Balancing my work and my cheque book

This isn't my desk. I do write at the kitchen table though.

When I went full time freelance in 2018, it was with pretty low expectations.

I wasn't expecting to be able to earn a living solely from freelancing, which is just as well because I totally haven't. I jumped into it with a very basic plan, one that relied on other sources of income such as transcription (don't even bother if you only own a Mac...), proofreading (even more of a non starter...), surveys (pay peanuts) and temping (by far and away the most lucrative option).

While I was pursuing these various adventures, I continued pitching publications. All the freelance journalism guides I've read say it takes at least 12 months to start to make any headway with commissions, and this definitely proved to be the case.

What was interesting was what I was getting commissioned to write. That is, I wasn't getting offered money to write music journalism. Despite music journalism being my most obvious area of experience, the one area I have a proven track record in.

It still amazes me that people were more willing to take a chance on me when it came to writing about, say, Brexit food stockpiling and veg box schemes, the ethics of the personal essay, buses, buses again, and Manchester's plans for the Metrolink than anything music related. I'm incredibly grateful to the editors who trusted me with those pieces, it's opened up a whole other area of specialism for me, and it's stretched me in a way that I needed. But the lack of paid music commissions really niggles away at me sometimes.

Back in November I attended the annual music journalism panel discussion at Louder Than Words and came away with more questions than answers. I was intrigued by the ways in which debates around music journalism, and getting work, had shifted over the past year or so away from 'Don't write for free' to 'Sometimes, you have to write for free'. It seemed like what had been a massive bone of contention had gradually been accepted as a fact of life: Music journalism doesn't pay.

There have been a number of commentary pieces on the state of the industry over the past couple of years, but none of them have been written with aspiring music journalists in mind, which seemed a missed opportunity given that the panel at Louder Than Words has demonstrated, year after year, the need for some solid advice.

Happily, the excellent Jem Collins at Journo Resources agreed that this was a piece worth commissioning, and gave me the thumbs up to proceed.

If anything surprised me, it was the number of people I contacted for interview who didn't respond. Oh, and the lack of reaction when the piece was published. But mainly the number of people who didn't respond. I understand that many writers and editors are drowning in their inboxes, and I sympathise, but I'd written a piece about the ethics of personal essays for Journo Resources a couple of months before and - again, despite it not obviously being my area - the response rate was well above 90%. In the case of my music journalism piece, there was a response rate of 7 out of 30 people or organisations contacted. And only five of those resulted in interviews: The other two were an apologetic email from a writer friend, because it had got lost in her junk folder, and a 'We will not be putting anyone forward for interview' from a large publication who shall remain nameless.

In both cases, I tried to take lessons from the work. In the case of the personal essays piece, I felt well advised ahead of publishing my Florence + The Punk Women piece on Medium, and in the case of the music journalism piece I elected to act on the advice of the writers and editors I'd interviewed in terms of trying to find new publications to write for.

We will see how this pays off, or if it does, but no matter how it pans out, I really enjoyed writing about the current state of music journalism. The people who did speak to me were interesting, obliging, friendly and helpful and gave me, and my readers, lots of helpful advice.

It will be interesting to see what happens next with music journalism as an area of the industry. And what the next discussion at Louder Than Words 2020 will bring.

Image of man at kitchen table by Chris Spiegl on Unsplash