Freelance Etiquette Question

Summer's almost here. I'm ready. Advice?

advice: do it!!

OK, I'm realllly ready. I'm out of school. I have free time. I even have the email finished...Here's the problem:
I want to submit these two commissioned pieces as my sample writings, but neither has been printed (one's coming out Thursday, the other's not until next Thursday).
Do I have to wait until they're in print? Should I just ask my editor for permission? Should I just write a new review?

i got a job freelancing (from craigslist! weird) and just sent the dude the blog. do you have one? it's proven to be an effective way of getting these sorts of gigs, for me at least.

write to j✧✧.po✧✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧

tell him nick sent you

wtf jezdotporatatgeemaildotcom

THX!

(and no blog, unless you count this)

Ok, so I freelance for the local paper on a weekly basis. This upcoming week, i'm running a piece about a super awesome punk star who now lives in the area. I'm going to spend some time with her tomorrow, ask the majority of my questions, take some photos, etc. Assuming it goes well, I would like to see if a bigger publication is interested in the story (if i write a new, more in-depth article). Is that a possibility? I should talk to my editor, right? Is it even worth it? And what about the interviewee? Should I tell her my plans? THX

Make sure the paper only has first-use rights but it may well hav e all rights if the stuff goes online.

If it is only one-use once the issue of that paper goes off the stands, resale value yours. Not a lot they can do. Or, just do a longer interview and use the local stuff for the local paper and the more general stuff or interesting stuff unsuitable for the paper for larger market.

Thanks! Interview = :O!!! :)!!!!

Get in touch via ILX mail and I might be able to help you place it, depending on who it is and where you have placed it already.

A two year noncompete to write for a free local genre rag? That doesn't seem...normal?

Should you blab about a potential client making a twat of themselves in an email?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/oct/31/waitrose-magazine-editor-william-sitwell-steps-down-over-email-mocking-vegans

Is it bad? Yes. Bad enough to lose his job? Nope.

Blab to their superiors sure, and let them deal with it internally. Immediately going to Buzzfeed (especially not anonymously) reeks of self promotion and these days a joke, admittedly in v poor taste, isn't going to be taken as a joke by plenty of folk.

Very naive by editor though - we're in a culture of no mulligans now.

A very notable poet, after misreading what I had sent to them, once sent me the most awful email - very publishable if I wanted to name and shame them. I just deleted it because it seemed they were having a rough day.

I like to think they regret it now, the same way I regret plenty of my actions in the past. There's probably something in all of our interactions with other human beings that puts us in a poor light if brought up.

being editor of a supermarket food magazine seems p plebby for someone of his stock, glad he's been given the chance to stop shaming the family name tbh

I can't imagine the sense of safety/entitlement, or perhaps just the sheer stupidity necessary to talk to anyone like this in a professional capacity. he's turned himself from an asset to a liability.

I can't imagine that they wouldn't have fired him.

surprised to learn this guy went to eton and is the heir to a baronetcy, I apologise for judging him

well now you know where the sense of entitlement and stupidity comes from?

what a bummer it must be when you get pumped for being an arrogant prick and yet you don't even need a job!

what goes around comes around:

" … after Noël Coward wrote a skit on Sitwell and her two brothers as "The Swiss Family Whittlebot" for his 1923 revue London Calling!, she refused to speak to him until they were reconciled after her triumphant 70th birthday party at London's Royal Festival Hall. To her friends she showed great sweetness and invariable kindness.

"Sitwell participated in the ongoing UGH.... correspondence featured in the Times Literary Supplement in 1963, an ongoing debate on the value of the work of William S. Burroughs and the nature of literary criticism, initiated by critic John Willard. Sitwell stated she was delighted by Willard's wholly negative review of Burroughs' work, despite claiming to not know who Burroughs was. In the same letter she described Lady Chatterley's Lover as an "insignificant, dirty little book", and rounded out her letter with the statement that she preferred Chanel Number 5 to having her nose "nailed to other people's lavatories".[5]"

The way William Sitwell treated that freelancer was appalling, and very badly misjudged considering Waitrose itself is expanding its vegan range at a rate of knots. I suspect he was asked to resign the editorship of that mag because he should have known that was the case and commissioned accordingly. However, let’s not shed a tear because I think he’ll remain an Editorial Director for John Brown regardless of whether or not he’s in charge of one contract magazine. The West London rah contingent of food writers I know are absolutely affronted on his behalf, though - but I expect nothing less because every last one of them are ex-public school twats.

Trivia: WS was Jacob Rees Mogg’s best man.

obviously he's not going because he treated a freelancer badly -- he's going bcz he's paid to be front-facing brandwise, when it comes to whatever the new waitrose project and this makes them look silly

lol giles coren is having a normal one abt it

these ppl get extremely put your hands on the car and prepare to die when one of their own gets called out

an outraged tim shipman just described sitwell as "one of the most talented magazine editors of his generation" -- in which case, maybe it's time he moved on to a magazine of actual cultural consequence?

(not that i've ever read waitrose magazine but he's been there for years, hasn't he? what else has he edited?)

fionnland im glad youre here but are you sure here is for you, you seem almost....reasonable....abt stuff

He’s Editorial Director at John Brown, which is responsible for lots of in-flight mags and the like, contract publishing. Apparently he used to work at the Express in the ‘90s?

