Freelance writing advice-- free!

Hello all!

Recently public services librarian Karen Preslock and your faithful library blogger were approached by Middle Grades Education professor Dr. Julie Schultz to offer her students advice about submitting articles to education journals. Karen and I prepared a list of some education-oriented magazines that accept freelance submissions, and we put together a guide for them. (If you aren't in Dr. Schultz's class, and you would like a copy, see us in the library, and we will make one for you).

As part of the packet we put together, I jotted down some helpful tips for the budding freelance writer, some things I have picked up over the years from my experience as both a writer and an editor. These tips are tailored to the students in Dr. Schultz's class, but I think there's some good general advice here, so I wanted to share them. Freelance writing can be a good way of supplementing one's income, and if one is good, persistent and enterprising, freelance writing can even be a career path! (Who needs job security? Starving builds character! I kid, I kid. If you love to write, find someone who'll pay you to do it! Of course you could always become a humble blogger...)

Without further ado, here are my tips for the freelance writer:

Tips for the Freelance Writer

Read the submission guidelines. If they are not available online, you can generally request them by email. Some editors want query letters only, and some want finished articles. Be careful about sending the same submission to more than one place. Some editors are touchy about this and will not accept “simultaneous submissions.” They want to be able to say yes or no before another magazine gets a crack at it. Others do not mind. This policy is usually spelled out in the guidelines. Most magazines will only accept electronic submissions these days, and they may be particular about the format. A few (Instructor, for example) still prefer a hard copy.

Be careful with your grammar. I think this would be especially important when writing for an audience of teachers. They would probably enjoy pointing out a mistake! Speaking as a former editor, I know grammatical and spelling errors can be fixed, but the article would have to be pretty compelling to be worth the trouble. Copyeditors are on a deadline, and an article that is too messy might be passed over for one with fewer glaring errors.

READ THE MAGAZINE if at all possible. Editors would beg this of you. Research the publication to see what sort of articles they like and accept. Will your article fit well with the tone and flow of the magazine? On the other hand, is it too similar? Did they just print an essay from a prospective teacher about her tutoring experience in the last issue? Don’t waste your time and effort sending your personal essay to a publication that only accepts heavy research dissertations. Find an appropriate home for your “baby,” and you’re more likely to get happily published.

Oh, and one more thing: make sure you get the editor’s name right. It’s worth a call or an email just to check. ;)

Good luck! I hope to read your articles in one of the nearly 35,000 journals to which we have access here in the library! (And if you become an editor or publisher someday, keep me in mind for your freelance writing needs).

Trial databases not to be missed!

Just in time for final research papers, and for the rest of this month, the library has trial access to some interesting databases you won't want to miss!

These databases from Readex Publishing include African American Newspapers, Hispanic American Newspapers, Pacific Northwest Historic Newspapers, The U.S. Congressional Serial Set, House and Senate Journals, Senate Executive Journals, FBIS Daily Reports, the Archive of Americana (including America's Historical Newspapers), Latin American Newspapers, African Papers, and American Broadsides and Ephemera. These databases are listed on our homepage on the left side under "Trial Databases."

These databases are a wonderful resource because they contain primary sources. You aren't getting someone else's scholarship from a hundred years later; you actually get to see the source material for yourself. Reading these old newspapers gives you an idea of how historical events actually affected the people of the day, and what people thought about them. The House and Senate Journals go all the way back to the very first session of Congress. If you're working on a paper for your American History or Government class, you can't get much closer to your subject than this. Did you know that in our nation's early years, any citizen could address Congress on any topic? You can read the reports and see not only what the elected officials discussed, but also what the common man thought was important. (Of course, as you can imagine, these addresses ranged from the intellectual to the crackpot. That's democracy for you)!

The broadsides and ephemera are what I personally find the most interesting. This is a collection of all sorts of documents which have survived over the years. (The "library rules" in this post came from the ephemera collection). There's something for students of practically any discipline. Marketing students might be interested in looking at advertisements from the nineteenth century, theater students at old playbills, religion students at sermons and hymns, education majors at report cards from 1840. There's humor; there are cartoons. There are military registers, menus, geneaologies, obituaries, campaign literature and memoirs. There's even erotica! (Before you get too scandalized--or excited--I must caution you that what titillated people in 1838 might not strike a 2009 audience in exactly the same way). If you have a term paper coming up and no idea what your topic is going to be, try browsing the ephemera for inspiration! Who knows, you may do your dissertation on Victorian erotica someday.

Again, these databases are only available to us for a limited time. So make use of them while you can, and if you enjoy them, please let us know!

