Sell, sell and sell again - syndicating simplified

This first appeared in The Freelance, August 2011

How can freelances market their work abroad most effectively? Peter Veenhoven and Ole Pijnacker Hordijk, owners of the Amsterdam-based International Features Agency advise on "what works and what doesn't" in syndicating abroad. Read my report here.

Brazil was identified as a particularly interesting market for syndication. Since this talk, the Brazil correspondent of the London-based business-to-business magazine I edit has told me he can't afford to work for us anymore, as the Brazilian real has climbed so much in value against the pound that it's not worth the bother anymore to work for a publication that pays in sterling!

Support the struggle of the interns!

This first appeared in the Freelance, July 2011


THE NUJ's Cashbacks for Interns campaign, started by London Freelance Branch, was the subject of NUJ London Freelance Branch's June meeting. Our invited star speaker, Keri Hudson, who with the NUJ's help won her back pay for her unpaid work placement at an industrial tribunal, regrettably had to work late at short notice, in her current paid job.

In Keri's absence, Fiona O' Cleirigh, instigator of the Cashback for Interns campaign, said that “If people are working for free, wages go down, there will be only a small pool of talent with money" and urged members to get interns “in union from the start." Read more...

Get that book published, work in non-traditional media

The November 2009 Freelance is now going up online. My articles include:


Get that book published!

Fiction publishing may be “flatlining,” but more and more journalists are getting non-fiction books published, and having a book out gets you more work. Former Virago editor Rebecca Swift, of The Literary Consultants, and former Bloomsbury editor Matthew Hamilton, currently with literary agent Aitken Alexander, tell you how.















Find non-traditional markets for editorial services

Leeds-based freelance Adam Christie (above, centre, in dark blue shirt,) says his regular work with both the Yorkshire Post and the local BBC "disappeared in an evening". He tells how he found work using his journalism skills "outside the media industry".


Which website?

Web designer and “new media” expert Gary Herman says most of the famous computer catastrophes were down to insufficient attention to the "spec", the specification of what a website or software tool is for. If you're considering paying someone to set up a website, or setting one up yourself, think very carefully about the "spec": what is the purpose of the site and how may it change in future? Read his advice here.

And I’m currently helping to organise this conference on “new ways to make the media pay” for Saturday 16 January 2010.

You can't take pictures here (without a licence), JK Rowling and "fair use", journalism is "disintegrating," financial journalism in times of crisis

The March/April edition of the Freelance is now out. My articles in it include:

News for a round earth
Investigative journalist Nick Davies warns that the profession of journalism is "disintegrating," and journalists have to look for new "mini-media" models for making money out of news. Read it here...

Financial journalists, dig deeper!
Are financial journalists just "fans of capitalism with typewriters" (or modern equivalent)? Peter Wilby on the role of financial journalism in times of economic crisis. Read it here...

Student snubbed in square
"Plastic plods" tell student film makers they need a licence to film for a student documentary in Parliament Square, and what happened when they came back with a letter from their tutor. Read here...

J K Rowling clarifies fair use
How a judgement against an unauthorised "companion work" to the Harry Potter books has implications for "fair use" of other creators' works. Read it here

The hokey Coaker
Mixed messages on the right to photograph. Read it here...

Work your proper hours
The point in the year at which, if you did all your unpaid overtime in one go starting from January 2, you would start working for money. Read this article here...

News for a round earth

Nick Davies speaks


















Nick Davies, investigative journalist (recently at work on the Guardian's investigations into corporate tax avoidance) and author of Flat Earth News, warned journalists at a recent meeting that their profession is 'disintegrating.'Rather than dwell on this, however, Nick urged journalists to look for new models for how to much money out of journalism. Read my article in the March/April 2009 Freelance for more.

While his book is mostly doom and gloom, Nick was much funnier than I had expected. The meeting was a joint gig co-hosted by NUJ London Freelance Branch and NUJ Press & PR Branch. Nick asked one of the PR people in the audience which PR agency he worked for. His reply, 'Myself, mostly. I keep getting sacked for being too honest.'

Published articles update 07 01 08

My website has finally been updated, for the first time since June (whoops!)
New additions include:

Curse of the Daleks, the forgotten Doctor Who West End stage production from 1965.

Northern Iraq gallery - pictures from my visit to Iraqi Kurdistan, Spring 2004

My report on Weird Weekend 2007 for Fortean Times is on their website now.

My interview with Queen of Burlesque and parapsychologist Kitty Klaw appeared in Fortean Times issue 232, March 2008. Here it is on one of Kitty Klaw's websites. (Updated 2013).

My Guardian Weekly feature on the “Save ESOL” campaign (July 2007) is now online

The United States 1763-2001, by John Spiller, which appears to be the standard history textbook for the final years of High School and the first year on university in that country, quotes one of my articles in BBC History from way back in 2002.

I’m down to speak on pygmy elephants at the CFZ’s Weird Weekend in August 2008. See also Nick Redfern's announcement on this.

My Time Out (London) article on the Anarchist Bookfair is now (much later) on the Time Out site.

Photographer/writer collaborations - the text to photographer Alex Masi’s photo series is now on his website at http://A Vampyre’s Tale1 click on “Text available” at the bottom left of that page.