Search Results
Journalism or Content Writing
Journalism or content writing? A journalism grad will spend in the neighbourhood of $50,000 to obtain a degree (then fight tooth and nail to get a foot in the door), content writers can watch a few videos, throw up a five-minute website on Weebly or Wix and be off to the races.
A note from the departing Story Board editor
It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly a decade, but I became the editor of Story Board in July of 2012. I was fully freelance at that point, fitting writing assignments in between snack time, loads of laundry, school drop-offs, and all of the other work involved in raising two small children. Now, after nearly […]
Myriad Ways to the Book Publishing Market – Part One
by Steven Threndyle Most magazine writers and newspaper journalists think about writing a book at some point in their careers. Maybe it’s a deeper dive into a story that was part of a feature package, or a biography of an important event or persona in Canadian life. Recent non-fiction books by Bruce Kirkby, Justin Ling […]
Are you having a CERB summer?
by Steven Threndyle It will soon be Labour Day and, as the vast majority of public health officials predicted back in March, COVID-19 is still going strong. One thing that will end is the $2000 per month Canadian Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB), a massive injection of federal money that was dispensed to just about any […]
A Freelancer’s Guide to Content Marketing
by Steven Threndyle Freelancers perusing job listings on Indeed or Glassdoor will often come across content marketing writing gigs. It’s a job that requires the imagination of an advertising copywriter, the inquisitiveness and writing discipline of a journalist and a bit of an understanding of data science. Increasingly, this kind of writing is being outsourced […]
A Tricky Transition: Can Good Writers Become Competent Editors?
by Steven Threndyle Veteran freelance writers exhausted by the endless cycles of feast or famine often reach a point in their career where they fantasize, “I want one of those cush editing jobs!” And why not? The most prestigious editors sit atop the magazine pyramid as creative overseers. Like chief executive officers who hop from […]
New Year’s Resolutions, Freelance Style
by Steven Threndyle Between the time the last gift is unwrapped on Christmas Day and the moment the first champagne bottle is popped on New Year’s Eve, many of us take stock of “the year that was” and set our sights on the year ahead. In order not to feel regretful when this introspective period […]
Reaping what you sow: Five writers talk about their websites
by Steven Threndyle For most of us, writing is a business. And if you’re a businessperson, you need some kind of online presence where, at the very minimum, you can post your published clips to prove to a prospective editor or client that you are, in fact, a professional. In today’s post, we talk to […]
Crafting the “Reactive Story” — Reworking News Stories into Web Features
by Steven Threndyle If you’re as ADD as most writers I know, you probably spend a bit of your day on social media and get a significant amount of your news from what your friends are posting or tweeting. And, if you’re in story-hunting mode, (and you should always be in story hunting mode), you […]
Freelance Finance: By the hour, or by the word?
by Steven Threndyle Recently, a Vancouver-based company called Grizzly Coast Media created a bit of a stir online when it started posting jobs for freelancers that paid $50 for anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 words per story. If you take five hours to write 1500 words, you’re making $10 an hour. In Vancouver, where the typical […]
