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From the program: You’re a freelancer who knows how to write, but to get published you need to know how to pitch ideas, negotiate fees and rights, adn deal with the editorial process. This panel of seasoned feminist freelancers, all National Writers Union activits, will share their strategies and professional experiences. Bring your own questions for the Q&A and take away some great hand-outs to help you communicate with editors.

Speakers:
E. Jeanne Harnois, A&E writer with background in finance.
Sue Katz, blogger, wordsmith and rebel over four decades and three continents.
Shirley Moskow, journalist/author, former newspaper editor, National Writers Union contract advisor

Jeanne Harnois says, “Value your work, and get paid. [Editors] might tell you ‘You’re going to get to have a byline. That’s really cool,’ But ‘cool’ doesn’t pay the rent.”

“Don’t be discouraged if you have no clips,” she says In that particular case, you may want to take an assignment for which you don’t get paid, but after you get that, you can go to the next level and the next level and the next level. Editors may tell you they don’t have money in the budget to pay you. Whatever they tell you, it’s often not true. There’s a triangle relationship in journalism that’s really important. There’s the writer (you), the idea, and the editor. The story cannot come together without all three things.”

Harnois emphasizes the importance of marketing. “You are as much a commodity as the stories as you write. You need to create an image for yourself,” she says. “Google yourself. Whatever you want to be, a travel writer, a social justice writer, a feminist writer, you need to craft that image and sell it. If you meet an editor, the first thing they’re going to do is Google you. You have to be really careful where you are. If you have a Facebook page, look at what’s out there and visible to everybody. Party photos probably shouldn’t be on that. Maybe pre-party photos but not the post-party photos. Use Facebook as a networking tool. When you meet editors, friend them on Facebook.”

Sue Katz considers herself a “revolutionary”. She was involved in social movements, on the more militant side, and wrote for radical publications. One of the phrases she coined that became a battlecry in the movement was “Girls Say Yes To Boys Who Say No” (this was before her feminist days). She was also part of a group called the Stick It In The Wall Motherfucker Collective. She talks about writing for Alternet, in the digital age, and having her writing go viral off other websites like Truth Out, which republished her work without permission.

“My blog is the only place where I can write whatever I want to write. I started it because my book agent was trying to sell a book I was trying to write about alternative sexualities for people over 50, like ppl into kink. Not missionary. Alternative. Most book editors are young and just a few years out of college. Publishers would much prefer someone a couple years out of college who can’t demand the kind of salary as someone more experienced. It’s a bottomline issue for them. For most book publishers, it’s about the bottomline, not literature. When those editors hear about alternative sexualities, they go ‘OH NO! My mother, handcuffs, I can’t bear it.’” Katz didn’t sell her book on alternative sexualities through her blog, but she ended up selling Thanks But No Thanks: The Voter’s Guide To Sarah Palin, the only feminist book on Sarah Palin. She wrote it in 28 days and nights, with three weeks to go before the elections.

Shirley Moskow says, “I don’t write for free, except for one publications because it’s being done by one person in the [National Writers Union]. I am adamant about getting paid. I think when you create a piece of work, you have certain rights. I don’t think it’s fair for people on the Internet to pick up your work and say, ‘Well, it’s just out there.’ When you walk by a fruit stand, you don’t just pick up an apple, because it’s there and easy to do.”

You can register your work on Copyright.gov. First North American serial rights mean that when you sell a piece to a magazine like Good Housekeeping, and they ask if this is the first time it’s being published, what you’re really selling is first North American serial rights. If you send it to Canada, you can sell Canadian rights. You can sell first rights in Great Britain, Italy, so on. Magazines today are often asking for all rights, because they don’t know what media is going to be invented and they don’t know how they may be able to use it. Up until the current recession, it was possible to negotiate for more fees if a publisher wanted electronic rights or all rights. If rights are non-exclusive, they have the right to do whatever they want with the piece, but you can do that too.

Make sure you have a contact to protect you. If a publisher doesn’t send a contract, write up a letter of agreement and send it to them (this will work as a contract). Email records can also be considered contracts. The things you discuss in a phone call or email with an editor are the things that go into a letter of agreemnt. It’s important to be able to substantiate whta you’ve done. Terms of agreemnt: whether you’re being paid on publication or acceptance (when they receive it). Most publishers pay on publication but if you can, try to get the latter. First of all, publishers are going out of business, and second, they can hold onto stories for a very long time.

Never sign an indemnification clause that claims the writer is responsible for any lawsuits or libel that arises. Publishers have insurance for these circumstances. If you can’t get away without signing it, add a phrase “to the best of the writer’s ability”. Work for hire is something someone commissions you to do. You have no rights. A work transfers copyright from creator to buyer. Buyer becomes owner of the work. Time-limited rights is agreeing to not sell piece to another publisher for a certain amount of time. Digital Copyright Act (1988) - If you sell your work to a website and your work is republished elsewhere without your permission, you are not in violation of your copyright. Internet service providers are expected to remove materials that constitute copyright infringement.

Audience member discusses having a piece she did for BUST reprinted on someone’s blog and altered without her permission. Someone else in the audience advises that she start a personal website, and when writing for print-only publications (like BUST), to post her stories immediately to the web so that her website is the first search result if someone goes online to find it.