You're probably wondering 'Where have you been?'

It's been a crazy few weeks...

Aug 8, 2021

Firstly, apologies are in order! I took to Twitter to announce that there wouldn’t be a newsletter for two weeks, but it’s actually been three weeks since you last heard from me. A lot has happened in that time including a family wedding, a handful of birthdays and I also attended Tramlines Festival — it was so nice to be back experiencing live music!

Slightly less fun was being persued for copyright infringement (because I’m the site owner of The Indiependent and one of the editors didn’t have a license for an image they used). The rights holder wanted £350 compensation but I haggled them down to £250 on the basis that we are a not-for-profit organisation. It was a nasty shock — of course it would happen the month I quit my job and had no source of income — but it’s always good to be reminded of the importance of due diligence when it comes to sourcing royalty-free images. Particularly if you’re an indie blog or website that doesn’t have the financial means to pay large sums in compensation to photographers, heed this lesson.

I absolutely love the work I do with The Indiependent, but pressure has been on for me to find a source of income so I can continue bankrolling the site. It costs us about £200 a month in operational costs alone — that covers the site hosting and maintenance, our Google business email accounts for each section, as well as subscriptions to services such as Mailchimp (which we use to send our newsletter); Canva (which we use for graphic design) and Adobe Creative Cloud (which we use for the magazine production and image editing). On top of that, there’s £65 in ‘Writer of the Month’ cash prizes. We’re lucky enough to receive the occasional donation which goes towards covering our costs, but I’d be lying if I said the job hunt hasn’t been stressful. Time has been very much of the essence.

Luckily, I’ve had a bunch of work commissioned during the past three weeks and I’ve also landed myself regular work at OK! magazine (and other Reach PLC mags) — from next week I’m going to be working Mon-Weds as a freelance lifestyle reporter. I’ve been doing some shifts for them this week and am delighted that I can now watch Love Island for work purposes. The newsletter will resume its normal format of ‘My week’ next week, but in the meantime here is some stuff I’ve had published in the last 3 weeks:

PAID

OK! magazine: Kate Middleton silences sexist trolls who think ‘women don’t understand sport’ with new role (£115 for day shift)
OK! magazine: Love Island’s most romantic gestures after Liam Reardon wins Millie Court back (£115 for day shift)
Hero Collector: The Beatles’ ‘Revolver’ album turns 55 (£150 / 600 words)

I also had a Metro commission (£100 for 800 words) that’s yet to be published. Watch this space…

UNPAID

Reading recs

Amelia Tait’s The Telegr aph piece on Sarah Brand’s ‘Red Dress’ had me wincing — the difference between this and Rebecca Black is that Black can actually sing!
Also by Amelia Tait (she’s my fave, can you tell?) is this Guardian feature on what happens when therapy makes things worse
The Guardian’s deputy music editor Laura Snapes made some poignant points about using Twitter in a harmful quest for validation as she explained why she quit the social media app
I liked Ella Glover’s i_D piece ‘When everyone is an activist online, is anyone?’
Another solid i_D feature from Otamere Guobadia: ‘Here’s why you need to stop accusing Harry Styles of queerbaiting’
Two cracking VICE reads from Serena Smith: ‘Why do posh people perform so badly on ‘Love Island’? An investigation’ and ‘Goths: what do you wear in this heat?’

Events

Katie Ridley (ITV Anglia) is hosting a 1-hour PressPad Remote masterclass on ‘How to tackle imposter syndrome’ at 7.00 pm on 12 August — register here.

The Guardian’s Sirin Kale is hosting a 1-hour PressPad Remote masterclass on ‘How I covered the Noel Clarke investigation’ at 7.00 pm on 19 August — register here.