Yar

Ahoy there, Reinhardt students, staff, faculty and friends!

It's not as if your faithful blogger here is obsessed with pirates. It's surely a coincidence that I happened to find an old picture of myself dressed as a pirate to illustrate this post.

I will, however, be very excited to attend tomorrow's Year of the Mediterranean lecture. At 2:00 pm on Tuesday on the third floor of the library, Mark Aloisio of Colorado State University will present "Pirates and Privateers in the Pre-Modern Mediterranean."

Dr. Anne Good provided the following preview of the lecture:

"Renegade pirates and state-licensed corsairs were the scourge of Mediterranean sea lanes in medieval and even early modern times. Few coastal zones were immune to the threat posed by pirates and privateers and there was practically no maritime city, state or people whose seamen were not involved in this activity.

In fact, piracy and privateering not only represented a potential source of profit for the direct participants but was an integral part of the Mediterranean economic system: pirates became merchants and merchants became pirates; individuals from all walks of life invested their capital in piratical ventures as they would in any commercial enterprise; entire communities made a living by supplying the necessary provisions and equipment that this naval activity required; and the authorities provided facilities and took a cut of the profits. For medieval and early modern rulers, pirates and corsairs sometimes served as an instrument of state policy and hence an extension of their military might. As a result, privateering became a critical aspect of the continuous wars between Christian and Muslim states across the Mediterranean basin.

This lecture will examine many of these issues from the perspective of a particular Mediterranean community: the islands of Malta and Gozo in late medieval and early modern times. The lecture will highlight not only the extent to which the inhabitants of these small islands participated in piratical and corsairing activity but also the cost which the population was forced to bear as a result that participation."

This is the final scheduled YM lecture. So be there--or be prepared to walk the plank!

(Note: the enthusiasm of the blogger does not imply in any way that the Hill Freeman Library and Spruill Learning Center condones piracy. Nor does the blogger have access to a plank.)

YM Movie Today: The Battle of Algiers

The time for today's Year of the Mediterranean film has been changed from 1:30 to 4:00.

Today in the library Media Room, the Year of the Mediterranean program will present The Battle of Algiers, the 1966 Italian film depicting events during the 1954-1962 Algerian War against French rule. The movie is in black-and-white documentary style, so realistic that a disclaimer was added for American showings: "not one foot" of actual newsreel was used.

Although commissioned by the Algerian government, the film has been hailed for its even-handedness, portraying the atrocities committed on both sides: the torture used by the French, the use of bombs in soda shops by the Algerian insurgents. Still, the movie was banned in France for five years.

In 2003, the Pentagon offered a special screening of the film, comparing the events of the film to the problems faced by the US military in Iraq.

The Battle of Algiers was nominated for three Academy Awards and won the UN Award at the 1972 BAFTA Awards, three Silver Ribbon awards from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, the 1968 Kinema Junpo award for Best Foreign Language Film, and the Golden Lion and FIPRESCI prize at the 1966 Venice Film Festival.

The Library's Spring Day Booth

For those of you who might have missed it, yesterday was Spring Day. It's an annual celebration at Reinhardt when all day classes are cancelled, and the students, faculty and staff gather for Varsity grub and various fun activities. There are usually a few inflatable moonwalk-type attractions. This year there were booths offering airbrushed tattoos, funky hairstyles, flower pens, doughnut races, Mediterranean desserts and tote bag painting, among other things. The library sponsored a "Q&C" booth: question and cookie. I had various library-related questions in a Cookie Monster-shaped cookie jar. If a person could answer the question, he or she was rewarded with cookies and milk. If the person didn't know the answer, we gave them the answer--along with cookies and milk!

Here's what the booth looked like:

Sign by the multitalented Nikki Preslock:

"C" is for cookie...

Had to promote the blog of course...

"Yes, sir! Would you like to answer a question for a cookie?"

Another satisfied customer...

The library staff got to take a break and enjoy the day's offerings! Here director Michael Martinez offers advice to the chess players.

Of course he gave in to temptation and played a game, while Joel Langford returned the favor and lent him a hand. Or was he heckling him?

Stephanie Olsen molded her hand in wax.

Is there no limit to the ways your loyal blogger will humiliate herself for the library? Just kidding--doesn't my hair look AWESOME?

"Say cheese!"

"That's all, folks!"

Spring Day update

It was great to see so many of you out at Spring Day today! I'll be posting some pictures tomorrow, along with some info about the YM movie. You all did GREAT with the questions I asked you, and I hope you enjoyed your cookies!

Spring Day

Be sure to stop by my table at Spring Day--remember, there will be cookies in it for ya!!!

See you tomorrow!