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Topic: Freelance while Staff Writer?
| Author | Message |
| BT.BT | Posted – 2/28/2008 4:09:13 AM | show profile Does anyone know if it's kosher to send out freelance story queries while working as a staff writer? I know that you don't have the rights to your articles if you're a staff writer, but can you go home at night and work on your own stuff to send out as a freelancer to other publications, or is it frowned upon? Thanks. |
| wander lust | Posted – 2/28/2008 8:28:42 AM | show profile It's probably fine as long as the subject matter isn't a conflict of interest with what you're writing about at work. If you're trying to freelance for competing publications, it might be a problem. But if you're company doesn't have any written regulations about this, I think you might be able to get away with it legally. |
| wander lust | Posted – 2/28/2008 8:29:29 AM | show profile Sorry, I meant to write "your" company. It's early! :) Good luck. |
| salsera | Posted – 2/28/2008 1:13:51 PM | show profile When I started at my new job, I worked this out with them. It's fine as long as I don't freelance for a direct competitor or do stuff like make phone calls for freelance stories during hours. |
| Village Gal | Posted – 2/28/2008 1:33:11 PM | show profile I'm curious why you'd want to do this. Is it to write about different subject matter? If these are research based articles, how will you conduct the phone interviews if you have a staff job? Or are these essays? |
| pleiades | Posted – 2/28/2008 6:01:27 PM | show profile I do it for the extra income. I have flex time at work, so I schedule phone/in-person interviews early in the morning, late in the afternoon or during my lunch break. Depending on the subject, weekends work, too. I don't write for direct competitors and I never work on freelance projects while at my full-time job. For many of us, freelancing in addition to a full-time job is a necessity to make ends meet. |
| BT.BT | Posted – 2/28/2008 6:22:47 PM | show profile Thanks all! Very helpful. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 2/28/2008 7:42:19 PM | show profile It depends on the magazine. Most are fine with it as long as the magazine isn't a competitor. However, I was a staff editor at one national magazine whose official written policy required the staff writers to get permission from the top editor each time they wanted to freelance. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 2/28/2008 8:58:55 PM | show profile Your employee handbook may have something on this. I just started a job and the company that owns my pub has a policy that freelance is okay as long as it doesn't conflict (compete) or embarrass the company. There may be a couple other things too but that's the gist. |
| WritingEd | Posted – 2/28/2008 10:40:43 PM | show profile I've been freelancing on the side while holding staff editor/writer jobs for years. There has never been a formal policy on this but I've never hid the fact that I do it. As common sense would tell you, you don't do freelance while on the clock. So I wind up doing early morning and evening (even weekend) interviews, email interviews, etc. And being on the east coast I seek sources on the west coast to take advantage of the time difference. It's completely do-able, and it has allowed me to write on topics that I don't get to cover in my day job. |
