Freelancing With Tim is back — and I need your help!
Freelancing With Tim is back — and I need your help!
I've missed you!
Hello friends! Hope you’re well, it’s been soooo long!!!!
A lot has happened since we last talked! We all (hopefully) have been staying safe and Covid-free, we all (hopefully) have gotten vaccinated, and we all (hopefully) are having … well, at least not a terrible summer. (Smfh @ Delta.)
First things first: This Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern time I’ll be hosting the first FWT Zoom panel in eight months!!! Please join me, it’s gonna be a blast! It’s an anything-goes free-for-all, so bring a pitch you want feedback on; an idea you need help with; questions about using social media, developing relationships with editors, and finding jobs; or anything else. Nothing's off-topic — and there will be even be a super-secret special ~surprise guest~!
Register to join us here. (And, as always, every Sunday Zoom panel is free.)
Quick break for new subscribers: If this is the first newsletter you’ve gotten, click here for more info about what exactly you’ve subscribed to, then read some of the greatest hits at the links at the end of this newsletter.
So, onto business: My hiatus was a tad longer than expected — I mean, let’s be honest, did anyone have a good winter or spring during which they felt productive? — but I want to come back better than ever. To that end: I need your help!
Because so much has changed since the dark days of winter when we said “See ya soon,” I want to regroup and think through what would be most helpful to you.
Here’s the deal: You tell me what you want from the 2.0 version of FWT (better name still tk lol). More panels? More skills-based workshops? More newsletters? More outside experts weighing in? A Discord/Slack? One-on-one coaching? IRL live events???? Idk, sky’s the limit! (Really this time, literally everything is on the table!)
PLEASE email your thoughts, opinions, comments, critiques, feedback, or suggestions to freelancingwithtim@gmail.com, and put “Ideas” in the subject line. I really want to make this as useful to you as possible, and I can’t do that without your input. This community we’ve all built together was such a genuine highlight of the shit days of last year, and I want to continue in that spirit as we enter this weird new stage of the pandemic.
Thank you, and I’ll see you on Sunday!
— Tim
Want more insider advice about making it as a journalist? Subscribe to get it right in your inbox every Tuesday, along with information about upcoming free Zoom panels that cover everything from perfecting your story pitches and writing longform features to selling a book and building your freelance business!
Oh, a few other things …
• If you’re new here, catch up on some of my favorite posts from the last year:
50+ pitching guides for The Atlantic, NatGeo, Wired, WaPo, Bustle, and more
Here's what a bunch of publications pay freelancers
Answers to the 8 most common questions about pitching
3 things freelancers should stop stressing about
How to stop pitching ideas and start pitching stories
• This project still needs a new name! Now that I’m back and ready to roll, it’s really, truly time to find a better name lol. So many other folks are involved, and I’m building a whole ~cinematic universe~ of resources for freelancers. But I don’t know what to call it, so I need your help! Email your best ideas to freelancingwithtim@gmail.com and put “New name” in the subject line. Thank you!!
• Friend of the pod Meira Gebel posted this wonderful callout asking for one piece of advice you always give to new freelancers, and the replies are fantastic.
• With great sadness and sincere appreciation, our beloved Executive Producer, Nicole Clark, has moved on to bigger and better things — she has taken a job as senior editor at Polygon!!! Go follow her and tweet her a big congratulations!!!
• Don’t forget to follow FWT on Instagram here (with lots more video stuff to come soon)!
Bye ily!
Tim❤️