The Lone Ranger
11-03-2004, 02:55 AM
As some of you may recall, I've been feeling a certain . . . dissatisfaction . . . with certain aspects of academia. With that in mind, I've been thinking that I might enjoy being a science writer of some sort.
I wrote up a few sample articles a couple of weeks ago and mailed them to several newspapers, some of which I'm quite familiar with, and at least one of which I knew less about than perhaps I should have.
So far, I've received three responses. The first was a nicely-worded "thanks but no thanks" sort of reply. The second said, basically, "Interesting idea; let us think about it for a little while, and we'll get back to you." The third response I received today, and it's rather interesting.
The editor contacted me and said that he quite liked what I had proposed, which is most encouraging. The thing I didn't know though is that this paper has a policy of taking submissions, but doesn't pay for them. So, the upshot is that they want me to prepare some writings for them, but I won't be paid for them. Not exactly what I had in mind. (They assure me that I'd retain copyright, though.)
I don't have to commit myself for awhile yet, so I'll wait to see whether I get any more responses. Maybe I'll go ahead and pen something for this one paper. Even if I don't get paid for it, the exposure might be a good thing, no? And I might receive some interesting and useful feedback as well. Besides, I enjoy sharing interesting things with others.
Could be interesting. Anybody know of any newspapers or magazines that're looking to hire a well-educated, somewhat idiosyncratic individual as a science writer?
Cheers,
Michael
[I apologize if this isn't the appropriate forum, by the way.]
I wrote up a few sample articles a couple of weeks ago and mailed them to several newspapers, some of which I'm quite familiar with, and at least one of which I knew less about than perhaps I should have.
So far, I've received three responses. The first was a nicely-worded "thanks but no thanks" sort of reply. The second said, basically, "Interesting idea; let us think about it for a little while, and we'll get back to you." The third response I received today, and it's rather interesting.
The editor contacted me and said that he quite liked what I had proposed, which is most encouraging. The thing I didn't know though is that this paper has a policy of taking submissions, but doesn't pay for them. So, the upshot is that they want me to prepare some writings for them, but I won't be paid for them. Not exactly what I had in mind. (They assure me that I'd retain copyright, though.)
I don't have to commit myself for awhile yet, so I'll wait to see whether I get any more responses. Maybe I'll go ahead and pen something for this one paper. Even if I don't get paid for it, the exposure might be a good thing, no? And I might receive some interesting and useful feedback as well. Besides, I enjoy sharing interesting things with others.
Could be interesting. Anybody know of any newspapers or magazines that're looking to hire a well-educated, somewhat idiosyncratic individual as a science writer?
Cheers,
Michael
[I apologize if this isn't the appropriate forum, by the way.]