost 6a this morning as I was so caught up in what I was doing. I found a few more sites which highlight writing opportunities that I'd like to share, so make sure you bookmark them. Here you go:

http://www.writerlance.com/

http://www.unforgottencards.com/index.php?main_page=manufacturers_accepting_freelance (highlighting jobs specifically in the greeting card industry)

http://www.journalismjobs.com/

http://www.mediabistro.com/joblistings/

http://www.newsjobs.net/usa/default.asp (There are many links there. Try them all, especially this one: http://www.newsjobs.net/Jobs/njframe.asp?tp=http://www.freelancewriting.com/forumdir/fjb/index.html)

http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pubjob.htm

http://www.writesuccess.com/jobs_for_writers.htm

http://www.writejobs.com/

http://www.writingjobroll.com/

http://www.hotgigs.com/types/Creative_Design,_Media_and_Writers/Writing/

Hopefully, I haven't repeated any of the ones that I've already posted, but it's getting a little hard to keep track of them all. One of these days I'll get around to putting a daily checklist in my sidebar just to make it easier to reference.

I've also managed to get 10 rough drafts of poems for submission to Blue Mountain. I've got some fine tuning to do, but they'll definitely be ready for submission some time this week. I learned from another writer, who's been contracting with them for years, that the payment merely starts at $300, but goes up from there if they continue to accept submissions from a writer. The person who I learned this from is now up to $700 per poem accepted by them.

I've discovered, too, that some writers refuse to write for Blue Mountain as their contract buys all rights thus prohibiting poems they've paid for to ever be republished elsewhere. Personally, I don't have a problem with this (read my post yesterday about how I feel about Blue Mountain), but I can see where others may.

On the flip side, I also read some very good advice from another writer to beware of publishers who offer to publish for exposure rather than actual monetary payment to a writer. A lot of times new writers take these gigs as a way to build clips and gain experience. However, it makes sense that if a publication can afford to promote their magazine or website, they should at least be able to offer their writers a few bucks for their work. I'm not saying I'll never publish again without payment (some I just enjoy doing), but the argument does make sense.

Anyway, it's all a fascinating journey and I'm enjoying every moment of it.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll post again soon!

~BabyBlogger