The oldest (Anastasia, or “Kiska,” who’s 9) has been enrolled in, and is going to, school. A local Chinese school — five minute walk from our housing complex, and even on the same block! It looks a little dingy, a little Soviet, but you can’t beat the commute and she’ll definitely be learning a lot […]
Turtles, snakes and giant frogs Read More »
The paperwork is reportedly moving along to make me an official foreign correspondent in China, and the business cards are on their way. It’s time to get started, laying the groundwork for my new career. Unfortunately, I’ve been too busy these last two weeks setting up my computers, moving my files, getting the Internet access,
Almost a foreign correspondent Read More »
Well, it’s been two weeks for us here in Shanghai. Anastasia has settled into her new school and is making progress in learning Mandarin, as am I. Basil is still home with us during the day, but we’re starting to think about finding a kindergarden or pre-school for him to go to. Richard’s work is
Chinese food and the Foreign Correspondents Club Read More »
Kiska is learning Chinese in school, and seems to be adjusting pretty well. She brings home homework everyday of Chinese words (characters!) she has to practice writing. Basil is home with me, so he’s not having to learn any Chinese yet. We’re going to start looking for a kindergarden for him soon. Our apartment building
Chinese school and Russian Soup Read More »
I find that the transition from local business to national business pubs is very straightforward — my husband did it in a few months. Here’s my advice: • Hire a cheap college student to set up a web site for you. Feel free to have him steal mine. A low-cost way of doing it is
Q: How do you go from writing for local business publications to national ones? Read More »
To be a successful freelancer, you really have to focus on networking and marketing. I met my primary editor at a financial services convention, and saw her again at other industry events, and when I had quit Computerworld she called me right up and offered me a regular column. I also do cold-calls and cold-emails
Advice about pitching freelance stories to editors Read More »
Freelancing is not an easy life, but it is possible to make decent money doing it. Unlike fiction writing, whether you either hit it big or barely struggle along, it’s possible to make a good living, say, $50-100K, by just doing a good job. The trick is to move “upmarket” — to the higher-paying pubs
Freelance writers don’t get paid much. How do you make a living doing this? Read More »
When circumstances brought me back to the U.S. after living abroad, I found myself on a farm in western Massachusetts, disconnected from all my former editors, friends, and colleagues. I quickly found temporary low-paying freelance work just by knocking on doors, but it was networking that really helped open up the world to me again.
How important is networking to getting a job? Read More »
A beginning writer asks: My editors keep messing up my stories. How can I keep that from happening? My advice: If your skin is the least bit sensitive DON’T READ YOUR CLIPS AFTER THEY COME OUT. Don’t. Really. All sorts of awful things are in there, and if you don’t know about them, you won’t
About working with editors who change your words Read More »
A beginning writer asked me: How do you get into business writing? My rule of thumb is you’re as good a writer as your last clip. So find an editor, any editor, and start pitching business stories. If you’re really starting out, and don’t have *any* clips at all, go after the Pennysavers and the
How do you get into business writing? Read More »
Refugees are scared, upset, mad at the other side — they’ll tell stories that happened to “a friend of a friend” as if they happened to them. Then the news media picks it up, and more refugees hear them, and tell the same stories. Then you go to the other side to find the destroyed
War reporting: advice for interviewing refugees Read More »
I recently got the following question from a beginning journalist: I have reached the point where a job in journalism in any capacity seems a hopeless dream. I cannot get anyone to hire me in any field, despite my college degree and experience. I’m getting to the point where I can just barely eat and
Struggling to make a living Read More »
The biggest problem is inappropriate pitches. I didn’t do consumer finance — I work for a trade publication, not a consumer magazine! The PR folks who send me consumer-oriented press releases, and then call and try to talk to me about them, to use up my time even further, don’t bother to check. That’s really
Advice for public relations people pitching stories to me Read More »
Many trade publications — as well as academic publications — don’t pay contributors. The reason is that the people who contribute are getting something other than money in return: free advertising. For a lawyer, CPA, engineer, or other professional, the exposure may well be worth quite a bit. However, editors have to spend quite a
If you’re new to freelancing or new to the area, you might not have a lot of story ideas handy, and you need a LOT to be a freelancer. Once you have contacts in an area, of course, you can mine them for story ideas — chambers of commerce, local artists’ guilds, politicians, etc… are
If you’re just starting out, how do you come up with story ideas? Read More »