Is this Waitrose Magazine like the Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer? I can understand the prestige of this job then...

If everybody with a New York Times column went to work at an Amazon warehouse, and everyone in an Amazon warehouse got a New York Times column, we’d have a much better news media. pic.twitter.com/80m1H1KeJY

— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) October 30, 2018

up the resolution!

https://www.getmemedia.com/public/ideas/Opp/1809/jan%20cover.jpg

I did a load of shifts for the magazine ages ago - he's been there maybe 15 years? Never much took to him, so it almost pains me to say that, from what I saw, he was a good editor. Brought good people through, defended the staff (and listened to them), built a nice stable of writers(*) and photographers, knew what he wanted, got the spreadsheet world to agree to budgets/ideas.

He could do a lot of that because he is boilerplate posh boy - bit of charm, bit of arrogance, manners that go from perfect to brusque v quickly, love for the loud borderline offensive 'comic' tirade etc etc - so I saw this today and just thought of course of course.

I suspect this could have been fixed if both sides (Waitrose and, effectively, Sitwell) wanted it to be. But I don't know who's sick of who.

(*) I mean normal working humans here, not the random people from poshworld he'd haul in - Sophie Dahl! Pippa Middleton!

I guess Sophie Dahl can write though?

Today’s offer email from Waitrose was all about getting the champagne in, LOL.

yeah - her things were a bit strange/nothingy, but she really wrote them and they didn't need a hard edit.

Lol Deems, espousing that good Scottish reasonableness

cough throw the Tories on the bonfire, I hope Rupert Murdoch dies a slow painful death, abolish the monarchy, raze Burnley to the ground cough

yes but

that's all reasonable

^^^no true scotsman imo

ghiollaty as charged

I feel sure that lots of freelancers are thinking "Well, at least he replied to the pitch ..."

It doesn't particularly feel like it should be a sacking incident. Strangely, the magazine is decent in its coverage of vegan/vegetarian food. More strangely, I had a week of cooking (vegetarian) recipes from the magazine and spent loads less than I would on normal weekly shop (I didn't buy the ingredients from Waitrose).

i think he resigned tho

and i think woof is right, the situation was eminently salvageable if both sides ( = waitrose and sitwell) had wanted it, so it's not just about this incident

(suspicion: WS wanted to go anyway, realised this situation -- likely unengineered happenstance -- allowed him to go with a handy publicity splash feat.sympathy from anti-PC flounce-solidarity whose-son-is-THIS bro-dom, leading maybe to a better shot at work he'd like to do elsewhere)

or he was snorting ketamine off of endive on his desk and someone finally noticed. That reply he sent was stupid bonkers.

Not been paying proper attention but my understanding was that he was invited to resign? (Am not coming from an anti-PC perspective).

be a sad day for the likes of Claire Fox + Toby Young when they find out this whole thing wasn't a Thought Police conspiracy!

The Times: PC brigade wasting our time, warns top officer #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/a92tWs7Tzc

— Helena Lee (@BBCHelenaLee) October 31, 2018

This story has now made the front page of the Times, somehow. Includes a quote from Peter Oborne describing it as "a dark day for freedom of expression"

It wasn't really a "vegan joke". It was a cringey, abrupt, murdery business reply email to someone I assume he doesn't know. Weirdo.

I also assume he has a shame/humiliation kink which is totally fine in off business hours.

The Times has done well to become even more ludicrously thickheaded than its tabloid stablemate, despite allegedly having much more editorial freedom. fUCKING JOKE PAPER.

I'd sort of assumed that the murdery stuff everyone was quoting was part of a longer email and followed by something like "lol, seriously though, thanks for your submission but I'm afraid it doesn't suit our needs at this particular time" but uh, no:

Following the article on @BuzzFeed – and in the interests of transparency – here's my original pitch to the editor of Waitrose, along with my response to his reply. No "triggered vegans" here, thanks! :) #Vegan #Waitrose pic.twitter.com/bjRon1N0bb

— Selene Nelson Ⓥ (@Selene_Nelson) October 29, 2018

I also don't get the red wine m night shyamalan twist at the end.

(suspicion: WS wanted to go anyway, realised this situation -- likely unengineered happenstance -- allowed him to go with a handy publicity splash feat.sympathy from anti-PC flounce-solidarity whose-son-is-THIS bro-dom, leading maybe to a better shot at work he'd like to do elsewhere)

Yes and suspect Waitrose did not beg the costly line item to stay.

God knows if he'll do well out of it. You'd think that class always win, but not much of a writer and a slightly cold TV presence. We're past the era of total visible dominance of the Cameron-caste, but the fuckers always do land on their feet.

hang on is he flirting?

Yikes, he must've been a total creepster in school.

He replied within 10 minutes. Heh.

Slight air of ‘negging’ in his reply.

the tim shipman tweet mark s mentions upthread is such a corker and there is some top content in the replies too

William Sitwell is one of the most talented magazine editors of his generation. This sad moment which reflects poorly on modern society will be some other publication’s gain

— Tim Shipman (@ShippersUnbound) October 31, 2018

what a world in which the dead-eyed bore from masterchef can bring such cheer

The handwringing from the posh writer set is a sight to see on this one. And it cuts right across the posh world, from Giles to Marina. "Soon we won't be able to type anything we like to the peons!?" sounds a lot like "how will we even know if it's OK to grab a boob in this crazy new world?" to me.