A Magazine by the Society of Professional Journalists

February 17th, 2016 • Quill Archives, Freelance Toolbox
Freelance Toolbox

I started freelancing nearly a decade ago, before the recession had taken hold. I’d worked at a community newspaper for several years, covering education, neighborhood news and the arts, and I wanted to explore new ground. At the time, it may have sounded risky to trade the downtown office for my sunroom, but the housing market hadn’t yet collapsed.

June 6th, 2013 • Quill Archives, Freelance Toolbox
Freelance Toolbox

A handful of years ago, I lost out on wages when several publications folded amid the recession. In fact, I’m still receiving bankruptcy filings from one rag that went out of business. I wrote a longish piece for another magazine that turned out to be a revolving door for editors.

August 7th, 2012 • Quill Archives, Freelance Toolbox
Freelance Toolbox

Note: A version of this column originally ran on SPJ’s blog for freelancers, The Independent Journalist. It was written for the blog — and submitted for the July/August issue of Quill — after Jonah Lehrer’s issues with self-plagiarism came to light in June but before further revelations of made-up quotes attributed to Bob Dylan led to Lehrer’s resignation from The New Yorker in late July.