What to do when jobs get slow?

I probably would've went to law school. Or become a pharmacist. They make some bank.

 

I would become a linguist and go make beaucoup bucks working for the military as I should have done.

 

Had the opportunity to be a nuclear tech in the Navy.

 

Glad I'm not the only one with that oh-so-useful poly-sci degree ...

To the OP: This is the time of year things should start picking up, with prep and college sports ready to roll again.

Email local SEs and tell them your availability as a stringer, and if asked, forward them a clip or two. The ability to shoot photos will be a bonus at smaller papers.

Good luck!

 

I did win a national photography competition a few years ago, so maybe that will help.

 

Those jobs are about as easy to come by as journalism jobs right now.

 

But would you be a cunning one?

 

Yeah, but it wasn't as bad when I graduated way too long ago.

 

What should a freelancer do when the jobs get slow?

Get your ass on the phone.

When I was a full-time freelancer, I spent probably 70-75 percent of my time on the phone or e-mail trying to hustle up work and 25-30 percent actually doing the work. You find events coming up in your area, identify outlets that might be covering them, start calling SEs months in advance and keep at it.

 

If you think that's correct, you probably should have gone into something other than writing.

 

I do mostly events now because I have a full-time job and don't have a lot of time to work on features, and most of those event stories are sidebars, not gamers. I target larger outlets that are already sending beat guys and are looking for someone to do a sider or notebook. Not only are those gigs easier to come by -- they pay much better, too.

As for other areas outside sports, absolutely go for those. The corporate gigs pay way better than almost any sports outlet. I get $1 a word from a major tech company for cranking out 500-800-word rah-rah features for its internal online newsletter.