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November 2002

Online Help for Freelancers:
ASJA's Contracts Watch, PayCheck, Query Project and more

by Jim Morrison

How did freelancers work before the Web existed? I imagine they spent a lot of time on the way to the library and back.

Today, having so much information at our fingertips allows us to research ideas and stories in ways I barely imagined when I began freelancing 12 years ago (there are disadvantages, too, but that's material for another column). One of the ways we work differently is most of us use the Web daily to help us work better as journalists.

But, it seems we're still not quite as good about using the Web, and its resources, to work better as business people. Oh, sure, many of us research here and there or e-mail friends with questions about this magazine or that editor. And a few of us participate in online forums, which can be both useful and maddening, depending on the crowd gathered.

Far too many freelancers, however, operate in the dark, too often relying on mistaken impressions about vital details, like the pay offered and rights purchased by publications, or the direction in which those markets are going. I've long believed ASJA's most valuable benefit is the collective wisdom of nearly 1,100 members with diverse freelance businesses. That's why we've created an online membership directory searchable by name, location and publication credits, among other things. That's also why we have an online PayCheck database. And it's why we issue regular Contracts Watch alerts.

We are revamping our Web site, our online forum and Contracts Watch, three prime online sources of information about freelancing, making it easier for writers to run their businesses more wisely. For members, we're opening a threaded, Web-based forum on www.asja.org that will make it easier to exchange information about areas of interest, whether its books, magazines or even fiction. We've been testing the forum for several weeks and, with a few custom tweaks, we think it will be the fastest way to talk with other professionals about freelancing. In the near future, we anticipate opening a companion forum on the Web site where non-members can also mingle with members.

For years now, our Contracts Watch has offered vital information to writers negotiating deals with magazines. It's a regular reminder that when an editor offers you a contract, there is often a better one waiting in a desk drawer, just for the asking. Thanks to the work of Contracts Committee chairman Erik Sherman, we've recently added information to Contracts Watch from Editorial Photographers and the Graphic Artists Guild.

Those additions are symbolic of the industry-wide fight being waged by all creators to either retain rights or be paid more for extra uses of their work. We can learn from them. And they can learn from us. For too long, writers have failed to reach out to photographers and artists fighting the same battles.

While PayCheck data is open only to members, Contracts Watch is available to every creator, as is ASJA's Contracts Committee. It's free, too. Use it. Over the years, we've compiled an archive of contracts and nurtured a committee of experts who can help you get a better deal. Help us make that archive even stronger by contacting the committee (contracts@asja.org) whenever you receive a new contract from a publication. Knowledge is power. And power is money. Visit the Contracts Watch archive at www.asja.org/cw/cw.php.

We are also reorganizing our Web site and will be adding new, timely information every week. You should begin seeing the offerings any day now. Better market information allows all of us to more efficiently use our time and that goes straight to our bottom line.

Meanwhile, if you're a member, please check the Member Benefits page, where you will find everything from deep discounts on magazine subscriptions (www.asja.org/members) to breaks on purchasing computers and car rentals.

Don't forget about The Query Project, where you can read successful queries to magazines ranging from American Legion and The Atlantic Monthly to Smithsonian and Yankee. You can find it at www.asja.org/members/qp/qp.php. And to help you get those queries to editors more easily, we've compiled a list of e-mail addresses at www.asja.org/members/resource/files/emails.txt.

So visit our site, share a little of your own information about markets and, chances are, you'll gain back five times the information in return.

Jim Morrison, of Norfolk, Virginia, is President of ASJA