Comments on: Automation Rules

By: Jen A. Miller

Jen A. Miller — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 03:17:08 +0000

I should add that, in typical freelance fashion, the Wired article, which I turned in back in April, is stuck in “my editor left and no one’s moved on the article yet and can’t tell me it if it will ever run” ; the Playboy editor asked for ideas, and I haven’t heard anything back after sending in my fabu pitches; but things have worked out fine with Paste, Watch and the Comcast custom pub. Stories will be running in December.

By: Jen A. Miller

Jen A. Miller — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 02:47:16 +0000

Diana -

Both. I get a lot of silence, but sometimes I hear right back (thank you Wired and Watch), sometimes I’ll hear a few weeks or months down the road (ahem, Playboy), and sometimes I followed up the intro package with an email idea a few weeks later (that would be you, Paste). I also did some writing for Comcast’s custom pub via LOI — they got back to me right away — and I was offered a job interview at another custom publisher (er…no). It took me four years and two intro packages, plus a few follow up emails, to even get a response from the book editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, but it paid off, and I write book reviews for them now on a regular basis, though this is more of a career mark thing for me since I’ve been reading the Inky book reviews there since I was in high school. The pay for book reviews, well, it’ll buy dog food but won’t pay for the vet!

By: DianaBurrell

DianaBurrell — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 03:03:39 +0000

Jen, that’s great to hear about the intro letters — and I’m glad it has worked for you. Do you have to do a lot of follow-up with the editors? Or do they tend to file your work, then give you a call down the road? Just curious …

And you know? Sometimes a typewriter is the only tool that’ll do. Off to eBay.

By: Jen A. Miller

Jen A. Miller — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 01:40:54 +0000

I bought plain white labels from http://www.currentlabels.com. Very cheap, very easy, and the look fabulous. I also bought a typewriter off of Craigslist that I used to address envelopes. Hand printing or computer printing labels might be easier — especially if I make a mistake — but there’s a certain satisfaction from that clackity clack clak.

FWIW, intro packages have netted me a few grand worth of work this year, from big pubs to custom trades. For sure worth it.

By: LindaFormichelli

LindaFormichelli — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 17:42:37 +0000

Oh, and about making copies: I used to make so many copies that I bought my own color inkjet copier. It was just $90 at Staples, and it’s great! No more running out to the copy place or paying $1 for a color copy (which is what they cost before I got this copier). The ink is fairly expensive, but the convenience is worth it. I don’t copy clips as much anymore, but I do often copy contracts for my files.

I also hired a virtual assistant to turn many of my clips into PDF format (a tip Diana mentioned in the main post). I have no idea yet how many I sent her…maybe 50-75 hardcopy articles. She charged me $300, and I’ll soon be getting a CD with PDFs my most important clips that I can zap to editors who request them. Before, I would send editors Word files pasted into the body of the e-mail, which was fine but ugly, or copy and mail clips, which was also fine but time consuming. True, I could have created the PDFs myself, but it took the virtual assistant 15 hours. That’s 15 hours I spent doing other things (like paying work, and sleeping).

That leads to another automation tip: delegate if you can.

Linda