At the end of this month I finish off my internship at my local Independent newspaper. I feel like from this i've learned a heap about non-fiction writing and i'd like to continue local news writing on my own time -- I am still in college. There are several local newspapers where I live; papers as small as only a few pages. I'd like to scope out some news, write about it, and then try and get it published...freelance. I don't know much about freelance, though. Should I send them the article I wrote before they pay for it (if they choose to), or is there going to be any discrepencies with me sending them my words? Pretty much any info you can offer on freelance journalism would be accepted here. Thanks! Edit: How do I sign up for newsfeeds?
no one pays for work beforehand... as a freelancer, one can either send a query with a proposal for an article, or write the article and submit it, hoping it'll be accepted... i don't know what you can mean by 'discrepancies' so can't answer that part of the question... as for newsfeeds, you just go to the various venues you want to keep up on and follow their instructions for signing up...
What I meant by discrepancies is would any of them steal my writing, or claim it as their own if I sent it without first getting a payment? In other words, should I be careful who I show my stuff to. But now that I think of it, why would anyone pay for something they can't first read. So question answered.
glad you saw the silliness there... ;-) that said, of course some disreputable publishers could just use your work and not pay you for it and that happens all the time... but mostly nowadays with online venues, not so much the print ones... that's just a fact of life for writers and is why it pays to do your due diligence in checking out the venues you're querying, before sending out any of your work... you should always start by checking them out at p&e [ http://www.invirtuo.cc/prededitors/ ] then do a google search for any negative feedback...
