Last week, I was nominated for my second James Beard award in the Investigative Reporting category alongside Lisa Held and Aaron Van Neste at Civil Eats. Here is the process I went through as a freelance journalist to report the article “Diving - and Dying - for Red Gold: The Human Cost of Honduran Lobster.”
Love these insights. As a freelance journalist of over 10+ years, I have similar experiences re: combative editors + hurtful rejections, but never talk about them openly b/c it feels taboo!
Alice, I appreciate your frankness here! You are not alone in these struggles getting stories published, but I always assume I am alone and it is my fault for not being good enough. Also, their loss.
I think many assume they are alone. It is a precarious ecosystem for freelancers and sharing stories of rejection is complicated and often risky. It is easy to feel not good enough in this bare bones media environment.
Your perseverance is inspiring. So glad the story found a home! And congratulations on the win! Very much looking forward to reading your new book too.
Refreshing to hear, that it’s not always precarious. Also a question, if you don’t mind: as someone who already writes longform, what nudges you over the line into thinking a story should be a book, rather than a longform story?
With a book, part of the question is - can you sustain, in terms of your dedication and finances, four of five years or a decade of work on this one topic? In the case of my book, several book editors read an article I published in the New York Review of Books and reached out to request a book proposal. Selling me book allowed me the financial security to focus on it. I've now spent the last four years writing it.
Love these insights. As a freelance journalist of over 10+ years, I have similar experiences re: combative editors + hurtful rejections, but never talk about them openly b/c it feels taboo!
Yes, these are taboo topics. It isn't easy to share such things.
Fantastic. Full marks for grit and 'nose'. Would have loved to aee it as a doco!
It would make a good doc!
Alice, I appreciate your frankness here! You are not alone in these struggles getting stories published, but I always assume I am alone and it is my fault for not being good enough. Also, their loss.
I think many assume they are alone. It is a precarious ecosystem for freelancers and sharing stories of rejection is complicated and often risky. It is easy to feel not good enough in this bare bones media environment.
Yeah, the risk is tough because it's a small world. But, it makes me feel better I am not the only one.
You aren't. The media is, as they say in Spanish, en los tiempos de vacas flacas (in the times of lean cows).
Your perseverance is inspiring. So glad the story found a home! And congratulations on the win! Very much looking forward to reading your new book too.
Thank you, working on books had given me a lot of focus and stabilty.
Refreshing to hear, that it’s not always precarious. Also a question, if you don’t mind: as someone who already writes longform, what nudges you over the line into thinking a story should be a book, rather than a longform story?
With a book, part of the question is - can you sustain, in terms of your dedication and finances, four of five years or a decade of work on this one topic? In the case of my book, several book editors read an article I published in the New York Review of Books and reached out to request a book proposal. Selling me book allowed me the financial security to focus on it. I've now spent the last four years writing it.