Any freelance journalists/ editors about?

[MashedUpMum]

Hi,

Just looking for some advice re freelancing. I write for a regional magazine and my DP has been a stay-at-home dad since I went back to work after maternity leave. He's now been offered a full-time job, so I need to decide whether to put DD into nursery or try to be a SAHM and freelance.

In a way I see this as a good opportunity to break out a bit. If DD hadn't come along (surprise!) I would hope I'd have furthered my career a bit more now.

On the otherhand, as I work on a regional magazine, the region is basically my speciality - I can write about arts, culture, shopping, restaurants whatever, but all the contacts I have are within my region. I know for a fact my editor would not be happy with me freelancing for another regional publication and I can't imagine any others would either. So where do I begin?

Can I also ask what a freelancer would expect to earn? I have two years full-time work behind me, but no journalism qualification, so I'd consider myself fairly junior.

Thanks

Hi MashedUpMum, I wouldn't be able to answer your question but cheekily ask you a few of my own. I am desperately looking to gain some editorial work experience,just help out on a volunteer basis. I am doing an English degree and starting a proofreading course with the Publishing Training Centre. Can you help?

I don't understand - you want to work, but not put your son into a nursery? So when would you work?

(I am, incidentally, a journalist. I've worked since both my babies were four months old. They went to a childminder for four days a week.)

I freelance and earn £150 per article but I have been offered £100 per article (rejected) and been told that is not unusual. Saying that, a friend of mine who is a v experienced journalist was paid £300 an article by women's mags. Hope that helps.

totally agree with MI

if you want to work you need proper childcare in place. even if you write during the evenings, you would still need to do eg interviews over the phone, visit some of the local attractions you talk about.

Hi MashedUpMum
this really is a "how long is a piece of string"? question to be honest.

Depending on how much your region is featured in national publications you could make your region your specialist subject and have editors coming to you for things but you can't rely on this..

Sure, the real life women's weeklies pay up to £500 for a double page spread "My love rat husband/ My anorexic hell etc etc but these are hard to find and there are lots of staff and agency hacks all chasing the same things.

National newspapers don't pay well at all but do open doors to other things but to get those all important pieces in the nationals, you have to PITCH them. it's a bit like being a double-glazing salesman at times, It's also hard to make those phonecalls if DD is in the background (and it will not make you seem v professional).

There are other ways you can add to your "bread and butter" to keep money coming in regularly, whether it's copywriting for local businesses, writing newsletters going over to the "dark side" and doing PR by writing press releases etc. Would you be able to continue writing for the magazine you currently work for?

Either way, (and I can't comment from my own experience as i'm just about to head off on Mat leave for my PFB) I would say that I don't really think that you can combine being a SAHM with working as a freelance.

Have tried to CAT you but you're not signed up. I can point you to another site which may be of use if you email me pinkcashmere at mac dot com

HTH

SAHM and freelancing - forget it. Use a nursery or don't bother... wait til your child goes to school and you have at least some hours in the day to get work done.

Forget magazines, PR is where the money is these days. You can get regular work helping PR companies out (writing, project management, whatever you fancy) and it will prob fit in better with part time hours too. More flexibility to work in the evenings maybe. Depends which region you live in, but £25 an hour would be a good starting point.

Send your CV off to all the PR companies in your area, with examples of work etc. They wouldn't necessarily want NCTJ qualifications etc either. Send those letters off and see what happens... you might not get loads of replies straight away but the PR companies keep your details on file and contact you as and when they need help. Summertime hint hint.

Good luck!!

I may not be the best person to advise as after nearly 20 years in journalism I have packed the whole thing in to do another degree and hopefully go into teaching in some form.
But here goes. I was a deputy editor on a biggish magazine when DD1 came along. My job involved a lot of long-haul travel and DD1 went to nursery fulltime. That started being unsustainable when I began to thing about a second baby and I got a job editing a smaller magazine that required only occasional travel. After DD2 arrived I worked mostly from home and had a part-time nanny.
After DD3 arrived I packed in the editing job and went freelance, trying to work around DD1's school hours plus a couple of mornings a week at a childminder for the younger two. It was the most stressful option of all.
What happens is this. You spend all morning putting calls in for whatever feature you are writing. Then in the afternoon, just as you are chasing people up, getting your calls returned and doing interviews, you need to go out and pick up your children so you miss all your calls.
You CAN write after your children are in bed, but you can't INTERVIEW, set up meetings or any of that stuff, it all needs to be done in office hours. And if you are electing to try to do without any childcare at all, it is absolutely impossible. Your toddler WILL fall off the back of the sofa and bump their head just as you are in the middle of an important phone call. They will quickly learn that their major aim in life should be to stop Mummy being on the phone or the computer at any time. It is misery, I tell you.
Also, being a freelance can be a pretty lonely life. Basically, it is just you, your phone and your computer. Some people love that (DH has been freelancing successfully for many years now) some hate it (I've discovered I prefer being part of a team).
WRT rates they vary a lot. National newspapers can pay anything from £200 per 1000 to £400 per 1000. Some trade magazines pay as little as £150 per 1000. PR tends to pay better. But you need to have a brass neck and the capacity to bounce back from rejection and keep putting your ideas out.
My honest advice to you is to look for childcare and keep your staff job.

Hi, thanks for all your advice.

I know you're all right about not being able to juggle childcare with a freelance career. I suppose maybe I was hoping I could just not be a very successful freelance who wouldn't have too much work to do!

Actually I spoke to my editor about it yesterday (before I read all these replies) and he said he'd give me work if that's what I wanted to do, but I think I'll probably stick with the staff job/ childcare set-up for the moment.

I suppose I am sort of kicking myself for having a child early on in my career as we live 300 miles from London and couldn't afford to move now we have a child, but I feel like I'll be stuck on a regional magazine forever! I was hoping freelance may be a way out of this, but actually it looks to be really hard if you don't have the contacts already.

BYW, did any of you start your careers when kids were a bit older, or were you already established by the time DCs came along?

Yes, I really only got into the women's mag/national area when DD1 was about eight months old.